HELP! What do you do when your characters mature on you, during the rewrite process?

I think you've got to let her have her say. I did that once with a character who would not shut up, or go away, or be who I wanted him to be. Suddenly the whole story clicked into place (although I had thought I knew what it's place was earlier) Through his story I saw how things had come to be and how pivotal he was going to be in the outcome of the novel.

I fought that dude's metamorphosis for about three days. I felt like apologising to him when I eventually allowed his story to come through.

Let your girl happen. I think readers like characters who change anyway. It gives us all hope.

You need to write faster.

Trust the character and go where they lead.

character

I always let the character have his own way, but it's annoying as it can be to have this happen after much of the writing has already been done.

Characters are usually supposed to change through the personal impacts of the situations that make up a story. Does she mature as the events of the story unfold? If so, can you tie them together in an action-reaction type of relationship? If so, you have a natural evolution of your character that is intimately linked to the events of your story. What can be more satisfying to a reader than to witness (or be part of) such change? If this fits, can you dole it out in small increments to maintain necessary tension? The change doesn't have to be a sudden bang at the end of the story--give the reader little hints of change along the way so it creates a nice, breaking wave, not a tsunami.

I agree. The character has to tell their story.

Is there room in the story for the character to begin irresponsibly and use the maturation as an underlying theme in the story?

Amiton.

Growth is good!

janetbellinger said:

One of my major characters is having a personality change on me, becoming more mature and responsible. The whole novel had a subplot of her irresponsibility. What now? I feel compelled to let her have her say.

Click to expand...

Seems to me that you've written a great character; one for whom the journey has offered change, and she's accepted it. Points of growth or change in a book are expected, if you've written strong characters.

The endings of my last two novels changed, as a result of the journeys. The characters almost wrote the ends. I have elimnated charactes because too much change, in the wrong direction, took place (planning to use them elsewhere, later).

Applaud her growth and let her do as she needs to, so long as it doesn't change your desired direction.

JPS

kpmcneil22 said:

You're the writer, it's your story, make the character do what you want.

Click to expand...

I disagree completely. IMO, if you want to tell your story, write an autobiography. If you want to write fiction properly, you need to tell the character's story. Janet, if the character surprises you, there's a pretty good chance readers will be surprised too.

The whole novel had a subplot of her irresponsibility.

Click to expand...

is it an important subplot? Then keep her irresponsible.
If it is an UNimportant subplot, and the story is better with her as a responsible character, then rewrite her as responsible.

kpmcneil22 said:

You're the writer, it's your story, make the character do what you want.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Who's the adult here? (Same response I get from my wife when she comes home and the kids and I are having pizza rolls and Bagel bites for dinner and my excuse is, "Well, the kids wanted it.")

Do nothing?

Doug Johnson said:

I disagree completely. IMO, if you want to tell your story, write an autobiography. If you want to write fiction properly, you need to tell the character's story. Janet, if the character surprises you, there's a pretty good chance readers will be surprised too.

Click to expand...

Doug, you are correct that it is the writer's job to tell the story, but when a character comes to life, it means that you have provided the means by which the character follows another path. You can change the path, but the responsibility for ensuring a character's integrity is paramount. You can't act out of character.

Just think what options a writer has if they have a strong character that follows those basic rules. Yes, write the story, but in part, we must allow our characters to help us follow the rules. Change the scenes, eliminate the character, but don't defile the character.

JPS

Doug Johnson said:

I disagree completely. IMO, if you want to tell your story, write an autobiography. If you want to write fiction properly, you need to tell the character's story. Janet, if the character surprises you, there's a pretty good chance readers will be surprised too.

Click to expand...

Sorry, Doug, but i think you misunderstood kp's post. From my reading you two are saying basically the same thing--write the character's story. I suspect kp holds a feeling similar to mine (correct me if I'm wrong), and that led to the curt reply. And that feeling is to cut the romanticized crap about the character taking her own path and realize you, the writer, are showing some interesting adaptability in how you are writing this character, and that the wonderful flexibility is producing an outcome that goes against your initial plan or vision of that character. This is how a creative brain works. Not the character's brain, but the writer's brain. It's wonderful because it can be a bit surprising to watch your own (not your character's) creativity expressed as this kind of evolution.

I like it that this gives you an opportunity to tighten it up by reducing or even omitting the subplot and going with the maturation of the character - that subplot may have been necessary for the character's maturation through you, but may be unnecessary now. See how the work flows without it...!

jpserra said:

Doug, you are correct that it is the writer's job to tell the story, but when a character comes to life, it means that you have provided the means by which the character follows another path. You can change the path,

Click to expand...

I think characters should come to life so much, that the writer can't change their path. Readers want to know what Scarlett and Rhett are going to do, not what the writer is going to force them to do.

NeuroFizz said:

Sorry, Doug, but i think you misunderstood kp's post. From my reading you two are saying basically the same thing--write the character's story. I suspect kp holds a feeling similar to mine (correct me if I'm wrong), and that led to the curt reply. And that feeling is to cut the romanticized crap about the character taking her own path and realize you, the writer, are showing some interesting adaptability in how you are writing this character, and that the wonderful flexibility is producing an outcome that goes against your initial plan or vision of that character. This is how a creative brain works. Not the character's brain, but the writer's brain. It's wonderful because it can be a bit surprising to watch your own (not your character's) creativity expressed as this kind of evolution.

Click to expand...

I think it's like chemistry. You put the elements together, then you lose control - of the characters, not how you tell the story - but lots of people are interested in the explosion.

1. Finish the book.

2. Lay the book aside for six weeks.

3. Revise the book.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Yeah. Who's the adult here? (Same response I get from my wife when she comes home and the kids and I are having pizza rolls and Bagel bites for dinner and my excuse is, "Well, the kids wanted it.")

Click to expand...

Pizza Rolls and Bagel Bites! Hey, you have all the food groups there.
(I dislike cooking. Love to bake though, and reheat. Microwaves are great, aren't they?)

My opinion on the original question--I say, put the ms. aside. Let it rest for a week or so. Go back to it. Reread it aloud. See if you still want to make her more mature or not.

I'm responsible but am so irrational. It's easy to lable an aquaintance or character as irrational from afar but people get more complicated the better you know them. Easy to call people irresponsible when you don't understand their loyalties.

Terry

kpmcneil22 said:

You're the writer, it's your story, make the character do what you want.

Click to expand...

Making the character do what you want generally makes for bad fiction. Story is dictated by character, and character is dictated by story. What a character doess should be based on where the storyline takes the character, and on the character's natural personality, never on what the writer forces the character to do.

It isn't what the writer wants that matters, it's what the story and the character wants. Forcing characters to do things they don't want to do usually leads to characters that simply do not ring true to life.

Yeah, you better her have her moment. You don't want her turning into a stalker on you. Geez... who knows what would happen then.

kpmcneil22 said:

I think my earlier post didn't do a great job of getting my point across. And I'm sure choosing the word "make" was a bad decision.

I agree with most of what you say here, James. Forcing your character to do something out-of-character can make for bad fiction (unless you, as the author, have a good reason to do so). I also agree that the story and character work together, and so on.

But I believe that it is what the writer wants that matters, because, at least in my world, it's the writer who creates the story and the characters. If the writer creates a character who doesn't fit the story, the writer can decide to make the appropriate changes to the story or to the character. So, in my earlier post, I suppose I was simply trying to say that if the character doesn't seem to fit the subplot, the writer should probably make a change to the subplot or an adjustment to the character. As the writer, you have the ability and obligation to do so.

Now, having said this, know that I am new to writing, polishing my first novel at this time. I don't have a muse, nor do I want one. My characters don't show up fully formed and tell me what to do. I have to plan where the story is going and do all the work myself -- no romantic magic tricks. So, if it works differently for anyone else, please feel free to ignore my post, as you are probably doing it correctly.

Click to expand...

I understand where you're coming from here. Yes, it is the writer who creates teh story, the characters, who decides what happens, etc. But, and this is difficult to explain, just because you create it all does not mean your conscious mind is in charge of it all.

What we want to create, what we plan to create, is not alway what gets put down in words. Unless the writer is a strict and extremely detailed outliner, and someone who refuses to deviate from the outline not matter what, stories take unexpected twists, try to go off on unexpected tangents, and characters try to become something otehr than what the writer has planned.

When this happens, the writer then has to decide whether to force everything back onto the path he had planned, or allow the story to go where it wants, and the characters to become what they want.

Most writers, I think, believe it's best to allow the story to take a tangent, and to allow a character to become something other than what the writer had planned. I'd agree with this completely.

Exactly,

Jamesaritchie said:

Making the character do what you want generally makes for bad fiction. Story is dictated by character, and character is dictated by story. What a character doess should be based on where the storyline takes the character, and on the character's natural personality, never on what the writer forces the character to do.

It isn't what the writer wants that matters, it's what the story and the character wants. Forcing characters to do things they don't want to do usually leads to characters that simply do not ring true to life.

Click to expand...

James,

Great point. Exactly my thought.

JPS

When you're writing a novel, a short story, anything with characters in it, one of the first things which you endeavor to do is to create characters who are multi-faceted, alive, deep. You're trying to make people and to imbue them without enough personality so that the reader can identify with them and relax with them, so to speak.

The thing is, when you have created characters like that, they have things which need to occur in the story because of it. Maybe your story hinges on John getting really angry, except that after you've created John and been with him for awhile, you realize that he doesn't get off-the-handle angry, not really, he just gets quiet and grim. There goes your story about him going ballastic, huh?

On the other hand, here comes your story about him quietly enduring more than anyone else and never saying a word about it, and eventually he leaves and still no one notices, not really, not 'till he's long gone.

Different story than you intended, because he's a different person than you planned. You may not be consciously aware that the character you're creating is going to go somewhere you didn't intend, but sub-consciously, you're keeping track of this stuff.

It's the part of your brain that knows people well enough to make educated guess about what they're going to do. In real life, this might not always play out, but in fiction, those educated guesses are what generally is going to occur.

It can wreck a story. It can also complete a story. I had a throwaway character who was going to exist for two chapters and then die, paving the wya into the rest of the novel. Instead, he avoided death, much to my frustration, and went on to be the star of the novel. My main character and all his storylines never so much as saw the light of day.

So what I'm saying is: always give the characters their say. If they mature during the writing process, great! Let them do what they need to do because of it. It's not just your characters speaking, it's a quiet part in the back of your head that's sitting around and slowly putting two and two together, and then things go boom. It's a good place to listen to.

I think you need to find the right balance in what the character wants to do and what you need the character to do. Either way the fact that the character is trying to dictate the story is a great testiment to your character building. He/she is now developed enough that he's telling you what to do.