How did your characters surprise you?

So most of us (if not all) go into a novel pretty much knowing what we expect from our characters.

Now...how many of us have had things pop up over the course of the novel that we didn't expect?

Did your characters take on a life of their own? Did you suddenly learn something about them that you didn't know before? Did you discover an odd quirk that they have half-way through the book? Did they go and do something completely unexpected at some point?

Mine did. Especially one character in particular. Apparently she hates the concept of owing favors, or anything else for that matter. She thinks that expecting something in return completely undermines the purpose of doing a good deed, and revenge does not repair the damage that's already been done. I learned this about a third of the way through the book, when my MMC told her "When this is over, you owe us an explanation," and she turned around and told him what's what, like "Look here, mister. I owe you nothing! If I explain anything to anyone, it will be because I choose to, and not because I owe anything to anyone!"

She also apparently has rather frightening interrogation techniques. She's naturally creepy, being a necromancer and all, and she used that to her advantage. She got all up in the poor guy's face, put her hand on his forehead and kept it there through the entire interrogation, telling him she could magically sense if he lied, and if he did, she would suck out his life force. At the end, before they let him go, she started chanting some weird words, and tracing what everyone assumed to be magic sigils on his forehead, and then on a glass vial that happened to be nearby. When the guy asked what she'd done, she told him she'd just cast a spell that would suck out his soul and trap it in that vial, no matter where he was, if he ever betrayed them. Of course, when he was gone, the other characters were kinda freaked out too, and she was like "What? I thought you guys knew I was just bluffing!"

That sounds awesome!

As for me, one of my main characters surprised me greatly throughout the novel. In the first chapter I found out that she has a bit of an icy personality, and that changed the way the other characters acted around her. So the plot didn't end up where I wanted it to go at all.

I have a character that announced he would have rather had his species die out, than what they did to save it. I actually felt my jaw drop after his impassioned speech tumbled onto the screen. I hadn't thought of what had been done as a fate worse than death.

I had one character, a totally stoic kind of guy, be terrified of moths. Moths! He's like 6'2 and works out, so he isn't a wimp. But he's still scared of moths. I nearly died of laughing after that happened.
And then, he turned out at the end to be a romantic. On national television, after winning a revolution, he turns to his girlfriend and ends the book with "Marry me." I tell you, this was not how he was supposed to end everything :P

Let's start at the beginning:

When I first started writing, my characters decided to form a union. I wasn't sure why they did, but they did and they did. I started writing my demon story and worked on an ifrit character that was supposed to be huge and intimidating. I introduced him into the story by putting him on guard duty with some random guy. But with every introduction I came up with, he became sillier and sillier. He even shrunk a couple of feet. The random guy started working with him and joking around, and became his best friend. These two became the MMC's best friends.
In this same story, I decided my fierce warrior FMC needed a rival. This rival was developed to be all beauty and no practicality. But since I wanted the MMC to hook up with the FMC, I decided this beautiful rival needed to try and seduce the MMC. So she became a romantic rival as well. Then I realized that the tribe that they are all a part of is just one giant family (not by blood, of course. More of a home for those without a home), so I explored this beauty some more, and she became more of a person, just not one who got along with the FMC. But then I wondered, "If this is a giant family, then how come these two don't get along?" Turns out, they're foster sisters that had a wedge driven between them. And as I watched the beauty become one of the MCs, I noticed something: Despite her flirtatious nature, she only flirts when someone she knows is around. The beauty will flirt with the new guy, but if it's just her and him, she is extremely shy.

My characters unionized in order to get some of the minor characters bigger parts. MUCH BIGGER.

My characters pretty much stuck to their given personalities. But one (MMC) was being passive aggressive about something, when he's usually a pretty easy-going guy.

My characters are always surprising me. They tend to only give me just a tiny bit of who they are and what is happening, then they close up and I have to coax it out of them. One character, a very old lady who I KNOW has lots of secrets and stories to tell, barely says anything. Even when someone asks her something, she will give the barest detail, causing other person to ask every question imaginable to get info from her. Sneaky old lady. And she knows it too. And loves it. She is my character. I made her up. So, why isnt she talking to me?? Geez! I love the woman! :) There was a time when I was writing her doing something and the next thing I knew I had no idea what the heck she was doing, but did I have control over her? Not a bit. Stubborn.

I was driving back from work (about a 2-hour drive) about half way through the month when I realized that my bad guy was actually a good guy and that one of my good guys was actually a sneaky double crossing bad guy. I got really excited and confused for awhile, and still haven't figured out how all of that works. That's what editing is for I suppose!

My cast changed completely. People who don't write think it's bizarre but I really didn't have much control over it. Sure, I could change it if I was really determined to but it's just so much more *right* the way the characters want it to go.

The character of mine who changed the most was originally meant to be a sweet 13 year old boy. He's now in his early twenties and pretty clueless/cowardly. He was going to hang around for the whole novel but he now makes a run for it fairly early on in the piece.

I was constantly surprised.

Characters I never saw coming just tromped into the room and started talking to each other. Awesome.

And characters I thought I had a sense of kept coming up with new personality twists and traits. Like my tough Chicago cop MMC, who's a good guy but also very hard, very self-controlled, rather menacing and absolutely capable of bloody violence. He was taking down a description from my FMC of a girl on a train who was wearing a flowered dress, and drew a perfectly detailed violet blossom in his notebook. Again ... who knew?

Have I mentioned how much I love my characters?

My favorite is the character who didn't even exist in the original outline. Back when my main villain wasn't part of this universe, she had a co-leader/helper, so I suppose in retrospect I shouldn't have been surprised when he wormed his way in. I don't think my plot would have really worked without him. Especially because he just turned against the villain. Kiran, you are quite the interesting character.

Oh, there's also the fact that MC2 is a ghost. Oops. I didn't mean for that to happen...

Now before I start I would like to point out I often wake up at odd hours of the night and begin to write. Sometimes a completely new story, or keeping going on one I have started. I also don't remember these writing hours when I wake up for real. Almost sleep writing.
So when I woke up at 6 am the in the middle of nanowrimo with this written in my word document, lets just say I was a little surprised.
*setting: middle of an epic fight between my good guy Matt (known as I) and Jarvis (known as He)*

“What is yours this time?” He said, smirking. “That girl of yours. She dumped you years ago. Why would she want you now? Katina has left you to suffer by your self and you've only just met Lesily. Why would she care if you live or die? She doesn't that’s what.” He laughed maniacally.
"Maniacal laughter is inappropriate and unbecoming." I said, standing up slightly.
“No, not in this case actually. See I just tried to completely ruin your thoughts on life so that you can't carry on and defeat me, so really the laughter is called for. Don't even try to argue it. Plus it fits the character does it not?”
“Point taken. It's just used way to much.” I said shrugging.
“I guess you're right but honestly how else is an evil person supposed to laugh? Am I supposed to have a girly giggle? No it's maniacal laughter all the way. Girly giggles just...there not evil at all.” He sighed at me and shook his head. “Honestly how am I supposed to build a reputation of being evil if I laughed like that?”
“Touche.” I said. “Shall we stop this discussion and go back to being enemies?”
“I think so.” He said nodding.

Needles to say I kept this part in my story.

Fighting with each other more than planned. Which is actually completely perfect. My villain gained a new obsession. That may be a bit edited. :/ 0.o We'll see, SO FAR it seems to be working. Oh the villain killed a child. Wasn't expecting that. But, he had to make a mistake. And his mistake was killing the child(it's complicated). :'( Poor Tommy.

I had an answer to this, then I read the responses above and mine sounds *so* lame!

But mid-scene in about chapter five, I suddenly realized why my FMC could start a fire with a fire bow, and my MMC could not: she used to play the cello! Now I need to go back and add some musical references earlier on in the story, so it doesn't surprise my readers as much as it surprised me. ;)

I had a surprise character join the cast a few days later - a mutt named Scruffy. Scruffy became an important character, as she was someone my FMC or MMC could talk to when they weren't talking to each other. Instead of just thinking something, which was boring, they could tell the dog. So, she served a useful purpose! She also warned them of danger a few times, and showed another side of my characters as they interacted with her.

I also had a surprise object suddenly appear. My FMC started having these odd dreams about a Mutant Ninja Zombie-Fighting Chihuahua named Buffy, who kept doing weird things like going on a hike with her little backpack and hiking boots, or fishing with this cute little pink fishing pole, overalls, and a hat with fishing flies in it. I thought these dreams are getting WEIRD! Then, my MMC showed her something he'd found...that she'd seen and forgotten and even *I* didn't know about...a calendar featuring a Chihuahua dressed up like all the images from the dream! I was *so* relieved to find out that the strange images were just from a calendar. I had no idea that was the case when I started writing the dreams. ;)

I just couldn't get a clear picture of whether one of the couples in my book ended up staying together or not. In the outline, they were supposed to get married. Then when I started writing them, I thought, there's no way they're going to end up together. I continued writing and thought, "Well, they're going to have a really big fight, but then make up after not talking for a few months."

That's where I was with it, and as I had my MMC walking towards a room he knew my FMC was in to make up with her, there was a male voice in there as well -- and I suddenly realized that they WEREN'T going to end up together, because she had already moved on. I was shocked!!

When I started my novel I said: There is not going to be ANY love and romance in my first novel. That's just silly......

But then Aaron came along. I didn't even plan on putting him in my story, but all of a sudden, he came to my Main character's home - hired by her father - and started helping out with the dragontraining and all. And even though he wasn't supposed to have any big part in my novel, all of a sudden he was in love with my main character and she didn't see, even though he was doing so adorable things and trying to get her attention and all. Such a sweetheart really. He just grew into a huge part in the first 40K I wrote xD Then I decided: 'NO! No love, no love, no love!'... So I had my Main character leave her home in order to convince the king not to slay the dragons - as planned, without having fallen completely in love with Aaron. It worked well for about 10K, and then she was thinking of him and realized that she loves him, but can't go home to him until she has met the king...
But because of Aaron's appearance in my novel, I now have the perfect ending for book one and the perfect plot for book two. I'm terrified and grateful about this.

So, Toby was supposed to be this cute, cowardly, passionate kinda guy. Blond and small with a baby face.
But, as I wrote on... Not only did he began to gain a very vivid imagination, he started cynically using his cute looks to manipulate people. He lied and stole from them without a care in the world... Except for my MC, whom he views as a sister to him...
But DAMN, he was supposed to be lovable, smart and provide the comical relief when I needed it before I finally kill him off in the end... Well, he never was honest at all, even on the earliest notes I have on him it says that he has a tendency to lie instead of telling the truth, but I didn't know it would be THAT pronounced and completely remake his role... =D He even became an MC!

Instead, I threw an adorable five-year old girl in. That worked much better! Sad to see her die, though. :/

When I started, I thought my character was going to be a tough, bored, angry, bitter, sarcastic teenager with serious family and personal issues.
But then she changed. She went from being an antisocial loner to hanging out with at least ten people at a time. She went from scowling all the time to laughing so hard it makes other people laugh. She started crying when her cousin came in and started verbally tearing her apart, when I really intended for her to punch him a few times and throw him out the window and get into major trouble. She adopted a puppy! I wanted her to hate animals!

I'm not sure if I like the way she turned out. (I adore her mean cousin, though. He's so awesome!)

I was planning on my FMC falling in love with this guy who she rescued from the dark side of the moon. Turns out, that guy is her older brother who was given up for adoption. Also, I found out that this guy who was not supposed to be a MC became my MMC. Also, he was supposed to be very hard, commanding, general-like. He actually showed a lot of emotion. I was like *Jaw drops*! And to top it all off, he fell in love with my FMC and PROPOSES to her at the end of my book! o_O Sooooooo weird!

My MMC proposes to my FMC and I wanted to make her reluctant to say yes, just to give it an extra wrinkle. But then she came up with a really good reason for not getting married; namely, she's been surrounded by her sisters her whole life--she knows she'll be able to get away at a certain point in the future, but that's the same point when the MMC thinks they should get married, and she wants some time to just be on her own. So I spent a long time trying to think how I could get her to come around on the idea, and instead she convinced me of her point of view. She's still going to marry him eventually, but not until later on.