Hi everybody....this is my first topic woooo exciting.
Today at the meet-up we brushed on the subject of being told what to do by our characters because they had a life of their own, frequently in funny ways.
Just the other day while one of my characters was chatting to his mother about why he and his brother didn't get along I could feel him screaming at me that his twin was gay. It was very surprising to me who had never thought of this before.
So I ask of you: when was the moment you realised you weren't really writing a novel of your chosing so much as being held to ransom by a troupe of mainiacs who spilled from your mind???
"With out tea life would be empty but with out chocolate it wouldn't exist."
"I took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference."
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50,666 / 50,000
Nov 21, 2009 - 21 50
My first time when I noticed that a character had truly taken on life status was a story I wrote 2 years ago about an Irish family working construction in New York.
The auld Da was the just one of the characters but a scene involved him confronting two of his four sons as they walked into the office for the start of the work day and showing them a porn site, their porn site, which they had been keeping a kinda secret from the rest of the family. He thought that he had them over a barrel and was gloating that he had found out their filthy little secret until one of the boys pipes up immediately with "Jaysus Da, you got us alright fair and square but what would Ma say if she were to learn that you are sitting here all day long surfing porn site." The boys smile and leave for breakfast and the Da is left somewhat deflated that what he knows cannot be used against the boys because he walked himself right into it but at that time I felt so sorry for the auld guy that he went from a character to a living embodiment of all those people who boxed themselves into a corner and just couldn't win no matter what happens. I have already made notes for 2 sequels to that book and most of it is through the eyes of the Da and his scheming and how the boys are always getting ahead of him and it is nearly impossible to think of the story without seeing it through his eyes.
----------2008. Blade, on Ice. A discussion on Love & Short stories. 150K
2007. Mighy Micks. 53K
45,100 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2009 - 06 51
I love it when it happens. It means I have developed my characters. One character this year I had meant to be a real baddy he turned out to be just a scared kid who got into trouble too deep for him, now I want to try to save him. My whole world is coming alive and my sentient dragons are really taking over, the whole story is coming mainly through 2 dragon brothers. I love them both.
----------Mind your golf
71,126 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2009 - 07 30
Well you've just got to love dragons there's no two ways about it!!!
Just today I have had to change a huge part of my plot because one of my character, Baara, was supposed to really distrust another character as soon as she turns up. However I found Baara today telling me not to be so daft because she actually really liked this girl straight away.
Typical.
:D
"Without tea life would be empty but without chocolate it wouldn't exist."
----------31,212 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2009 - 17 35
I'm the same. I originally had two minor characters, Will and Jason, who were meant to be there to fill space. Now I've got my MMC, Gary, living with Will and his wife, Keira and their family.
Also, I had Rachel (FMC) not even listening to Gary until about 35k, now she's fallen harder for him than the first time they were together! *huff* honestly, what can you do with a highly strung vampire and a rockstar?
----------Cups of tea ingested: 37
Boxes of sushi eaten: 4
Bags of tuc crackers eaten: 1/4
Pasta salad eaten: too much
Fun had: a lot :D
25,178 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2009 - 18 08
I'm writing right now, and I've got to this scene where one of my characters is supposed to be horribly abusive to another, and suddenly this character is telling me "I ain't that hardcore, yo. Cut the kid some slack!"
----------It's strange, having him tell me that. He's reverting to the way he was when I originally designed him as a teenager, even though I've aged him to adulthood and darkened his childhood significantly to harden him as a character.
It's not the first time it's happened though. I have two characters, my two main boys, who constantly direct me in how the next scenes are going to play out. Half of the time I feel like it's them writing the story and not me!
"An essay is like a miniskirt: long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep things interesting."
71,126 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 03 25
Ha. Today had yet another (bit of a weekend for them) with Baara.
There has always been something missing from her character, something I wasn't getting right but I didnt know what it was until just now when she look up at me form my screen and said:
"Duh! I'm a goth jackass. You described me all boring!"
I was like.
"Oh yeah I forgot!"
----------45,100 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 06 19
I really had to get Jox off as leniently as possible so I'v jumped ahead to write his trail scene. Plenty of descriptive writing of the court room and he robes as well as lovely drawn out legal language. I also have to acknowledge Jox had a very bad childhood. He's kinda telling me that so it should be worth a few hundred words at least.
----------Mind your golf
54,833 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 10 55
For this project, it was in the first paragraph. My FMC was running late for her coffee date with her Ronnie. Who I thought was her boyfriend and about to break up with her. Turns out Ronnie is her best friend and roommate, a woman, and is the secondary perspective for the whole thing.
Until she gets blown up. Which I also didn't see coming.
I'm still not sure if she's alive or not. I keep peeking under the rubble of the house, saying "Ronnie? Ronnie?"
Send coffee.
-----------Joshua
The Farwalker
"Writers WRITE"
Number of notebooks filled so far: 1.25
Number of Uniball Power Tank Pens Drained: 1.75
113,014 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 11 19
Until she gets blown up. Which I also didn't see coming.
I'm still not sure if she's alive or not. I keep peeking under the rubble of the house, saying "Ronnie? Ronnie?"
Send coffee.
Send in the sniffer dogs . . . or your FMC's mongrel rescue pooch. By 'rescue' I mean one that was obtained from an organisation that rescues abandoned animals and places them in suitable homes. Though it could work both ways, this time, especially if Ronnie was kind to him / her.
52,095 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 15 10
For me it was the first paragraph too. Claire was suddenly breaking up with a snobby little hedge fund boy called Neil. He hasn't featured since, but her best friend Julie (who was also an accident) who came from Wales to comfort her has her own little subplot now. A very minor subplot, but a subplot nonetheless!
----------~ Like Mount Everest; cause I can!