The parable of a character gone rogue

 For me, writing is a calling. But until writing the second Mid-Mississippi Valley Mystery, Midnight Mass Murder, which should be available the day after Thanksgiving, I didn't realize how writing fiction is a spiritual work that reveals a lot about how God fully knows us and how we also have independent agency, free will, to go in a direction He has not chosen- to go rogue. I've seen hints of this before when I've read or heard an author tell about how a character's choices shifted the story even though the character is a pure invention and the author is technically in charge.

The characters I thought I knew from the first book, Stuck In the Mud, bring their same issues and habits to Midnight Mass Murder, but as they interact with some of the new characters, they reveal things about their pasts, their opinions, and their motives that I did not plan. So, I find myself surprised and delighted by what is unfolding as well as sometimes dismayed and terrified. 

I realize that it is Psalm 139 unfolding and flowing out of my pen. I have created these characters. I thought I had intricately penetrated into the deepest layers of their hearts. I know them. I know how they respond. I know what they are thinking about. I know where they are going and when and even where they rest. I know what they are going to say, until they surprise me. But even then, like the psalmist recognizes, even if they take flight and go to the farthest edges of heaven or hell or the sea, they cannot escape from my observations. As the the author, I must answer the character's rogue revelation by asserting my intimate omniscience until they yield again to the current of the plot pulling them towards the conclusion of the story.

This makes me appreciate the love of God more. He doesn't interfere when we go rogue but neither does He abandon us to our rants and wanderings. He is with us. We can't escape His notice. He doesn't let anything destroy us before out time this woos us to Himself like nothing else. Let God search me and know my heart more fully than I can ever know one of my characters.

Four Key Decisions Writers Must Make Before Starting to Write

Writers need to make four key decisions before starting to write. They function as guardrails for the document as it is being created. They are the boundaries that inform every revision. They are the what, who, why and how of your piece.

1. Decide the what - your topic
2. Decide the who - your audience
3. Decide the why - your purpose 
4. Decide the how - your format

Once these decisions have been determined you can use Green Light Writing to get the flow going. Then, when it's time to craft the words into a final document, you can apply Red Light Writing based on these four key decisions.

Green and Red Light Writing

A Green Light Writing session is as satisfying as when all the traffic lights are green on your way to work. There is a flow. You feel energized. Writing is fun. You remember what a high you get from being a truly creative word-smith.

Red Light Writing is different. You can't seem to get into a flow. You keep having to stop, to wait, not to be bothered by the impatient drivers who are beeping their horns behind you. You get to work late, stressed out and annoyed by your own bad attitude. Red Light Writing has its purpose at the end of the process.

Writer's block happens when you start with Red Light Writing.   

I applied this idea from Dale Carnegie's Leadership Course for Managers that I attended about 30 years ago. Green Light Thinking is a strategy for facilitating the design process for a new project. It relies on the notion that no idea is too absurd. Everyone is encouraged to be as imaginative as they can without regard to logistics, practicality or cost. It is only after all the ideas have been collected, shared, laughed about and considered that Red Light Thinking is applied. This is when reality meets the imagined. Green Light Thinking stretches everyone's ideas of what could be possible. Red Light Thinking refines the best ideas into doable tasks that lead to an innovative project or product.

Green Light Writing works in a similar way. No idea is too whacky. No sentence is too long, short, complicated or confusing. No editors allowed at this stage. No proofreaders, No grammarians. No outlines. Just let words out. Put on a timer.

But set a goal for the Green Light Writing. Is it to describe a character for the first time in a novel? Is it to write a hook for a persuasive article? Is it to explain a process using a metaphor? Is it to prime the writing pump for the day? 

Start the clock. Write without thinking about whether these words will make the final copy. Stop when the bell rings or keep going if you have found a flow.

You don't need to apply Red Light Writing yet. It comes after the flow stops. 

You may choose to do Green Light Writing for an entire session. You may write pages or just a few sentences. You may have three or four goals so that when you finish one, you turn the page or start a new file and Green Light another goal, and another, and another.

Red Light Writing structures the flow, applies the mechanics, rearranges the sentences, edits, revises, proofreads, perfects. It's the last phase.

Writer's block happens when you try to write final copy before the words come. The flow happens with Green Light Writing. The crafting happens with Red Light Writing. Both are essential.

By Lesley Barker c. 2026

Lesley Barker is a writer and writing coach. See her author's page at https://www.book-klatch.com/authors/lesley-barker

Writing Is a Lot Like Knitting

 You start with the end in mind but with no canvas. Success depends on the threads being woven together without dropping a stitch. What you produce can take a variety of shapes. There might be a pattern. It involves a process that can become repetitive. Mistakes can be fixed unless they require you to tear out a whole section or start again using the same threads. It takes finishing. Like knitting, writing can be taught but it takes patience, diligence and practice to knit fluently. It is profoundly satisfying.

By Lesley Barker c. 2026