Why can't my characters behave?

Only once. I made an example of him with the wood chipper. The flowers came in nicely that year, and everyone's behaved since.

My characters definitely disobeyed me in a major way, and it wrecked my whole novel as it existed at that point. However, I loved the change, revised the entire plot to suit it and I think it made it better, but since I'm still trying to get it published and I *hope* I pulled it off, I can't say for sure that "it was all right in the end."

This is a pretty major deviation from your original idea. Imagine if you had envisioned this character as homosexual from the start, and then one day he made out with a girl.

You really have to go "woah, stop hold the phone," and re-examine your entire novel, plot, etc. Remember that everything in your novel has to contribute to the forward movement of the plot, and if this is going to crop up as significant later in the story, by all means, keep going with it.

But if this doesn't add anything to it in the sense that you can just gloss over it and keep going, then you need to consider cutting the scene. (I will add that even if this was a heterosexual make out session between two heterosexual characters and it happened in a vacuum, I would still say cut it.)

That doesn't mean it didn't happen. You know it happened, it's a part of your characters lives and everything--but for the sake of the story, it didn't happen.

Does that make any sense? This is just my opinion of course, so I'm interested to hear what others have to say on the subject.

Right. Take him out behind the shed for a long talk, and when the dust settles, leave what belongs in the story in the story.

Hollan said:

Also, has anyone had a similar problem with a character not behaving in a way you thought they would?

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Yes. They're characters. They get off on messing with writers' minds. It's what they do.

So, the MC is my WIP just made out with his good friend. They're both teenage boys. And I had no idea my MC was even interested in other males. What am I supposed to do now? It's soft sci-fi or was until the boys started fiddling with each other (bad pun, I apologize). I mean, my MC also likes girls, so now he's bi I guess. But I really don't want to deal with his sexuality. I'm not sure he does either. Plus it takes place in a very distant future. I think I'm just going to glaze over it. If he's not taken aback by it, then no one else should be. I hope. Any suggestions?

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You know, the late great Robert Heinlein had everyone messing around with everyone else and he still, more or less, told the stories that he was telling (while including socio-political commentary). No reason you can't do the same.

Wow... thanks for this.

I was trying to tell someone about how I love my characters and sometimes the things they say make me swoon or burst out laughing. He said "But you're writing it." He didn't quite get it when I said, "No. They just do it sometimes."

That's why you have to talk to them. If you don't talk to them, they really get odd.

I wish people didn't look at us so funny when we're talking, though.

I talk to them, and that only makes them odder. For one thing, they come up with a whole bunch of quirks when I'm not watching. For another, they start thinking they can control me, and then very weird stuff starts happening...

Let's just say I got in an acutal battle of wits with a character. I won, but I needed his rival's help to defeat him. It was a very strange experiance.

And Matera, how's the weather where you are? Checking out Lake Delton anytime soon?

Oh yeah, one other thing about characters and relationships: watch it when they start shipping each other. And for gods sake, keep them out of your love life. One of my seriously seems to be attracted to my boyfriend. He claims it's platonic. I'm finding it a bit disturbing on several different levels.

(Oh, and now he's mad at me for telling you that. I wonder if pills would make him go away...)

My characters rule me and I know it.

My only saving grace is that they don't. Yet.

Uh huh.

Hollan said:

So, the MC is my WIP just made out with his good friend. They're both teenage boys. And I had no idea my MC was even interested in other males. What am I supposed to do now? It's soft sci-fi or was until the boys started fiddling with each other (bad pun, I apologize). I mean, my MC also likes girls, so now he's bi I guess. But I really don't want to deal with his sexuality. I'm not sure he does either. Plus it takes place in a very distant future. I think I'm just going to glaze over it. If he's not taken aback by it, then no one else should be. I hope. Any suggestions?

Also, has anyone had a similar problem with a character not behaving in a way you thought they would?

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Continue, get more extreme, write good, and sell it for money on an erotica e-book site?

You're characters won't behave because you have no plan and no path for them. Problems such as this seem to be a common thread and they all stem from a lack of planning. Writing is fun so that is what you do. Writing porn is even more fun. Plotting and character mapping is hard but it makes the writing much more manageable and meaningful in the long run. It also keeps your characters from ... whatever. In the end, they can't do anything that you don't let them to do. They don't care. They are not real. They only deal with what you do or don't want them to deal with. Select-delete is a great way to handle problems like this. The brain is a wierd place. A good plot helps it stay focused.

-MM

Something very similar happened to me, between two minor male characters in my WIP. I let the tension stand, but avoided anything too outright. Probably a bigger problem for you considering it's your MC.

I don't mind if my MC run with other male. It just happens. Go on with it.

Hollan said:

So, the MC is my WIP just made out with his good friend. They're both teenage boys. And I had no idea my MC was even interested in other males. What am I supposed to do now? It's soft sci-fi or was until the boys started fiddling with each other (bad pun, I apologize). I mean, my MC also likes girls, so now he's bi I guess. But I really don't want to deal with his sexuality. I'm not sure he does either. Plus it takes place in a very distant future. I think I'm just going to glaze over it. If he's not taken aback by it, then no one else should be. I hope. Any suggestions?

Also, has anyone had a similar problem with a character not behaving in a way you thought they would?

Click to expand...

Cut the fiddling part out and promise your character the next book will be all about his sexuality. That will keep him quiet for a while.

My main characters can't keep their hands off one another. It's like, "We're in mortal peril! The galaxy depends on us! LETS GO MAKE OUT!"

Which is just like that one scene in Psychonuaghts, so I guess it's okay.

As for your MC...hmm...

Think...he must be fiddling for a reason. ONe time, a character of mine did something that totally blew me off my chair with how it was totally not what I wanted him to do...but then he was like, "But, as you can now see, I am actually a good guy!"

I was floored!

So...run with it! Run with it, naked and screaming Nordic battle cries. That normally works for me.

Threaten to remove his unit with a cheese grater if he doesn't keep it in his pants until you're through with him. *Nods sagely*

I've fortunately never had my characters misbehave in a way that totally threw things off, but yes, they surprise me a lot. Along the same lines as your story, once in a while I'll suddenly realize/discover that a character follows a different...persuasion from the one I had thought--but seeing as the story I'm currently working on doesn't really have anything to do with GLBT themes, it doesn't enter the story. I'm assuming that if/when the time comes when it's something that will just come up in the plot, then I'll make mention of it, but only as it's necessary, and only AS MUCH as necessary. Because that aspect of their characters isn't important to the story overall. (Whereas in completely different stories of mine, it might be quite important. Just not this one.)

Maybe your character was so excited to make you realize this about him that that's why the scene popped into the work? It might still have no place in the story--the fact that you're questioning it indicates this (seriously, a makeout session in a sci-fi story?--maybe, but, still)--so it might have to end up getting removed. Still, if it's a subject that does naturally come up in the course of the plot at some point, a mention of it at least should be fine.

As for characters surprising me, like I said, this happens all the time. I have one character in my current WIP who hasn't pulled a facial expression throughout the entire work, and another who is always bragging about his power and insists he doesn't need help, etc. The past couple of days, the latter finally admitted (albeit to just the MC) that he's not nearly strong enough to defeat the bad guy, and the former actually got a facial expression. The latter REALLY surprised me.

Kind of interested in seeing what weird things they do today.

Hollan said:

So, the MC is my WIP just made out with his good friend. They're both teenage boys. And I had no idea my MC was even interested in other males. What am I supposed to do now? It's soft sci-fi or was until the boys started fiddling with each other (bad pun, I apologize). I mean, my MC also likes girls, so now he's bi I guess. But I really don't want to deal with his sexuality. I'm not sure he does either. Plus it takes place in a very distant future. I think I'm just going to glaze over it. If he's not taken aback by it, then no one else should be. I hope. Any suggestions?

Also, has anyone had a similar problem with a character not behaving in a way you thought they would?

Click to expand...

I don't know... it's character building, and even if it doesn't relate to the plot in any significant way, it's still good to see your hero defining himself. Let it happen

auntybug said:

Wow... thanks for this.

I was trying to tell someone about how I love my characters and sometimes the things they say make me swoon or burst out laughing. He said "But you're writing it." He didn't quite get it when I said, "No. They just do it sometimes."

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Yeah, I had a friend ask me if I was Schizo because I do the same thing, my characters sometimes take the driver's seat... I was like you know how you sometimes blurt things, and you immediately think "omg, did I just say that?" I told him it's like that, except I'm writing it instead of speaking it. Try giving that explanation to your friend and see if he gets it

MelancholyMan said:

You're characters won't behave because you have no plan and no path for them. Problems such as this seem to be a common thread and they all stem from a lack of planning. Writing is fun so that is what you do. Writing porn is even more fun. Plotting and character mapping is hard but it makes the writing much more manageable and meaningful in the long run. It also keeps your characters from ... whatever. In the end, they can't do anything that you don't let them to do. They don't care. They are not real. They only deal with what you do or don't want them to deal with. Select-delete is a great way to handle problems like this. The brain is a wierd place. A good plot helps it stay focused.

-MM

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The problem with pantsers is that we can't write too much down ahead of time or we lose steam. It spoils the mystery for us. We like figuring out the story as our characters do.

Also, just because there may be a pre-formed plan doesn't necessarily mean our characters (our subconscious, if you will) will want to follow it once we get to that point, hence the characters taking on a life of their own and throwing around little surprises for us.

Well there is a writing theory which states that the plot derives from the interaction of the characters. I've been doing a lot of that in my book. I leave vast areas where I allow them to do something which has been suggested by the writing, but I am like a kindergarten teacher-- they need to stay drawing inside the lines I have given them, and when they finally do get to the area where I take over, they have to behave.

I was just warned that a sex scene I had written should be cut, at the risk of losing the reader interest. I took the advice, and in fact toned down a lot of the sexuality-- even though the actors were full grown adults with sex lives.

Besides if these two males are interested in each other, with the sex you have erotica and that limits your audience, without the actual hands-on sex, you have "sexual tension" which is worth its weight in gold in a novel. If you can just find a balance it would be worth pursuing it.

I think (and this is just my humble opinion) that if you started out to make a soft-scifi with no gay overtones, you should probably stick to that (that is, if that's what you still want). Characters are made up things. They don't just do things. We as authors can write out diffrent tangents for them to follow to see how they sound on paper, but that's it.

Now before I go further, I will say that I in no way have a problem with gay characters. But if you are going to have them, just realize that it will effect the marketability of your novel (assuming you're going to want to market it). Not saying it will effect it for better or worse, it just will make it diffrent beast from what you might have set out to produce.

I know sometimes we choose to take our characters in unexpected directions, having them do actions we could have never expected, but in the end they are still made up things. They can only do what we tell them to.

If it helps, Steven Harper's Silent Empire series has a gay protagonist. It's won awards. You might want to check it out to see how he handles things.

When a character starts to behave on their own accord, then I know they've truly come alive. And that's a good thing. Better that than having to force them to do the littlest thing.