Today, unexpectedly, one of my main characters changed genders, sexualities and possibly ethnicity. This is largely a surprise on my part.
ITT, tell us what weird things your characters have done unexpectedly while you've been writing. You don't have to include only things that have gone wonky this year, you can use stories from past years as well. Show us how pear-shaped novels can become!
----------
_________
2007: Hotaru (unfinished)
2008: WoWNoWriMo (won!)
2009: Ghedflaeg
2,665 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 21 51
My one character suddenly turned into an indeterminate number of people, just now. That was weird.
40,577 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 16 14
I've discovered about one of my main characters:
Her father committed suicide the day her mother died.
----------She's devoutly Anglican.
She's trying out a life-survival strategy of people-pleasing and only seeing the best in others, which will dovetail in nicely with my major plot twist.
-- Aspen
The perfect is the enemy of the fast. The good is the enemy of the fast. The halfway decent is the enemy of the fast.
--- Gail Carson Levine
64,504 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 14 09
Somewhere between midnight and 2pm today, my genre changed from YA to dark mainstream.
I had been struggling with my MC's motivations, and today when I woke up I was hit with the perfect solution - but it was fraught with backstory, very political, and very dark.
This was great, except then I spent the rest of the morning going back and adding earlier scenes everywhere to flesh out this subplot, and when I was done, I realized that the story was becoming less and less youth-centric.
So in short, when I went to bed last night, I had a lovely YA novel half-finished in my computer - and when I finished my lunch, it had morphed into something longer and far more insidious.
... I think this qualifies as my first "Hey, who's steering this thing? ..Oh, wait, that would be me" moment of NaNo 2009.
----------47,303 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 17 57
44,500 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 18 47
My MC surprised me last night.
I had planned on her picking up and moving, leaving town, when people discovered her secret. Well last night she informed me that she's not going anywhere. She has a network there, and she wants to protect HER city, not some other random city I thought to have her move to.
She's going to stick it out, not turn tail and run. She's going to figure things out without leaving.
I kind of admire this girl right now! Definitely caught me by surprise.
47,303 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 18 52
I had planned on her picking up and moving, leaving town, when people discovered her secret. Well last night she informed me that she's not going anywhere. She has a network there, and she wants to protect HER city, not some other random city I thought to have her move to.
She's going to stick it out, not turn tail and run. She's going to figure things out without leaving.
I kind of admire this girl right now! Definitely caught me by surprise.
I like this turn of events. Agreed, it makes your MC a stronger, more likeable character.
52,216 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 19 22
Strangest thing in mine: My MC wakes up from a coma and the first two-thirds of the novel becomes a warning dream, but my MC is so stuck in that dreamworld that she investigates the truth behind it all. It truly is a bizarre story.
8,646 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 21 47
It actually sounds like a really interesting story, and one that would definitely be fun to read.
60,032 / 50,000
Nov 18, 2009 - 17 55
I had my first interesting change in character today, and it was one of my antagonists that went through it. I don't want to say too much, because it will give away a huge chunk of the story, but it turns out he's not as bad as I thought he was going to be!
----------2004: Eversnow • 2005: Aeternum Vale • 2006: Scala Caeli
2007: Fortune Favors the Bold • 2008: To the Stars
21,730 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2009 - 23 40
The first image I started out my novel with--my MC committing suicide in a very unexpected and impulsive way--has refused to write itself. I have got to wonder if he's had a change of heart and is refusing to let me kill him off. He began the novel as an isolated, jaded, fed up commitment-phobe, but he is now starting to break down some of those walls as I write him. Also, why does his girlfriend suddenly know so many things that she shouldn't know? I've got to wonder what her secret is...although I am starting to suspect what it might be, I can't help but feel that she might surprise me yet! She is a crafty one, it seems.
Still, I'm not sure why the whole idea for the novel began with that one powerful scene in my head, the one which I can no longer figure out whether I am supposed to write or not. It's all very puzzling...but I am sure that some answers are forthcoming this week, as I attempt to make it to the halfway point of my novel.