Misbehavin' characters

[PastMidnight]

To give a little background, I don't do a lot of outlining ahead of time while I'm writing. I tend to outline a bit a couple of chapters ahead of where I'm currently writing, jotting down things that I want to happen in the chapter, things that I want to have said. I spend more time developing my characters, until they are like old friends.

My problem is that two of my characters keep misbehaving. I give them a list of activities to do and information to get across for a given chapter, and their conversations usually end up turning into arguments. One is my MC and the other is her sister, who is probably the second most important character, so this has been happening quite often. I just know their personalities so well that, if Character A says something in her usual blunt or dismissive tone, Character B gets defensive. Likewise if Character B is too flip, Character A rolls her eyes and tries to lecture her. What should be an informative conversation turns into a grand argument. They are sisters, so it isn't odd for them to be arguing, but it is never my intention going into a scene.

Does this ever happen to you, where your characters take matters into their own hands? What do you tend to do about it? My characters have taken control of my last chapter and I'm not sure whether to let their fight play out or go back and rewrite that section of dialogue from the point where the argument begins. My instinct is to just let them have their own way (they must have something important to say!), but I'm afraid that the constant bickering is going to seem repetitive or annoying to a reader.

[cwfgal]

I've heard a lot of writers make this claim, that their characters "do their own thing." I can't say it's ever happened to me. I am the one in charge all the time. I do, however, have moments where my gut will suggest taking the story in a different direction, or twisting a character in a different way and more often than not, the instinct is a good one. Story and character creation is a very fluid process for me, subject to constant change. Despite the fact that I prefer to work from a general outline, I never know how one of my novels or characters will turn out until everything is done.

Beth

[moblues]

I wouldn't want to plan what my characters say ahead of time. I also don't think your characters are misbehaving at all. The fact that they are breathing throughout your work would make me think that you are on the right track. Conflict is good. It helps drive the story.

Some of the great writers on this board would probably tell you that your story and your characters should write themselves for you. Why fight it? Enjoy the ride. Good luck.




Mike

[Tilly]

Obviously I'm the one doing the writing, but sometimes it doesn't feel that way, and yes, the characters do and say things that I didn't intend them to. Perhaps this is because I don't outline? It happens most when I'm completely immersed in what I'm writing, and in the personalities of the characters.

Personally, I don't worry about it. I wait until later drafts to make sure what the characters do and say works. This is partly because I know the characters better by then, and can judge the characterisation.

[luxintenebrae]

I agree. Let the characters say what they want to. It may be important, or the conversation could just go in circles and sound annoying. But at least you'd know, and you could get their bickering onto paper and be over with it. And if it's not good, you can always go back and change it. I've written so many scenes that I will probably never use for the same reasons, but I'm glad that I've explored other possibilities for the characters. It's great that they feel so alive to you!

[CallyW]

This happened to me. I had a scene when my main character met up with her nemesis. She was supposed to back down from him but when I wrote it I realised that she wouldn't behave like that. It sent my story down a completely different way but it worked better.

It's very weird when it happens but it has several times.

[MarkN]

And if it ever does degenerate into truly pointless bickering, you can always go back and boil that scene down to saying "At that point, it degenerated into truly pointless bickering," and then get on with the more interesting parts of your story. ;)

You can be true to your characters and still maintain control, at least once you get to the rewrite stage. I'm not sure the rough draft stage is ever fully manageable, but maybe that's just me.

[PastMidnight]

Thanks for the replies! I've been letting them have their own way so far, as I think the arguments are helping to establish their individual personalities better than a normal conversation. Part of the difficulty in this current chapter is that they are getting sidetracked by the arguments and are not discussing all of the information that I want discussed by the next chapter. I think that I'll just let them finish what they started and then, if I like the way that the argument turned out, try to see if I can write in the missing information earlier in the scene. You're right, I should be glad that my characters have minds of their own!

Does anyone think that, if left unchecked, this constant arguing might sound repetitive to the reader?

I'm considering having my MC decide to stop fighting with her sister (due to circumstances, they are going to spending more time working closely together), and then maybe this will make the arguments taper off. I am hoping that their relationship will change during the course of the book, that they'll be able to see more eye-to-eye about things. But then I wonder how realistic this is. I don't think I'll ever be able to see things from my own sister's point of view and I'm sure we'll always be arguing over stupid things.

[MarkN]

In real life, relationships tend to fall into stereotypical patterns unless and until some external factor breaks in to force one or more participants to take stock of what's going on in the relationship. If you as god/author introduce some external stimulus that explains why your MC is re-thinking how she relates to her sister, it will be perfectly natural for her to do so, and might even suggest an interesting subplot for your book. It needn't be a big factor, just something big enough to nudge the MC's thoughts in the right direction.

[Jewel101]

One of my characters took his pardon and left the story. I only half believed it that character sometimes have their own agenda. But after my character left I know better. It was quite a shock for me. I kept telling him that he should come back. He just wouldn't

[Tilly]

*chains her characters down to be on the safe side*

Mine daren't leave :D

[Vomaxx]

I am more likely to have characters I did not know about appear than for those already there to act very unexpectedly. Since you are outlining in detail before you write a chapter, you should not, I think, have so much trouble in controlling them.

[Sharon Mock]

If your characters would rather bicker than move the story forward, perhaps there isn't enough inherent conflict in the scene. You say they're not getting necessary information across. Who needs the information -- the characters, or the reader? If the characters are mouthpieces for an infodump, you may find it difficult to get the information across in a natural manner.

On the other hand, if it's information that the reader knows but the character doesn't (summation of previous events), you might be balking at repeating yourself.

This is all stuff that can be addressed in rewrites, though. I wouldn't worry too much about it at the moment.

[PastMidnight]

If your characters would rather bicker than move the story forward, perhaps there isn't enough inherent conflict in the scene. You say they're not getting necessary information across. Who needs the information -- the characters, or the reader? If the characters are mouthpieces for an infodump, you may find it difficult to get the information across in a natural manner.

To answer your question, the information I want them to talk about is important for both them and the reader to find out. I'll take a look at the conflict in the scene, although I think that most of the conflict is internal for the MC and then...between the sisters based on what they are talking about. Well, I guess I just kind of answered my own question! They are talking about some tough subjects in this particular scene and so I guess it is natural that they would rather get into an argument than talk about these subjects. I'm going to let the scene play out and then see how it sounds but I think that the characters are right in this case!

[IndigoBlack]

My very first post and it's on something I love to talk about.

I am more likely to have characters I did not know about appear than for those already there to act very unexpectedly.

I, too, have this problem. Characters will just walk onstage without hi or hey to me and I'm always very sad when I have to ask them to leave. They definitely add something to the story but if I don't have enough room for them (i.e. limited word count) they get the axe.

As far as dealing with the arguing sisters. Something's gotta give. Being sisters, they should probably know each other well enough to know how the other is going to react. So if you have something that the characters need to discuss, one of them (or both) is going to have to go out of their way to avoid an argument. Maybe settle for them grumbling to themselves about the witchy way the other sister treated them or something like that.

I do believe, in one sense, that characters are real and are prone to do things according to how we created them. We create them to behave in a certain way. When we put them in challenging situations they're going to respond according to how we created them to respond. So even though we are the master of the domain (the storyworld) we, the writer, still have to operate in line with the rules we set up for said story world and the people that inhabit it.

Say you have a character who never fights but in once instance they do. There has to be a reason for this anomaly. They can't just fight because we need them to in order to advance or conclude the plot. The character or circumstances need to be developed in such away that the anomaly is acceptable to both the reader and the character. If this isn't done right, of course the character is balk in the form of the story coming out poorly written.

My thoughts. Hope it works out :)

[mkcbunny]

I would let them fight and see where it goes but, on revision, look to redundancies and whether all of the back-and-forth is necessary. My characters have arrived and spoken without planning on my part, and often that has been for the best. But, sometimes, they have exchanges that sound real but take up far more paper than is required to get across what they mean to say. In that second pass, I prune their words down.

[Jewel101]

*chains her characters down to be on the safe side*

Mine daren't leave :D

Ah, but if I chained him down, it would be doom to his entire race!

[PastMidnight]

I do believe, in one sense, that characters are real and are prone to do things according to how we created them. We create them to behave in a certain way. When we put them in challenging situations they're going to respond according to how we created them to respond. So even though we are the master of the domain (the storyworld) we, the writer, still have to operate in line with the rules we set up for said story world and the people that inhabit it.


This seems to be true, just not something that I ever would've believed before. I was trying to explain this to my friend, who's not a writer, and it didn't make sense to her. She said, "Well, you're the writer. You can just make the characters do whatever you want."

I kind of see it as improv acting. You take a couple of characters, give them a setting, and then toss them on stage to see what happens. If the actors are good and know their characters, they will come up with situations that you wouldn't have been able to predict, but which make perfect sense.