"Since when the hell do you play the piano?"

Sometimes happens. The other day one of my characters came out of the closet, it was a shock even to me.

The lead in one of my unwritten stories did the exact same thing, I had no clue he could play piano and neither did he until he did! He also apparently speaks Latin. And has multiple personalities. It's...complicated.

One of mine turned out to be adopted!

One of mine made off with someone else's fiance, married her and so far they've lived happily ever after.

maxmordon said:

Sometimes happens. The other day one of my characters came out of the closet, it was a shock even to me.

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I had that once, it was awesome. I didn't know he was gay until his boss got a girlfriend and he tried to assassinate her in a fit of jealousy. I like them best when they flat-out surprise me =)

I love a character surprise - my tough guy MC just softened up for an older woman I thought was going to be a platonic thing!

That happened to me a little while ago. It's a huge component in my MC's character makeup, and he's reticent to talk or even think about it. I think that's why I didn't know for quite a while.

Surprises are great.

maxmordon said:

Sometimes happens. The other day one of my characters came out of the closet, it was a shock even to me.

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Narnia fanfic, eh?

dempsey said:

Narnia fanfic, eh?

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Let's just say that what happens aboard the Dawn Treader never touches shore.

I had a similar experience. One of my real-life coworkers could suddenly speak fluent Mandarin, simply because I decided she's the kind of person who would have studied abroad in her youth.

Apparently my male MC is divorced.

Sneaky bugger never even told me he'd been married until 84k into the novel.

Well, as it turns out, the woman who dumped the MC of my current WIP after less than six months of marriage is the same woman who dumped one of the supporting characters after about a year of marriage. I think I was more surprised than they were.

My ever-helpful MC has just announced she can't swim. Nice to know now she has got herself stuck as a slave, on a boat, in the middle of an ocean, in the middle of a storm!

I find out new things about my MC all the time. I don't really know that much about him, other than his personality and that he is married with no kids. He seems to be a germaphobe and isn't really fond of people other than his wife. I'm writing it in the first person, but I feel like I'm listening to a story I've never heard before as I write it. It's a different experience, but fun.

Also, no one is completely incapable of swimming. The problem is that people are afraid of drowning, so they freeze up and thrash about. If they could remain calm, swimming is a fairly unconscious thing at the basic level. I was thrown off a waverunner when I was 14, and after the initial shock of hitting the water, I naturally started to tread water (wearing a life vest would have been a good idea, duh). Anyway, that was my experience, and has been my experience as a competitive swimmer who has taught a few people how to swim. Maybe you could say that she is afraid of water or a poor swimmer like was mentioned above.

Ah, but it I think it makes sense. Or will soon.

As the wind grew stronger and the rain became horizontal Digit turned to Medi and grinned, "If you want to head back, best start swimming."
"I can't swim." She stated, "Not currently."
Sprocket appeared beside them, the rain had matted his fur and he was shivering, he looked confused by Medi's response. Before she could explain Yummi appeared and shouted for them to get below deck if they had finished.

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Guess I'll find out tomorrow what that is all about.
I have signposts of plot I would like my cast to pass through but how they get there and how they react to them is completely up to the characters. If I planned things more I would not be as interested in the journey.

This happens all the time with my characters. One of my male MC's was SUPPOSED to bring a bottle of wine, and instead brought a bottle of chocolate syrup. Srsly. And yes...it had a rather...um...significant impact on the scene in question...

Keeps the writing interesting.

Makes sense that way. Most people say they can't swim when they really mean they don't swim and think they would drown if they had to, so that works. I wasn't sure how I thought you would word it, but it works like that in my unbiased but uneducated opinion.

Say what you like. I can't swim.

No one is physically incapable of driving a car, but some people still can't in that they don't know how, have never learned, don't want to, don't have the need. It doesn't make them any more capable of driving to say "No one is incapable of doing so."

It's all semantics, and semantics wouldn't save my life if I was in a large body of water, because I. Can't. Swim.

Completely driving this thread off course, but:

Semantics are important when it comes down to excuses. Unless you are physically unable, it's not that you can't swim but that you won't swim. You could take lessons and learn how to tread water, but you won't.

Drives me crazy when people say they "can't" do something that they are perfectly capable of learning if they took the time to do so. If we are all writers, the meanings of words should be important to us. Cannot and will not are not interchangable.

Some people are physically incapable of driving a car. Some people are mentally incapable of understanding the way other people explain things (but get it perfectly well from another angle) while others are just lazy thinkers.

My characters tell me all sorts of surprising things about themselves. Then again some of them are so far behind in self-knowledge that I have to dig it out of them with a spoon