Dust? Dirt? Closing My Eyes and Walking Slowly Away...

Cleaning is done, at least as good as it's going to get. Sharon arrives tonight and my next few days will kick in with a vengeance. I'll be checking in every now and again, but I doubt you'll hear a lot from me until after September 2nd. Lucky you! (or not). But my Thursday posts often center around writing questions, and today is no exception.

Characters can pull an author into two different directions - the
way that the character seems to want to go, and the way that
the author originally intended it to go. Achieving correlation
between the two can be challenging. 

What do you do about a character that decides to pull left when you want to pull right? To clarify - I have a main character in one of my original fictions who is pulling himself into a different direction than I planned on him going. Suddenly he's angling for a changed viewpoint and changed character sheet, and I'm not really sure that I want to do that. What this character wants to explain through his actions is important, but I'm quite torn. He may not be the right character to explore this aspect, and it is something that might be better left to a couple of my secondary characters since it is more their thing. *sigh*

Should I go here? Or should I go there instead? It's a dilemma. 

I discussed this a bit with Aearwen as we were talking about the original novels each of us have been writing. She's deep into world building and POV, and I'm trying to narrow down which of my two books I want to concentrate on for NaNoWriMo this coming November.

To be an author is to create and to kill your characters, plots, and
devices. There is no room for indecision. 

I already have 100,000+ words into "A Face in the Window" and I like the book. I could easily put in the next 50,000 during NaNo, because I know that my editing will be brutal and because I don't mind novels longer than 250 printed pages. So the continuation of this tale is a strong possibility (it would also allow me to remove the maps from the walls in the den and return it to a semblance of normalcy.

Brain injury patients receive care in measured doses along this
spectrum. My character needs to get from A to Z along here,
and combine that healing with many other things.
Challenge? Oh yeah! 

On the other hand, there is "Proud Flesh", a novel I started more than a year ago which has a lot of appeal to me. It is a contemporary young adult story of love, rebuilding from the ashes, and personal growth. I like it a lot. But in order to do the story justice, I really need to interview some people essential to the story to get my research and suppositions grounded into some reality. To do this, I need to find a brain injury specialist who wouldn't mind an e-mailed interview or a phone interview. Do any of you know someone who might be willing? Let me know, if you do, please!

The Interview. Mine wouldn't be as fraught with
future possibilities, but I really need to speak with
a brain injury specialist. 

So, possibilities exist and abound, but now - Sharon and the State Fair. I have foot long hot dogs and mini donuts in my immediate future. Have a wonderful Thursday, and please don't forget to message me or post a reply if you might know someone to help with my research questions.