Don't look at me! I just write the thing!

I'd say no. I'm a big fan of writing by the seat of my pants, because planning everything is boring, and sometimes plot twists come out of nowhere, or my characters refuse (inside the story) to do what I wanted them to do. But that's not because I just write thing, it's because I'm a bad writer. The characters didn't refuse because they were alive, they refused because it made no fucking sense for them to do that. And the plot twists are still my ideas. The fact that I adopted them instantly and changed the planned plot to accommodate them means nothing.

edited 4th Jul '11 6:25:18 AM by Dealan

I know that this is a somewhat irrational viewpoint, but sometimes it really seems as though my characters have taken on a life of their own, so to speak. As a result, my stories usually go into a completely different direction than what I planned.

I usually have set plots, but when I don't know what to do next, I tend to just let my characters go crazy. So they write the plot, but they're usually better story tellers than I am.

I've also found that if I take too much time to plan a story, my characters will inevitably change, sometimes to the point that making some plot twists occur would require extremely contrived coincidences. Some of my characters have existed in my head for the last four years. A lot of shit can happen between seventh grade and 11th grade. A few of my characters have even gone through cyclic evolution- where they start out someplace, I realize that it's shit, I change it to something else, find something that fits them oddly well, change them again, then realize that something else would work best with their current situation, and plop them back at their roots.

It's so weird.

Oh man, don't even get me started on story drift.

The story I'm working on now? I started it when I was 14.

I'm now 21. The story is seven frieken years old. And I keep thinking of new stuff that has to go in! ;_;

^ Get in line. The first time I created anything that would end up in Endless Conflict was when I was 15. I'm 25 now.

Yeah, I think if I'd had any idea how much the story would explode after that first context-less individual scene I imagined-

-I probably would just have said "Fuck it" and dropped the whole thing.

edited 4th Jul '11 5:22:24 PM by deathjavu

It's obvious that it's us actually writing the stories but if we've got the characters well and truly sorted out in our heads we start thinking like them, knowing how they'll react to any given situation based on their personalities, beliefs, goals, fears, hopes and levels of intelligence etc and then - for some of us who're of that disposition - "the characters take over" and start "writing" the plot. The Big Bad does things in accordance with his/her plans, the heroes respond according to their own ways and means.

And we can't railroad them as to do so would require forcing them to act out of character as we know it (and have already revealed to the readers). And our minds, in the habit of thinking like our characters, come out with the most amazing things that surprise us because we didn't consciously come up with it, it came from our imaginative centre that is busy being someone else for this scene (or many "someone else"s if need be) but we re-read it and realise, "By George! That's right. That's the only reasonable action for that person to take at that time."

The Big Bad sends the remote kill command to stop a captured agent from blabbing, the heroes discover exactly what depraved lengths the Big Bad is prepared to go to and strengthen their resolve to win the next encounter. They get the equipment ready and it's all on! And I sit back and say "fuck, what a ride." OK, a character was killed whom I thought was going to give a lot of useful information and would survive to mend his ways and the heroes had to fall back on other sources of info that meant that they nearly missed their chance and later, another character that I thought I'd kill off managed to survive because a) he wasn't stupid and b) the heroes now desperately wanted him taken alive.

Thinking of characters as independent entities is, in my view, a mistake, but it's one I've fallen deeply into. As a compromise, I've taken on a booker-like mentality towards my characters. I give them a hearty shove towards situations that show them at their most interesting, let them do their thing, and yank their leash or drag the camera away if they get out of hand, whether it be by leaning too heavily on the fourth wall, getting to intimate with each other, or just plain becoming a pain in the ass. And if necessary, I'll occasionally throw someone back to developmental to figure out what they're good at and what needs work, reforging and reworking mercilessly as needed. My Trickster Mentor got promoted to Supporting Protagonist that way.

I'd probably make an EXTREMELY unpopular move in my story... but there can't always be a happy ending.

edited 5th Jul '11 12:40:18 PM by dollink

I often plan certain things out vastly in advance, but the in-between details... just sort of happen. And even with the more distant and/or concrete portions, even while forgetting how monumental Twist X may be, I still feel a bit discomfited, shocked, reticent. I guess that that comes with putting such obsessive detail into one's characters, but nonetheless...

My two cents on writing (I'm just getting started writing actual stories, though) is this: I know that I want my characters, with all their skills, their plans, and their motivations, to move from point A to point B. I have a vague idea of how I think events will unfold at first, but I also take a Wide Open Sand Box approach to it and let events take their course.

I don't particularly care how they get to point B as long as they get there. I've been pleasantly surprised by the results so far, as it does make me look back and wonder, "Did I try to railroad this? Would he really have done that at that point?"

My characters practically whine, yell and complain in my head until I finally write it the way they all want it even if the whole chapter ends up a Mind Screw and a mess by the end of the entire story. Hence the sometimes irrational style I tend to write in

edited 6th Jul '11 3:31:50 AM by sabrina_diamond

My 2 cents: the characters that I write are like people that live in my head. I control what happens to them, but I can only document how they would respond.

Wolf, I think you've nailed it. In both the literal sense of how I Just Write the Thing works and the metaphorical sense.

Writing's always been very strange for me. I have troubles characterizing, so most of my stories are really plot-driven, and the characters are there for the ride.

The thing that's odd about writing is that when I sit down to write, I don't see a blank piece of paper to be filled with words. I see a page filled with words covered by an irritating white film that I have to remove. That's my job. All I do is scratch off that frustrating covering and what lies beneath is a story I discovered. This isn't always true, but in the cases of my most inspired works it is.

So in that sense, I absolutely just wrote the thing. Yeah, they're mine, but they really take on lives of their own.

I have a active imagination but sometimes I wonder if my imagination could be used against me. This trope can be frightening on some level.

I only think that trope is an excuse for late in a series. In an earlier form of the story they are not as hardly designed, they still have time to form and change.

Now unusual circumstances and extreme stress can make people act out of character, but it is less common then we would like to think. A character can act out of character at a climax to fit the plot, but then deal with their mistake or win or whatever in the usual matter. It might make it more suspensful if a normally reckless person decides to not dive in the fray if they become overwhelemed, because teh reader does not know if they will or not. Or a normally passive person may be hit on one trigger and do the unthinnkable.

As the gods of our stories we have ultimate control. You can give into the character's wishes, but you don't have to. You can bend them to fit it. You can make them do something out of character in one spot to make the plot how you want it, but as long as they are consistent, they can do something to fit the plot at a one time thing.

So you can bend them a bit, but do it too much and they will break. Both have advantages of 'the plot made me do it' and planning it, using both is probably the best all-round way in my opinion.

Personally, I do a bit of both but quite honestly if I did it all by what they wanted, they'd be dead. So I changed around the circumstances and it worked.

And infact, I just figured out something that makes it work better as I said that. Genius! and it fits the char better too.

Most of the time I go for my characters earning their happy ending. That means of course that I won't go and give everything to them right off. Then there wouldn't be much of a story to write.

Now, if this is also about outlines...

I've written quite a few works without structured outlines. I know one got way off-track and I've been going at it constantly to get the thing fixed.

The only success I've had without an outline were my simple fanfic ideas which I know pretty much what's going to happen because I'm still trying to fit 'em into canon.