Great Regulars: What [Arthur] Machen had to say reminded me of

something novelist Peter Straub said during a talk I heard him give a number of years ago, namely, that the writer of fiction must not be rigid about the direction in which he intends his story to go and must remain alert to possibilities on the periphery--like the character he has paid no particular attention to who, as Straub put it, "is standing on the sidelines waving his arms and yelling, 'Forget about him, I'm the one you want to write about.'" That's a character who is already alive. The writer hasn't made him up so much as discovered him--or maybe it's the character who has discovered the writer.

from Frank Wilson: When Falls the Coliseum: That's What He Said: The writer of fiction is no mere copyist

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