An evil, evil puppet master

I haven't gone to bed yet.  I know I will pay for this tomorrow.  But the moon was full and I was on a roll!  Nevertheless, it is a guaranteed fact that whenever I pull an all-nighter one of the following happens the next day:

1 – For some reason, some sort of work will be going on in the hall, in the next condo, above my head or in my own apartment so I will not get any sleep whatsoever

2 – The phone will ring a million times and I will be tempted to throw it down the garbage chute

3 – The cat will be in heat and my cries of, "No kitty, that's a bad kitty!"  will do nothing and thus, she will keep me up all morning

4 – I will sleep for 3 hours or so and then wake up and not be able to get back to sleep, making me a Miss Cranky Pants all day, no matter how many cups of coffee I guzzle

The cool thing about staying up all night?  Other than writing almost 10,000 words in the past 3 days/nights/wee hours?  For the first time, I experienced what it is like for my characters to, well…act out of character. I always hear these writers say that no matter how much they plan their story, that at some point, their characters begin to develop a mind of their own and start doing things they (the writer) hadn't intended for them to do. Whenever I hear that I think to myself, "Bullshit!  That can't happen!  You control your characters. Like a puppet master.  An evil, evil puppet master," all the while cocking one eyebrow and rubbing my hands together in delight. But it happened to me.  Despite my months-long preparation of laying out scenes, deciding who would be in them and what would happen, today some of my characters flipped me the bird and did exactly what they wanted to do. Cool!

P.S.  While I was looking for the photo of Mr. Burns for this post, I came across a disturbing cartoon of he & Maude Flanders in a 'compromising position'.  Let's just say I am now scarred for life.  But I do it for you, loyal blog reader(s).  It's all for you.