One of my favorite aspects of novel writing is experiencing those moments when my characters come into their own - assuming lives seemingly independent of me - and begin doing and saying all manner of unexpected things.

At times like these I get the feeling that I'm dabbling in something deeper than what I can understand, and all I can do is play referee on the sidelines and watch as the drama unfolds.

Obviously the problem here lies in trying to maintain some kind of order and structure. I took a writing class a couple years ago in which the teacher described a phenomenon that happens towards the end of many a (hopeful) novel. Suddenly hitherto-minor characters start taking a much more active role in the story and the writer wallows in page upon page of diversive material when he or she should be ploughing ahead to the climax and resolution.

She suggested having some dialogue with these characters at this point, and basically asking, "Do you need a novel of your own, then, so your story can be told, or do you just need to pipe down?"

Pulling in the reins on our characters

requires a lot of discipline, especially when all the side trips they lead us on can make for some interesting material in its own right. My advise, if you encounter this, is to save the material - don't delete it from the universe - but just find another place for it. A lot of secondary matter in my own novel ended up as the backdrop for short stories. Other incidents I saved for the sequel. It's less painful this way, but sometimes we have no choice but to say "Enough!"

My old teacher summed up the average writer's tendency to indulge by saying: "I've rarely read I novel that I didn't feel could've been improved by a cut of a hundred pages."

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