The Characters Said So - your best examples

Light hearted thread:

Authors on other sites have assure me I Just Writethething means characters are not immune to just leaving the plot, and it isn't uncommon. Friends can't understand how my characters are not under my control.

First time it happened to me. I'm happily writing the start of the relationship. Gabriel has asked his long separated childhood sweetheart if she wants to come on a long weekend - separate rooms, all very proper, just sharing a cottage.

I was about to write her acceptance, and then I realised I wasn't happy with how I'd written Lucy - she spoke too much like a man. So I rewrote it in a more feminine voice. All of a sudden she says

According to the MS what he says next is

What actually happened was he looked at his phone, then looked up at me with a 'WTF' expression. I could only shrug back at him and go 'I don't know - that wasn't what she was supposed to say'

"Does she like Thai?" he asked me.

"She will" I replied [tap tap tap on the keyboard]

He did the same to me later. I'm writing away in one of the end chapters, about to start the next paragraph then he says to his best friend.

I said "Gabriel - you have to tell me these things in advance!" I literally DID NOT KNOW until I typed his words! I had to rewrite the previous two paragraphs to fit it in properly.

It turned out to be a good thing he told me - I have been able to work it into earlier chapters - a fear of failure that he is desperate to avoid again.

What are your most surprising character departing from what you thought was the plot?

edited 27th Feb '12 4:10:49 PM by LastHussar

Do the job in front of you.

I had plans for two female characters: Avea, a lesbian, and Julia, a bisexual. But as I wrote, I soon found their compatible orientations were the only things they actually had in common. Ironically, their sexualities had become a very integral part of their personalities for altogether different reasons (the former travels often in homophobic lands for business reasons, the latter serves as the reasonable counterpart to a more promiscuous woman), so they're technically still compatible. At least one Shipper on Deck tries, with counterproductive results, to get them together.

If this is what I think it is, then all of mine. Of my core cast Mathias left behind the more naive, idiotic schtick in favor of a natural (if a bit Hot-Blooded at times) leader approach, Tenchi left being the mere With Friends Like These... device, Daniel started saying a lot less, Samantha stopped being just a Damsel in Distress, Jessie got a lot smaller in size and a lot more straightforward and emotionally stable, Anzan became more philosophical, among other things.

So really the whole thing became a surprise compared to earlier iterations as I wrote them.

Really late edit: Typos galore.

edited 27th Feb '12 5:43:12 PM by MajorTom

I don't really feel like naming names (some of them wouldn't mean anything since the works are unpublished), but several times I have plotted out romantic relationships that simply would not materialize due to the baggage of the involved parties.

I ended up with one pair that was about as emotionally and mentally intimate as is possible. They were both very badly damaged by their experiences, in similar ways. Immense trust in and faith in each other, total understanding of each other's thought processes in a way that both would find intensely threatening if it was any other person who understood them so well. Total unwillingness to engage in behavior that's affectionate, much less romantic.

One of my current works created a paradox where the understanding necessary for emotional intimacy also creates the preconditions to prevent it.

Nous restons ici.

Well, I had a scene planned where Pela gives Marc a kiss. Not romantic or anything, but it was meant to be a minor Chekhov's Gun. When I actually wrote the scene, it didn't happen. Pela refused. In fact, almost slapped the poor guy instead.

Also, role-playing Pela in one for the character development threads, actually enabled her to dramatically change the plot. Suffice to say, she kept being a Doomsayer, and finally got through to me that in fact she ended up with means and motivation to take a good stab at it. Not that I've gotten that far in my writing...

You must agree, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity! My Tumblr

I'm interested to note how many of these relate in some way to romance.

o_e

NICHOLAS CUAAANTIIINEE!

—shakes fist at the sky—

---

Generic romantic ones: Once paired two hets, only turned out one of them was really a lesbian.

Also, one time one character kept slutting it up against my will, so I gave him that character trait. Another person who refused to deal with that bull shit became asexual.

In not romantic sense, usually characters turn out to be smarter and more amusing than I give them credit for. Circe was originally supposed to just be an angry feminist, but when writing, she became much more bitter, much more smart, and actually acted her status.

edited 27th Feb '12 6:08:47 PM by MrAHR

Read my stories!

I originally had the cast of Turtles all the Way not realize the romance distraction trick until the girls said it point-blank.

Then I realized I gave my main character both the time and the means to piece together what was going on...

I was musing about the very same thing. I guess an ill-planned romance is just more personally related to characters than other midstream screw ups one can fix, which can usually be pinned partially on plot.

edited 27th Feb '12 6:07:52 PM by KillerClowns

I suppose it's a good thing - Strangled by the Red String is definitely a trope I strive to avoid - but it just struck me as interesting.

Can't say I've really had it happen in my works, though. Normally when the characters "tell" me things it's simply to rephrase dialogue or description so it sounds like something they'd actually say.

I think the phrase that sums up my experiences the most is "That doesn't make sense."

I know that my (hypothetical) readers are sharper than me — either outright smarter, unbiased by virtue of not creating my characters, or just plain meticulous in their attention to detail. So I do what I can to answer any questions they might have prematurely. You know, justifying why Character X does Action Y. The problem being that it not only required re-working Character X, but making sure that their actions didn't contradict their new characterization. Otherwise, I'd hear "That doesn't make sense."

Example: I've got this character, Arc. Not a nice guy (fun fact: the more time I spent writing, the shorter he got). Somewhere along the line, I figured that I needed to justify the things he'd do in the story. Unfortunately, this also meant that once I made his backstory and made his ambitions clear, it meant that he'd take further steps from the hero I'd envisioned at first. His motives — clean up the world and protect his girlfriend — became bigger parts of his character, but because he acted so heavily on his basic goals he starts to grow...well, more pitiable as the story goes on. He gets better by the end, of course, but he does some...stuff.

And at this point, I'm powerless against him. Because he's really mean, and I don't have the heart for it — but at least in my eyes, his actions make sense.

Sigh. Such nasty things he does. And to think I call myself an idealist...

My Wattpad — A haven for delightful degeneracy

Best, in this context, can be pretty easily taken to mean most unequivocal or strongest. It shouldn't be that surprising strong emotions are overrepresented then.

Nous restons ici.

One interesting things I always found was a character I set up to be the worst of the worst, necrophiliac and all the toppings that come with it. Loved trolling people. But...he...told me...I guess? showed me?

Point is, he died a virgin.

So I guess he trolled even me.

Read my stories!

I first noticed this with a Fire Emblem forum game I was doing.

I plotted out Tinsley (That guy hitting on you in my avatar) as Tara, a socially awkward girl who has a kind heart that gets overshadowed by her massive intellect (So, essentially a female Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, before I even started watching that show). That game died before she was recruited (this happened three or four times, too :|). Anyway, I gender-swapped her to put her into a different one, and the fifth time happened to be the charm, because lo and Behold, Tinsley was about to be join in on the game. And when he actually got recruited, he just started trolling everything with a pulse. He's literally the most annoying sod on the face of the planet.

In one of my stories, I was setting up two characters to play rather specific roles. The two characters took one look at each other, looked at their scripts, and mutually decided to swap them, thus taking the completely opposite roles.

The two characters in question were a fairy named Boysenberry and a prince named Jasper. Originally, Boysenberry was set up as a literal Exposition Fairy, who was a close friend and confidant of the reluctant heroine Cora. Although occasionally shrill, he was steadfast and understanding, and his encyclopedic knowledge of just about everything helped stop Cora from making a fool of herself. In contrast, Prince Jasper was a Know-Nothing Know-It-All with strong shades of Prince Charmless. While he originally followed Cora out of a childish attachment to his memories of her younger self, he eventually grew more and more bitter and angry with her until he became a vituperate Sour Supporter who threatened Cora's success far more than the actual bad guy.

In the end, however, it was Boysenberry who became the horribly sarcastic and bitter sour supporter. Instead of gently supporting the heroine, he became an Insufferable Genius who quickly grew exasperated with everything she didn't know, and when she dared to show him up and do something right, he got so angry at being wrong that he quickly grew to hate her. Jasper, meanwhile, developed a much more innocent and meek personality, and became the sheltered White Prince. While he still joined her out of a childish attachment, it was more naive than anything. He stood by her side when no one else would, and grew to care about her as an actual person.

It's worth noting that my mental image of Jasper changed dramatically when his role in the story did. I originally pictured him with very angular features: Lantern Jaw of Justice, Roman Nose, long, spindly hands. When he became a more Adorkable character, however, he became more baby-faced and round-featured in my mind. Boysenberry didn't change much due to his character, though.

My mental image of him did change, but for different reasons: Originally, he was a blatant Expy of an older fairy character of mine named Atahl. He later informed me, however, that the white-skinned and sandy-haired vision I had of him was completely off the mark. He was an island fairy, he snarkily informed me, and thus quite dark-skinned and haired. In fact, he was quite irritated that I would attempt to give him a Race Lift like that, until I politely informed him that it wouldn't have happened if he'd spoken up earlier.

edited 27th Feb '12 10:51:50 PM by FreezairForALimitedTime

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

People are people and they do what they want. That's my game, I guess. So these things happened:

• Several minor characters, who I had created in order to fill out a gang of sort-of-policemen (think Pinkerton men, but less so) ended up instigating their own subplots, with special credit going to Algernon, Peakes and Meiwes for tenacity;
• the constant presence of Nathanael and Nadine, who were already in one story at the beginning but tagged along out of loyalty and boredom respectively;
• a reordering of events in order to coincide with the slow mental unravelling of two very different characters, both with bizarre Freudian overtones;
• the sudden appearance of several hilariously awkward love triangles in the backstory;
• and one other character, who went from pawn to free agent through sheer willpower (and conflicting interests with two important people).

edited 28th Feb '12 9:09:37 AM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Gabriel and Charlie (that is Charlotte, just to be clear!) are believed to have slept together, even had a brief affair, by their friends and Gabriel's wife. They happily let every one keep wondering

The problem is the buggers won't tell me either! Charlie blushes, and Gabe gets angry with me, and tells me to grow up!

It also took me ages to find out his name. I was after meaningful names for the lead pair, and I remembered what my Eng Lit teacher had said about Gabriel Oak in 'Far from the Madding Crowd'. My male lead kept saying 'I'm Gabriel too', and I kept saying, no, I've got my A - Level English lesson from the 80's stuck in the head.

Eventually I said "Is your name really Gabriel?" and he said "Yes, that's what I keep telling you." It took ages for me to believe his surname was Wright as well.

edited 28th Feb '12 11:18:55 AM by LastHussar

Do the job in front of you.