Waving first hello to Chuck. :)

Can character be separated from the story? Because when I have written, the two seem intertwined. I don't write much now, because I realized it wasn't publishable and it wasn't that much fun to write just for myself (ego shows, doesn't it) but when I write, it is as if the characters are telling me their story and I don't have a choice of characters. They are who they are and there's no persuasion on my part that will cause them to become someone else. Whe I try to force the characters, the story falls apart and stops.

It's the same with the graphics. I don't choose to do a graphic about a man or about a woman. I see a scene, as if from a play or a movie, and that scene is what I try to duplicate in the graphic. The process, for me, is the same for writing and doing graphics. When I write, the scene activates with words and movements and I have no choice how it plays out. I write down what I see with my mind's eyes and hear with my mind's ears. When the writer's block shows up, they become silent and I don't see or hear them anymore.

One reason I took up Poser was because I wondered if creating the visual representation of my scenes might break apart the writer's block, but that isn't what happened. I just ended up with a new set of characters completely visual based that resist having words written about them by me.

But here is where it gets strange. Several of my friends have seen my graphics, crude as they are, as springboards for stories they want to tell. I think that is very wayward of the creative spirit to desert me and fly from my graphics to become characters in someone else's story.

The process is a puzzle to me.

This is my first posting here. I hope I don't intrude. The art of creativity is one of interest to me, and Chuck thought I might find discussions of interest to me here. He's right. :)