Novel Ideas
Arresting developments
Characters can surprise you when you least expect it, says Lynne Hackles
I’m pregnant.
That got your attention, didn’t it? They’re not my words. They were spoken by one of my characters in the third and final novel of the series I’ve been writing. I had planned a pregnancy in this book and knew exactly who was going to find herself in this condition but, one morning as I started to write, those two words appeared on the page followed by ‘she announced’. The she who was speaking was not the she I had planned. It was a completely different person. For a second I was annoyed at her for barging in where she wasn’t wanted but then I realised this was a much better idea.