I'm the writer, the creator. So how do my characters keep taking over?

Hah! Mine keep telling me it's their story and I need to get it right.

Did you change him accidentally?

My characters are odd. My MC is nuts and female lead is too righteous.

My MC takes the world for a nice turn or two. He starts to change my story as I write, so yeah, he does take over sometimes.

It's weird when that happens. Of course it isn't actually the characters taking over, but something in our subconscious or . . . something. Still I know what that's like. I wrote a very small role of a servant boy at the beginning of my latest, and suddenly he became a major secondary character. He just wormed his way into the story. And I'm so happy he did .

They definitely conspire against you when you close the file. Last time I opened my WIP there was a sentence I didn't write, in bold red type, that simply said If you do what I think you're going to do to me, you'll regret it.

Ari Meermans said:

Hah! Mine keep telling me it's their story and I need to get it right.

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This.

Don't argue with a praetorian, that's my motto.

Probably just means you've built up some strong elements of storytelling that have enough umph to sway you in one direction or the other, kind of as if they have a personality of their own.

Just one theory.

At first, I would get really stubborn when they insisted on going in a way I hadn't invisioned, or being something I hadn't pictured. But I'm getting used to it. I let them tell me who they are...for the most part.

I love it when this happens. They take on a life of their own. It freaks some people out, but not me. It shows "It's alive! IT'S ALIIIIIVE!!!!"

Hee! I love it when this happens. I don't kid myself into thinking I'm the creator. I'm merely a conduit for the characters. Yep, I'm a dumb pipe.

The really weird thing for me was, how right they were...they are alive.

I had a story (screenplay, actually) that my MC's girlfriend kept bouncing back and forth between dying in a plane crash and not getting on the plane in the first place.

Woman has more lives than a cat.....

I tend to treat my fiction writing as more of an interview process.

I'm the neutral, noncommittal interviewer recording everything while asking the characters "Go on", or "Then what happened?" If they deviate from a direction I can use, I either steer them back or dig deeper until I find something more interesting than my original plan.

Now, I don't really *believe* I'm a conduit for other intelligences. I made these characters and their universe. But once I've given them enough personality and history, it really is like guiding an interview session.

Toothpaste said:

It's weird when that happens. Of course it isn't actually the characters taking over, but something in our subconscious or . . . something. Still I know what that's like. I wrote a very small role of a servant boy at the beginning of my latest, and suddenly he became a major secondary character. He just wormed his way into the story. And I'm so happy he did .

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Those damn servant boys! I have one in mine who was supposed to be a very minor character, but is ending up being much more important to my MC than I intended him to be. He's become such a sweetheart. It's going to be sad when I have to kill him.

Not just my MC does it. One of my antagonists decided he wanted to jump my MC two scenes earlier (right when I was down to my last 9 scenes). he ended up abducting two supporting character who were supposed to be in the next few scenes. I lost two scenes in the process, but all in all, it's turned out better for the story.

Tepelus said:

Those damn servant boys! I have one in mine who was supposed to be a very minor character, but is ending up being much more important to my MC than I intended him to be. He's become such a sweetheart. It's going to be sad when I have to kill him.

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I Lol'd.

But yea, I use to wonder at some of the authors talking about their characters doing whatever it is they wanted and I would think - the hell?!

Then I realized that its been happening to me all along, that my characters are sneaky, insidious individuals. D'oh!

Isn't there's a name for this affliction..? and a place reserved for that matter...

Reifier said:

I Lol'd.

But yea, I use to wonder at some of the authors talking about their characters doing whatever it is they wanted and I would think - the hell?!

Then I realized that its been happening to me all along, that my characters are sneaky, insidious individuals. D'oh!

Isn't there's a name for this affliction..? and a place reserved for that matter...

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Not sure about the name, but you're already in the right place. Here at AW you have many who will sympathize with you.

My characters are in charge. I'm just involved to tell their story.

I still remember the cardboard villain I tried to write a decade or so ago. He acted out of character, would never do what I told him, and generally derailed the story. Until I had a clear epiphany that he actually wasn't a villain, but the sympathetic protagonist my story needed. I switched gears, and we had a great time. I might even go back and revise his story, if I'm lucky enough to find a publisher for my current work.

It's simply your inherent knowledge of people (most probably acquired by observation and empathy) taking over- which in my opinion, this is what being a writer is about.

It makes sense to you, in terms of consistency and understanding of the human nature, that you character would do something different than what you want him to do as the plot-structuring master. Which, for me, is brilliant. I always believed that the best plots stem from character, not in the sense that plot-driven stories are any lesser (not at all), but that story and plot exist in a bidirectional dynamic. Sometimes characters adjust to plots, and vice versa, but it's important it all makes sense and flows naturally.

Toothpaste said:

I wrote a very small role of a servant boy at the beginning of my latest, and suddenly he became a major secondary character. He just wormed his way into the story. And I'm so happy he did .

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Hah. Same thing happened to me. Only with a young space pilot, who was supposed to fly my MC from planet A to asteroid B. Now the whole manuscript revolves around this pilot, and his relationship with the MC.

One of my characters recently decided to tell me that she'd been on a cheerleading squad at one time. It has changed quite a bit how I originally envisioned her.