Do your characters run away?

[Kessie]

I was writing tonight, and my characters ran off and started doing their own thing. I just kind of followed them and documented things, and the hijinks they did on their own was much better than anything I had planned.

Does that happen to anybody else, or am I just crazy?

Ditto for conversations. I try to make them talk about plot, and they go talk about completely different stuff.

[yoda47]

Every once in a while...

I've heard from professional authors that this means:

- you're an amateur, and you need to work on discipline. Also, you might be crazy, as fictional characters aren't real.

or,

- that's the best way to write, and the muse is generous that day. You have an excellent imagination! (Be careful editing those parts though, your subconscious might have worked out those parts more than you thought, or you might have gotten carried away and you may need to edit to stick to the plot.)

Personally, I agree with the second one.
(no really, I've read writing books written by the pro's that espouse one or the other... but never both )

edit:
I remember now, it was C.S Lewes that said writing is, at it's best, like watching a movie and scrambling to write it down, and at it's worst, like trying to pull teeth. (I'm mangling that so horribly I won't bother to call it a quote, but that's the gist...)

[Cat]

I think that the more you are surprised by your character, the more "real" they are. They do unexpected things, and isn't it MORE fun to be surprised by your MC rather than to know exactly what they're going to do from one moment to the next?

[Kessie]

Oct 16, 2011 18:35:05 GMT -5 yoda47 said:

- you're an amateur, and you need to work on discipline. Also, you might be crazy, as fictional characters aren't real.

or,

- that's the best way to write, and the muse is generous that day. You have an excellent imagination! (Be careful editing those parts though, your subconscious might have worked out those parts more than you thought, or you might have gotten carried away and you may need to edit to stick to the plot.)

How about a little of column A, a little of column B? :-)

Sometimes I act out character conversations in front of the bathroom mirror, too. That's when they pull a Velveteen Rabbit and become Real.

Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one this happens to. It only happens to me when I really know my characters inside and out. When they're not so developed, they're a lot more docile. Thanks for the tip about the editing, I'll be careful of that when I get to the second draft.

[yoda47]

yeah... I've had to cut a scene or two.... but it was worth it for what else came out of it. (Also, it's the most fun way to write! but I digress...)

[rjj7]

I don't think I've ever had a 'character' do something unexpected, but I have had unexpected characters show up.

I'll just be writing along when suddenly this guy walks into the story; I keep going under the impression that he's an unimportant side note, and not a real character, when suddenly he up and starts taking control of things. As time goes by, he reveals that he is a super awesome guy that has been integral to the plot all along.

I believe that Tolkien experienced something a little similar, as I seem to remember hearing about a letter he wrote to his son where he said that today he met Faramir, Boromir's brother, walking through the woods of Ithilien. He didn't know much about him, but was eager to find out more.

[Heather Titus]

I actually prefer to write that way. To me, it means that my characters are becoming "real". Sometimes it throws me for a loop (like when an important leader decided to have a breakdown and disappear right before the final, climactic battle he was supposed to lead) but the story almost always turns out better for it.

[Torrias]

It used to happen to me a lot, when I was writing copiously all the time. I generally just let the characters guide the story and wrote down what they did. That Lewis notion of watching a movie and scrambling to note it down is quite apt. Unfortunately, I learned that a STORY is not "a day (or year) in the life of X," simply following someone through the realistic and dramatic ups and downs they crash into and seeing where it leads. A STORY has a specific structure, theme, etc., something my characters weren't always very good at bearing in mind. I've had limited success in trying to keep hold of the reins myself, and it bled out some of the joy I had in the writing process. Writing was fun when I didn't worry about it, and my test-readers loved what I showed them, but I guess it wasn't really a Proper Plot. Now I just feel tiredly uninterested at the thought of attempting to force characters through a well-designed plot structure and make them do what they're supposed to in support of a solid, consistent theme. I do greatly "love the wild swan" (check out Robinson Jeffers' poem), but can't seem to reduce it to mechanical structure without inexorably torturing it to death.

[Kessie]

Oct 21, 2011 18:12:48 GMT -5 Torrias said:

Now I just feel tiredly uninterested at the thought of attempting to force characters through a well-designed plot structure and make them do what they're supposed to in support of a solid, consistent theme. I do greatly "love the wild swan" (check out Robinson Jeffers' poem), but can't seem to reduce it to mechanical structure without inexorably torturing it to death.

Sounds like you write the way I write. Have you ever read Stephen King's On Writing? He explains how to dig out the theme and plot and all that. He compares writing to excavating a fossil. Sometimes it's just a tiny thing, like a leaf, and sometimes it's a gigantic tyrannosaurus rex.

The theme, plot, etc. get distilled out in the second draft. You let the first draft rest, then go back and read it with fresh eyes. You take note of things that seem to flow together in a theme or themes, then you rewrite to bring those things to the forefront. Kind of like bringing it into focus.

I've always written that way, and it works for me. First draft - story, story, story. Second draft and beyond - let's find the moral and use it to make the story stronger.

Don't force your story into a rigid plot, if that's not how your brain works. For heaven's sake, write the way you want to and enjoy it.

[Kessie]

Ha ha, I found the quote!

"Everyone is different and that means that everyone is going to need to write a story in a different way. You have to discover how you need to do it. There is no easy way. You can only discover how to by doing it. These hints are to help you find your own way.

Most teachers will tell you that you need to make a careful plan of your story before you start. This is because most teachers do not write stories." -- Diana Wynne Jones

The rest of the article is very simple and so great. www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/hints.htm

[yoda47]

I love that one!

[Torrias]

That is a good little article, and I hadn't heard about On Writing, which sounds/looks intriguing and helpful. Thanks a bunch for posting that.

I think a problem I have, after reading your bit of summary on what King says, is I tend to view writing as (supposed to be) forming an entire clay statue at one go and then merely using tools to shave away little bits for the fine details and perfection of curves, with an occasional chopping-off and replacing of a limb. Nice insight, the fossil-digging thing...Rather like Michaelangelo's "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free," only more in keeping with the notion of not having complete control over exactly what you find (leaf or T. Rex).

But as for the original post, I have to add that I've even done non-serious fan fic for myself. ;D My favorite characters go to Busch Gardens (which doesn't even exist in their high-fantasy world, but I was deeply familiar with the place some years ago) and shoot the breeze and give each other a hard time. That sort of thing. I even had the fantasy characters meet up with some from my sci-fi writing. It's both fun and character-developing when they run away.

[Kessie]

Torrias: You've done fanfic of your own universes? That sounds like tons of fun.

I recently wrote a crossover between my husband's Spacetime universe, and my own characters, a dragon and a kitsune, who may or may not be in the same universe. Oh, and this hilarious dwarf character he plays in his D&D group. Mostly it was a chance for all the characters to make fun of each other and nitpick each other's flaws.

And make short jokes about the dwarf. Who does not appreciate it. :-)

But yes, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who does that. It's hugely entertaining.

[choosybeggar]

Ooh-ooh-ooh! I've done that too! I took the two main characters from my first-ever-to-be-finished novel and ran forward a few years. I took it to where they just find dimensional portals randomly every few days. They visit other planets a lot.

So on one planet they are getting a tour in a hospital when *ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!* breaks out and they have to fight all the zombies. Things they've learned in the actual book come into play and they completely wipe it all out before it really gets going. (Actually, it's not a virus in my world. You'll have to read it on my blog if you want to find out.)

So, that's not exactly running away, though I do get that in my actual "formal writing." Just two guys that hang out together...on other planets.

EDIT: Not the most mature of posts ever, but why not put a plug in for my blog? fantasyinthekingdom.com/the-zombie-debate/

[Torrias]

Kessie: Yes, hugely entertaining, much along the lines of what you're describing And my husband and I sometimes trade verbal rounds of good-natured abuse and retorts between our D&D characters (who are odd friends with each other as well as odd in their own right) and crack up.

choosybeggar: That is a freaking hilarious (and interesting) bit of self-fan-fic on that blog page. I so need to read that to my hubby. And to work on that sort of thing for myself, not just characters hanging out but actually encountering things to tackle without getting too overly serious or drawn-out; I'm starting to think it'd help loosen me back up for getting back into writing after the past several years without my muse.