This is so true. When I try to write something false for my characters they always have a way of telling me. If you listen to them, the story can take very strange and unexpected turns.

I like to think of it like writing a documentary. You can't tell the subject of a documentary what to do, you just have to follow them and listen. If you do that long enough, the documentary will create a story that more interesting than you initially thought.

This reminds me of when Anne Rice said she felt the Vampire LeStat walk into the room when she was writing her vampire chronicles.

Personally, my screenplays really can't take shape until the characters seem like living entities to me.

I shouldn't admit this... but what the heck.

On SEVERAL occasions my characters cry out to me...

In the shower.

Maybe it's because of the mundane daily habit of bathing and my mind is wide open... but it happens...

And it happens... frequently!

Thank you Irish Spring!!!

@Russell, Synthia Rose and Courtney: That reminds me of a quote by Neil Simon who explained why he stopped outlining. Paraphrasing: "My characters kept wanting to jump off the yellow legal pad [on which I had my outline]."

A college student came to my office once distraught over the fact their character kept resisting going where she was intending them to go. "What should I do," she asked. I answered, "Thank them. Then follow them."

Re characters speaking in the shower: Happens to me all the time. Shower, running, washing dishes, zoning out. Perhaps they're just being mischievous. Or maybe they wait for us to stop doing and start being. It's a mystery... and thank God for it!

They are sneaky little folks.

Sometimes we need to get away... and when we do...

They knock on the door... then bang and bang until we answer...

And when we open the door...

It's a beautiful thing.

I absolutely agree with this post. When I start a new writing project, I sit down and create a bio for each of my characters. The material doesn't come from me; I'm channeling the people. I keep channeling until I'm done with the project. It's the only way. Anything else impedes the creative process.

I've had a project in the back of my mind for a couple of years, but I've been putting off writing it because it's dark and painful. Those characters keep coming back to me, begging me to write their story. Like they really exist. And, on some plane, they do.

Years ago, and month or two ago, came across quote about music, idea that songs already written, music of the spheres, plucked out of ether by talented artists. Of course, those notes don't exist pre-written; but, rhythms and patterns that touch and correspond to the human soul do exist to be discovered.

Not able to find that music quote again, but did find this one, funny, true, and good practical advice, in case you are stopped for speeding, from composer writer comedian Oscar Levant: "You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow."

We take in so much more information than we're conscious of. We can sniff out artifice in others, and respond to authentic and true. I think when that excitement is felt, that this character feels real, could reflect a real person, that the latent patterns and rhythms feel authentic, is so damn cool and special. ('Course, conveying that character in minimal words to be accurately perceived by reader is whole other challenge...)