Musing: What happens and why it happens

I was writing today. I'm on page twelve of my first comic book script ever, and I finally figured out why my characters were doing what they were doing. The main character, who I lovingly call "The Narrator," has just gone through some changes in his life. Some very major changes, and this story is all about him dealing with those changes.

For twelve pages I've had my characters doing things for reasons that make sense to the character. Makes sense. I just didn't know why they were doing those things. I knew why in the immediate scheme of things, but in the grand design of the cosmos that fiction inhabits there is always a scheme greater than visceral gut reaction. There are metaphors and hidden meanings, symbols and signs, and words that means so much more than their definition.

I'm going to keep those twelve pages, largely unchanged for the time being, because they're organic, and because they're the reason I've come to understand my story. I'm just super glad I have a strict focus for the next series of pages.