Character Reactions...

Perhaps inconsistency is her character tag? Hang a lampshade on it, and have other characters point this out.

Or perhaps she's trying to adapt: "Well, X didn't work last time. I'll try Y."

Do YOU react the same way every time? Maybe your other characters are predictible?

Some people do and some don't. I like different. Don't sweat it too much, unless you think it needs to be changed.

I like the idea of making her an unpredictible person, and pointing that out in the story by having other characters mention it, if it fits in to your story. What kind of story is it, if you dont mind me asking?

Good luck with that!

I think it's fun that human's aren't predictable, so why should our characters be? Depending on the mood, situation, and even the time of day, can alter how we react to the same situation.

Case in point. I work with kids. This is a job that you usually start out in a great mood and it will tend to go downhill from there, especially now that we're getting close to Christmas. (But, I digress.) I had an example of this just yesterday. Child 1 started to use the marbles to hit various targets around the room. This happened about 20 minutes into the start of the program for the afternoon and I was still in a pretty good mood. I gave him a look, a smile and very calmly told him that's not how we played with the marbles, etc.

Child 2 comes along about 2 hours later and I've dealt with a fight, inappropriate language and someone clapping wooden blocks next to another child's ear- reducing said child to tears because, well that hurt! Anyhow, the point is by that time I wasn't in the best of moods and when Child 2 did the same thing with the marbles, (I'm hiding those dang things, by the way) I yelled and told her to put them away, find a book and read quietly somewhere away from the games for ten minutes.

When she pointed out that Child 1 did the same thing and didn't get into as much trouble... well, I felt horrible, but you get my point, I hope. (And yes, I apologized and while I made her put the marbles away, she was given the same consequences as the other child- in case you were wondering. )

Anyhow, it was the same 'act', just in different circumstances. Well, I hope my rambling helped. Keep him/her unpredictable, just make sure it's not wildly so or completely out of character. (Don't make him/her a saint one moment and the devil's right hand the next.)

I_Shrugged said:

ETA: Sorry for the duplicate. Serenity posted while I was typing this.

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LOL- great minds and all that, right???

PenelopePitstop said:

It's like I just don't know her well enough!!! Which is odd cause I created her.

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Maybe you don't know her well enough yet? I think it's important for the writer to understand why their MCs do what they do even if it's never stated in the story, and maybe this is what's giving you trouble. Try journaling/daydreaming (whatever you do to get inside the minds of your characters) as your MC about why she made a certain decision. She'll probably tell you. This may sound nuts (& I hope it doesn't sound harsh), but even if you created her, she's not going to do you any good until she grows a life of her own (maybe she already has?).

Have fun, Penelope!

caren1701 said:

Maybe you don't know her well enough yet? I think it's important for the writer to understand why their MCs do what they do even if it's never stated in the story,

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Heh. You've never met my characters. I don't always understand why they do something the moment they do it. I will often come to understand it the further into the story I get, but sometimes a good character reveals things to you the same way you reveal them to the reader: in due time.

I_Shrugged said:

As long as the reactions aren't too different, you could easily work with her as an unpredictable person. What I mean by that is say she's walking down the street and she sees a dog. You can't have her like dogs in one scene and dislike them a few scenes later. (Okay, that's a bit simple.) You have to watch how far you shift her reactions from one extreme to the other, or your readers will end up chucking your book across the room in frustration. Or they'll simply look like this:

JMO
.

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Essentially, you can make her as unpredictable as you want as long as she remains in character. Sooner or later, you need to get a feeling for what sets her off. Logic does not govern many of our acts, and sometimes self-contol slips. It is perfectly normal at times to do things counter to our best interest, and guilt will also drive actions. As for those secondary characters, if they are more fully rounded, they may become less predictable, which is good as long as they don't upstage you MC.

If I write a scene to discover what my characters will say and do, I get to know them better, a little piece added to the human puzzle. Each thing I learn strengthens my concept of my characters.

chaostitan said:

Heh. You've never met my characters. I don't always understand why they do something the moment they do it. I will often come to understand it the further into the story I get, but sometimes a good character reveals things to you the same way you reveal them to the reader: in due time.

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Exactly!
That's (part of) what keeps us coming back -- to get to know them better, to see what they'll do next. But, we can't always just sit back and hope they'll reveal all the important stuff in their own time, and that their motivations make sense to the story and build to a satisfying climax for the reader. At least I can't.

In August, at a workshop given by a multi-published author, I did an exercise that I thought wasn't necessary to my story (but, she's majorly cool so I trusted that it'd been important to her writing & did it): journaling as my MC on specific questions about what she wants and what's stopping her from getting it, and on specific ways I want readers to see/react to her. This 5 minute exercise broke loose so many things I'd only been seeing as shadows in the corners of the story, surprising things, things that helped me sharpen the story's focus. (Plus, I have a couple of great "query letter" lines already!)

This kind of thing may not be necessary for everyone, or every story, but you never know if it'll be valuable until you try.

Maybe she can have mulitple personalities.

Seriously though, maybe she doesn't know herself well enough to be consistent. She's confused to as how she should react to certain cirumstances. Maybe her self-esteem is low.

I try and make a female character say, think and act the same way in which I would to situations, but the stubborn Cow won't! She has a mind all of her own! lol

PenelopePitstop said:

It's like I just don't know her well enough!!! Which is odd cause I created her.

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Ellie

PenelopePitstop said:

It's like I just don't know her well enough!!! Which is odd cause I created her.

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Your parents created you. How well do they know your motivations and what goes on inside your head?

Hi Penelope:

Looks to me like you know what her motivations are. A nice little bit, too (although I'd lose "I replied" and "Okay"); I'd read on. Maybe you just weren't confident that you knew her well enough? I think we all have that problem at one time or another.

I like "sweating inappropriately" -- her sweating seems appropriate to me, so this says a lot about her.

~C

This is JMO, but this is the stuff I don't worry about so much in first draft. No matter how much pre-work I do, I never feel like I fully know my characters until my first draft is either complete or almost. Then I go back and check for consistency of reactions, stuff like that.

You can fix this once you know her better. For me, I need to know where they've gone to be able to show where they started.

PenelopePitstop said:

What's JMO??

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Just My Opinion.

Liz

If it's any consolation my reactions are always inconsistent.

I usually have to write the whole book before I know a character's character.
It's the 2nd draft where I align everything.