Characters who stay with you

[seun]

When I was 16, I started a story that owed quite a lot to Stephen King's 'The Mist'. I worked on it for about six months before letting it go as it just got too big and I had no idea what to do with the characters and their life or death situation. The thing was, I knew I wasn't giving up on the story; I was just leaving it alone. It was the first time I'd experienced the difference between the two.

About two years later, I wrote two connected stories that seemingly had nothing to do with the Mist rip-off. Another two years after that, I was looking through my old stuff, came across the story and still really liked it. I started it from scratch and discovered it fit nicely with the two linked stories. I worked on it for a few months and ended up with a 30,000 word story that was my own rather than a theft from King. I thought that was the end of it but the characters wouldn't leave me alone. They had more to say. From that unfinished story I started twelve years ago, I've written the first two books in a fantasy series.

Does anyone else have old characters or plots who won't leave you alone, who want you to return to them even if they're from years ago?

[Valona]

Well, I can't say I currently have any old characters or plots that won't leave me alone, but I used to. I solved the problem by writing their stories and I'm now trying to get them published.

It happens. I think good writers, those dedicated to their craft, often have this problem, if you can really call it a problem. I like to think of it as coming from a highly creative mind.

Good luck with your storys.

Paul

[katiemac]

Oh, sure. The characters out of my trunk novel still want something from me, but they're not getting it anytime soon.

[Patricia]

Absolutely. My "third" main character from my PA sabotaged novel is screaming for his own book. His ending in the novel is a perfect opening for what I later determined would make a wonderful sequel. I plan on working on that as soon as I get submissions going with WIP.

What is spooky to me is that my characters become alive to me. I am hung up with my current WIP because I know I have to let one character die in order to further the plot. And I really like him! He is so nice. :)The whole thing including the ending is written in my head but every time I go back to pick up that part of the story, I am stymied.

[KTC]

Zachary Martin Glass is in my BLOOD!

[Becky Writes]

I dream about them, does that count?

[Mayor of Moronia]

Every book is a rip-off of something that came before. There's nothing new under the Sun. I read a storyline today about some hero who preserves the World's great literature when space-invaders take-over the planet. Duh! The monks did this in the Dark Ages when feudal lords were carving up Europe.

In reality another's stuff usually becomes grist for your mill.

[blackbird]

When I was 16, I started a novel that I envisioned as a great rock'n'roll epic. The two main characters, teenage runaways, form a band that goes on to phenomenol heights--until their lives disintergrate into (what I now know) to be all the soap opera cliches' of life-at-the-top. The lead singer, in particular, was a beautiful and vibrant character that I fell in love with even as I was writing the story (notice I even speak of him as a real person, rather than some figment of my imagination).

I had scrapped the novel by age 20, then in my mid-20's came back to it. Having learned a little more about polish and how to craft a novel, I thought I might have a better stab at it than the first go-round. I worked on it diligently until my mother-in-law's abrupt and tragic suicide put an end--temporaily--to everything "normal" in my life. Once again, I shoved the novel aside.

Many years later, after a divorce and several more significant life changes, I dredged the manuscript out again. By then, life had moved on. I was getting a lot of acceptances in poetry journals, and for awhile, this seemed a safer niche for me. Also, my interests had broadened. I was older, moving on, and had new stories to tell. It just didn't interest me anymore, and I knew the writing was atrocious. Even if I went back to it, I knew I would have to scrap the whole thing and re-build from scratch (I was also learning much more about the art of craft; becoming a more mature writer. By this time, I knew my youthful effort--close to my heart as it was--would never have a chance in the cutthoat competiveness of New York).

When I moved into a tiny studio apartment, and found myself surrounded by boxes and boxes of useless paper, I did the unthinkable--I loaded up all those boxes, representing years of work, and tossed the novel into the apartment complex garbage dumpster (and keep in mind this was before I had a computer, so there was no back-up. What I had accumulated was hundreds of pages painstakingly pecked out on my trusty Smith-Corona).

I thought that was the end of it, but for years afterward I kept having dreams about those characters, partcularly that poor beautiful boy who was the lead singer. I would have dreams where he would come back to me, covered in slime and debris, as a corpse resurrected--or one refusing to die.

This went on for many years. Finally, two years ago, I made the decision to resurrect those two main characters. The guitar player became the adopted father of the teenage protagonist in my latest novel, and the lead singer is his dead friend whose memory continues to haunt him--much as he continued to haunt me.

I don't know if this has finally brought peace and resolution to my characters, but I haven't had another dream about them since.

[Penguin Queen]

Every book is a rip-off of something that came before. There's nothing new under the Sun. I read a storyline today about some hero who preserves the World's great literature when space-invaders take-over the planet. Duh! The monks did this in the Dark Ages when feudal lords were carving up Europe.

<...>.

And Arab scholars saved masisve amounts of the writings of Greek philosophers from book-burning fanatical Christians.
Sorry to be preachy, but an important fact & often overlooked.

I dont think Ive ever had such insistent characters (I never dream about mine, I'm envious!), but Ive had stories, plots, that wouldnt leave me alone until I found the right frame & time & place to tell them.

[Toni1953]

I have a book i started in 1968 that I vow to finish someday. My character of Charity Jordan refuses to die!

[blackbird]

I have a book i started in 1968 that I vow to finish someday. My character of Charity Jordan refuses to die!

What a great name!:)

[MidnightMuse]

I've got two beloved characters I write often. They're a part of my life becauce they've been around long enough to grow and mature as characters, to the point of telling me where the story will and won't go. They can even surprise me with dialogue.

My latest character is working his way inside, and hopefully will soon find a good comfortable place right beside these other two.

Of course, I'd just as soon get THIS one published, though !

[ChaosTitan]

The characters from my very first (read: trunk) novel pop into my conscious mind every few months and demand attention. The three main characters are adult brothers who have grown apart, and learn how to reconnect over one dramatic summer. These boys have been a part of my life for the last eight years, and while the story is written, it still needs a heavy-handed edit.

One of these days I'll get it right, and then they'll leave me alone. Hopefully.

[victoria.goddard]

I am, thankfully, getting close to the end of my most insistent character's story. Or at least this part of it. Ten years, I think, and the story is finally working its way out of my system. It's only been recently that I've been able to imagine characters as strong as the two in this book; however, the new ones are extremely strong and are jostling for my attention. But once I get this story polished and sent out, well, Fitzroy Angursell is next! (I think he's probably going to be just as bad as Raphael. At least Fitzroy's less depressed.)

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with characters whose lives act as a kind of commentary on my own . . .

Oh, on a slightly different point, as far as the Arab scholars who saved Greek knowledge: as an intellectual historian/literary scholar of the Middle Ages, I am quite aware of the fact, and very grateful for it, too! So ought everyone later than Boethius who's read more of Plato than the first two-thirds of Chalcidius' Timaeus. The history of how the Greek writings came back into western Europe is fascinating. Don't worry, along with such people as Herman the German (his name rhymes in Latin, too: Hermanus Allemanus), we get the Arab commentators on Aristotle like Averroes and Avicenna and . . . Er, sorry, I should stay more on topic.

I should also get back to my insistent characters who won't let me forget their stories . . .

[TrickyFiction]

The very first character I ever really put together shape-shifted and became my personal muse.

[LeftUnsaid]

I don't have any past characters, but I can say that I absolutely adore my present characters. It started with Dade, he decided that he will have his own book which will take place before this current story, before he meets any of these current people. Then there was the lady, Adele. She decided that she will have her own story too, taking place before Dade's book. Then Adele's son became stronger and more outspoken, and he has convinced me of the necessity of having a book come after this one, his book. And Lastly, theres Jenifer. She's the extra who I keep trying to squelch, but she keeps bobbing back up. She hasn't yet asked for her own book, but I have a feeling she's thinking about it.

This relationship I have formed with them, sometimes I worry that it can't be healthy. But other times I realize that it's been them this whole time moving the story right along, telling me where they wanted to go. It's amazing, really. I have high hopes and am not in the habit of letting myself down. And they all seem so sturdy and adament in their desires for their own bigger storylines. I can't say it will all happen though, especially the lady's book. Right now I'm just looking forward to her send off.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I have two characters that have been in a few aborted story attempts. This young and ignorant of the world half-elf/half-human character who's being raised by this crotchety old wizard, and his wise-cracking unicorn companion. I love the characters but every attempt at a story has come across as silly or a cliché.

[Papa'sLiver]

Yeah, I sure do.

I wrote a screenplay about six years ago. I really dug it, but it never went anywhere, however the characters and the story stayed with me and stayed with me. Every so often, my thoughts would turn to them.

Finally, I decided it would be a better novel. The first book of a trilogy, in fact.

I just finished the first draft of the first book last night. They just had to have their story told again, this time in a much richer manner.

[britlitfantw]

Five -- no, it's six now. Six years ago, I began a story that was "inspired" by Sailor Moon. Ran with it for a bit, dropped it in favour of another story whirling around my head (which became my first finished novella).

A couple years ago, I looked back at my Sailor Moon project, decided, "Hey, what if I gave this a modern twist and ..." On went the babbling in my head, and once again, I listened to it. At this point in time, it's the project I'm most proud of; the two main characters practically write the story themselves, and bang me over the head if I'm not prepared to write the tale exactly as it happened, tragedy and all.

I'm revising it now, and hope to have it out to publishers by Christmas.

[janetbellinger]

My heroine has stayed with me for more t han five years and is still in my head constantly.

[allion]

They haunt me, but in a good way. They're like old friends, even if some are destined to live in a trunk or closet or other hidden space.

Love them all.

Karen

[Thomma Lyn]

Five years ago, I completed my trunk novel, and without substantial revision, it will always remain a trunk novel. But my two main characters from that novel stayed with me.

So, after they'd ripened in my mind, I stuck them in a different universe, made them younger as suited the needs of the story, and featured them in a new novel. It's the novel I'm currently finishing up.

They're much happier there, and I'm still crazy about them. :)

[Project nachonaco]

I have worked with the twins and their aunt, of Project Hai-Zi for five years, in different short stories and such.

[moth]

Mm-hm, definitely. I agree with the person who said they're like old friends...that's exactly how they are with me.

[glutton]

I'm still constantly getting new ideas for short stories/scenes starring my mighty girl Rose, after having written over 3000 pages of her adventures already... she's as indestructible as an idea in my idea, as a character in the stories (she has survived being stabbed through the heart, gutted, shot in the throat, shot in the head, burned all over, filled with poison, stomped by a dragon, etc. etc. etc.).

[cree]

Ursula Hegi's book "Intrusions" is about this topic. It's a funny, interesting book for writers.

[seun]

I was thinking about this last night and went back to some of my older stories. I'd forgotten to what extent I linked the characters in different stories. I killed off one of my 'Mist' characters; two years later, his sister became a girl having her first period while her life ran parallel to a woman ruling as queen in a different world. This woman would then go on to rescue the rest of the characters from the original story.

Since 1994, these people won't leave me alone even though some of them are dead.

They're good people.

[Patricia]

I tend to use the same names. I discovered a week ago that I had given the same last (maiden) name to my MC that I had given a secondary character in my last novel. It only appears 3 times in the WIP...but still it's there.