So I have a character in my book that's a eunuch, there's a complicated reason as to why this happened to him within the story, but my chief motivation for creating him in the first place was as a foil to my other main male character who's... kind of the bastard offspring of Captain Jack Harkness and Lord Byron, with maybe some of the more entertaining Borgias thrown in for good measure... anyway the point is he had to go to a funeral vault to examine some bones (the eunuch that is) and when he got there an overly chatty young lady with bright pink hair wrote herself into the story as a mortician that could be relied upon to carry his half of the conversation, now I think he's falling in love with her... which can only end tragically all things considered... and this girl didn't even exist until five seconds before she said 'hi there, and started going on about how people aren't really interesting until they're dead...
So... anyone else had something like that happen? okay, possibly not very like that, but cool stuff that wasn't supposed to happen, happening to the least likely character for it to happen to... if you see what I mean.
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124,323 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 10 29
hi
yep its happened before last year two character fell in love, and this year two of my characters are not what i wanted them to be, Luna is a warrior and is suposed to be quiet calm and collect and all that until she needs to fight, instead she is a little bit of a minx and used puppy dog eyes, fake tears and sobs to manipulate Treason (who i'll talk about a bit more in a mo) into buying her some sweets, she already got some daggers out of him.
Now treason was supose to be this calm young man who only get uperty when someone is hurt, instead he is totaly sarcasic and gives not very nice nicknames to people, like humugus, Princy and a rather nasty one. totaly uexpected.
sue
----------Love is Love, who are we to judge if it is right or wrong.
The Burning Quills
2007 - WIN - Death's Messenger: The Journey Starts
2008 - WIN - Death's Messenger: The Journey Continues
2009 - WSS - Kaspia War Trilogy
38,000 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 10 59
Heheh, excellent stuff..!
----------I wrote that my heroine hit this bad guy dressed in black with an iron poker (as you do), and then he exploded into half a dozen ravens, which flew at her and pecked at her (which she then escaped from), but I didn't see that coming at all. So now he's the Lord of Ravens, a totally new and cool direction, which is also spinning my book off into a weird Neil Gaiman mystery direction, from an intended sci-fi fantasy steer. And better for it, I think (not that 7,000 words is really enough evidence to tell, yet).
Hmm, better get on and write some more then..!
Jon
--oOo--song writer --oOo-- harmonica player --oOo-- doodle artist --oOo--
www.myspace.com/harmonicajon2
www.facebook.com/harmonicajon2
Coventry, UK
--oOo--song writer --oOo-- harmonica player --oOo-- doodle artist --oOo--
9,524 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 11 35
I had a nice moment when I came up with a rather cool system for magic, that I don't think anyone's used before.
----------Theaker's Quarterly 30 * Dark Horizons 55
154,845 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 11 36
My characters have started planning mutiny. O_O And not just against me either.
Really I've learnt to let my characters handle themselves. I give them a basic outline and if it ends where I want it to then I'm not going ot complain. =)
16,611 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 12 14
An awful lot has happened by accident so far! One of my main characters was supposed to have mysterious origins but instead I but his violent conception in the prologue. My female lead now has two suitors instead of one. The identity of the main villian has changed. I also started using actual medical research to formulate the idea for the drug that my characters take. All in all it's been confusing but fun!
----------2009 - Losing Time (Science Fiction)
59,913 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 12 52
My main character has suddenly acquired a drink problem, which definitely wasn't in the plans. Not that I had many plans to begin with, but still... Oops.
31,491 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 13 18
I needed someone to die in the early part of my book. Not got to the death scene yet, but I planned it to be the death of a walk-on character. Now I've decided to kill a minor, but significant, character instead, after he took on a life of his own.
----------2009 - "On Tuesday"
http://www.damonlord.info
50,407 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 14 00
I like to go into Nano very underprepared on purpose so my surprises will egg me on, as I become excited about what will happen in my own plot, but one thing has jumped out that I didn't expect.
But two characters were discussing missing computer files. One character points out that computers are now so easy a monkey could use them. The other character says that's fine, except there are now super monkeys now. First character gets annoyed she's not listening to his point that they're definitely missing.
But the thing that burst from this: SUPER MONKEYS! Okay not quite. But monkeys in my universe can talk, and the smarter ones can pretty much act human. However it developed that they're also a very repressed group of uh... people? This made a character I had vaguely planned into a monkey, adding another bizarre layer to this amnesia tough bravado guy.
But I love it!
----------2008: A Turtle, And Other Things That Destroyed The World - Rewriting on hold for November
2009: The Floating City - Going a little too well!
54,832 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 15 13
After spending a month planning, I was surprised when the second (arguably) character, suddenly had a friend. I love it when that happens. This friend has an agenda... dunno what it is, I'm only the writer.
Cheers,
David.
----------Cheers,
David.
54,832 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 15 14
Love to know what that is, do tell.
----------Cheers,
David.
9,524 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 01 45
No, because somebody will have read a story or novel that uses a similar system and it'll throw me off track...
One of the hardest thing for me about MLing in past years was not just saying, "Oh, just like...." whenever anyone talked about their novels. In shorthand novels and ideas all sound the same...
----------Theaker's Quarterly 30 * Dark Horizons 55
54,832 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 03 21
One of the hardest thing for me about MLing in past years was not just saying, "Oh, just like...." whenever anyone talked about their novels. In shorthand novels and ideas all sound the same...
Very, very true. Fair enough. Perhaps when you're ready over a pint.
----------Cheers,
David.
40,273 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 12 14
I had a secondary character suddenly become a major character when she got stabbed! Which opened an entirely new plot! And I didn't even have any idea this would happen until I started to write it!
----------Watashi ha dare? Anata ha dare? Kizutsuke ai doko he yuku no? Who am I? Who are you? Where does wounded love go?
13,974 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 01 09
I've not yet had any huge moments like this, but I'm working from a design document and it's amazed me how all the little details I had yet to work out on the design document just simply came together when writing this nano-draft. You write them, no knowledge of why you are writing this little sentance from nowhere then two sentances later you're scrambling for your notebook to make sure you jot the new idea down.
My notebook is now overflowing with little ideas that make up a new, larger picture I had not yet seen before now. And I was worried my outlines would restrict me.
33,995 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 07 05
In my non-nano story, my main character is a vampire, childish and yet incredibly sadistic; committing horrific murders, torture, the lot. Then the Lion King soundtrack came on my iPod and he's now a Disney film fanatic.
Rather bizarre, but I like it. =)
----------50,052 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 15 01
Early on, my main character was stood waiting for someone (who she could see) and suddenly there was a man next to her! He was dressed in black and he wouldn't go away! I didn't have any use for him and i hadn't got a clue who he was!
Talk about bizarre :D
But now he's one of the main characters and he rescues the heroine.
I want more of this!!!
Especially this week cos it's getting tough. I'm in that hazy grey huge plot-free middle bit of the novel
Prue
----------40,686 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 03 08
I feel your pain prudence, I really do. This week is a lot harder going than the first. And yes I've had my plot struggles too. But you know, I am trying to abide by the advice of "getting out of the way" of my characters, and letting them tell their story. And that seems to be working. The odd nudge here or there perhaps, but when I try to pull on the reins and force the plot along, I hurt, and a block arrives.
As for surprises, I just had my protaganist revisit his old boss. When I planned this I had it that the boss was infirm and incapable of keeping control of his men. When I came to write it however, that went out of the window fast, and now he has a fresh scar on his cheek, as yet unexplained to my protag, and a mindset hell bent on revenge. Much edgier, and much more appropriate, it turns out, to the overall arc of my story.
So, yeah, Hurrah for left-brain, outside-of-the-box thinking. Ah, inspiration, come to bed with me.
154,845 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 03 10
My characters have completely hijacked my plot. O_O I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to get them to give me back control!
54,832 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 04 08
I've just got my characters, now slightly exhausted from their diversions, back to the plot.
Can I thank whoever came up with the Happy and Happier targeting system - works a charm. I've just achieved today's Happy.
All these pipeways are air conditioned, so the oxygen content isn’t an issue here. After all this running, Alice needed to get her breath back.
----------Cheers,
David.
54,832 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 07 40
Just hit a major snag going over the 29K mark. I've killed my two main characters. Considering one of them is the first person protagonist, this is a bit of an issue.
----------Cheers,
David.
44,434 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 15 09
I can see that being a problem... ummm... could continue with another character taking up the story? or with a biographer finding the diary or whatever of the protagonist and investigating?... or continue from the spirit realm? any of those helpful and or appropriate?
50,047 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 15 19
I just randomly decided my MC is going to get into a magical battle with someone who is a complete stranger, yet who hates my MC just for what she represent to her. Whats suprised me most though is how the battles played out. Origanly I just wanted a small fight for my MC to show of her skill a bit, but its turned into a huge battle, with people being injured, my MC sustaining a serious injury, and one character even dying. Plus I cant believe some of the truly horrifying things that are going through my head!
----------I'm so excited!
16,472 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 15 28
David,
Are you still on the i phone story?
Doesn't the phone have a memory so you can slip into flashback?
Just a thought...
----------.............................................................
Nano 2005 - Won - Crashed
Nano 2006 - Won - Drama in Skitham
Nano 2007 - Lost - No title :(
Nano 2008 - Won - The Train Journey
54,832 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 23 40
I've entered weird, which is good. Spirit realm after the next death, according to the plan anyway.
Are you still on the i phone story?
Doesn't the phone have a memory so you can slip into flashback?
Just a thought...
Not bad, but I've established strict rules about memory, had to. I'm fine, writing away, it was really part of the plan, but quite traumatic when I got there.
----------Cheers,
David.
44,434 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 08 08
I just had another of these kind of moments, I have a character called Nano (yes highly original but she's about 5'2 and partially robotic so it fits pretty well) and originally she was going to have contracted the horrible disfiguring disease that caused her to be made into cyborg to save her life because she was a front line medic, but then I realized that overlapped skills wise rather too much with my forensic anthropologist (in space) character, so I let him have the medical skills and left her with the computing ones. Good for party balance, but now she had no real background, so anyway I'm sitting talking to her (metaphorically) asking her who she is apart from this mother figure to the group and I get this whole tragic back story that totally explains a)why she's there at all b) why she's so sympathetic with the other characters' foibles and c) why she's allowing a seventeen year old perky goth to attach herself to the party... it all makes sense now.
edit: and d) gives me someone who knows enough about another character to support the plot that needs to unfold in the last third of the book.
40,686 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 01 35
edit: and d) gives me someone who knows enough about another character to support the plot that needs to unfold in the last third of the book.
Thats quite the revelation! What did you have for breakfat that day?
44,434 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 03 43
Thats quite the revelation! What did you have for breakfat that day?
ummm... cheese sandwich and fruit salad... at about two in the afternoon.... I think
40,686 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 06 51
I'm going to try me some of that. mmmmm.
13,929 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2009 - 14 33
I drew 'your character starts talking to themselves' from the ticklepot nano group inspiration jar.
He started talking to an empty chair (or is it, I don't know yet!) then out of nowhere addressed another listener - his novelist - threateningly (who is a character in another novel I'm thinking about) and THAT fourth (fifth?) wall wasn't meant to break yet, could be challenging...
50,064 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 00 00
I'm not sure that it counts as a 'this wasn't supposed to happen' moment, but last night, I killed off one of my characters, and felt totally heart-broken over it. This has never happened to me! My character went through a terribly painful labour with her first child, teetering on the brink of death but survived, only for the local villagers to kill her and the baby two weeks later in a particularly horrible way because they thought she was a witch and her husband the devil.
It left me really emotionally drained after writing the scene in which her husband comes home to find the bodies. I felt devastated for him, even though he goes on to be my main antagonist. I've never felt that emotional about a character or a situation I've been writing, so it was a 'that was really odd' rather than 'that wasn't supposed to happen' moment.
Ginger
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