History Main / IJustWriteTheThing

* This was the defense used by [[UsefulNotes/MarvelComicsEditorsInChief EIC Roy Thomas]] in the letters column defending ''ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied''. Thomas said that Gwen's death was the only logical way her relationship with Peter Parker could go would be to get married, and that would age him more than than they wanted. The reality was that editors killed off Gwen because they, and a majority of readers, thought she was a bland disposable character.

* Creator/StephenKing:
** This is a running theme in the final arc of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series. The author shows how real the story is by giving the characters so much life that he himself appears as a character. It works partly because he's distinctly unflattering to himself. In the [[Literature/TheWindThroughTheKeyhole final book]], he starts leaving the characters little notes in medicine cabinets as an acknowledged deus ex machina -- he knows what happens and so can warn them, but says repeatedly that he's sure as hell not making it happen. [[spoiler: The most significant moment is the very end of the series, where Roland is sent back to the beginning to start his quest for the Tower anew (albeit with the [[RayOfHopeEnding ray of hope]] that this time will his last of his loops). King acknowledged it wasn't the ending he wanted, but it was the only one that fit.]]
** This is King's usual style of writing--put people with certain personalities in certain situations, then extrapolate what they would do. In ''On Writing'' he compares it to digging something up rather than making it. (He can write in the "make it up" style, but with the exception of ''Literature/TheDeadZone'' he usually dislikes the results.)

** He's also talked about how authors have both "architect and gardener" impulses in themselves. Where Architects have a plan before starting to build "the house", while gardeners plant a seed and watch things grow. And he admits to being more a gardener himself.

** The Assassins' Exam sequence in ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'' apparently appeared in a haze of creativity using authors' autopilot

** This is a running theme in the final arc of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series. The author shows how real the story is by giving the characters so much life that he himself appears as a character. It works partly because he's distinctly unflattering to himself. In the [[Literature/TheWindThroughTheKeyhole final book]], he starts leaving the characters little notes in medicine cabinets as an acknowledged deus ex machina -- he knows what happens and so can warn them, but says repeatedly that he's sure as hell not making it happen. [[spoiler: The most significant moment is the very end of the series, where Roland is sent back to the beginning to start his quest for the Tower anew. King acknowledged it wasn't the ending he wanted, but it was the only one that fit.]]

** This is a running theme in the final arc of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series. The author shows how real the story is by giving the characters so much life that he himself appears as a character. It works partly because he's distinctly unflattering to himself. In the [[Literature/TheWindThroughTheKeyhole final book]], he starts leaving the characters little notes in medicine cabinets as an acknowledged deus ex machina -- he knows what happens and so can warn them, but says repeatedly that he's sure as hell not making it happen.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'' begins with WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck in full Musketeers garb jumping into action. Director Creator/ChuckJones and writer Michael Maltese had no idea what to do after that, so they pull the scenery away and substitute it with a barnyard scenario, then an Arctic scene, then a Hawaiian Island. Daffy adapts to each of these, and it's only the first two minutes of the cartoon.

* At the end of ''[[{{ComicBook/Cerebus}} Rick's Story]]'', Cerebus, after spending an entire decade in a bar (and more than two years in real life!) simply refuses to leave and do anything interesting, even at the urging of [[CreatorInsert Dave Sim]]. Eventually Jaka (or a [[EpilepticTrees Jaka simulacrum]]) has to show up and lure Cerebus away.

* Creator/PeterDavid was once asked why he wrote a particular rape scene in an issue of ''[[Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} The Atlantis Chronicles]]''. His response? "Because that's what happened." He steadfastly rejects any suggestion that he was ultimately in control of the plot.

* The creators of the 90s ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' books have said that the plan was for Lois Lane to turn down Clark's proposal because she was [[LovesMyAlterEgo holding a torch for Supes]]. When it came time to write it, though, they realised that this simply wasn't what the Lois they'd been writing for the past ten years would do.

* ''Multiplication'' by Creator/ShintaroKago shows this in action. A single panel of normal {{Hentai}} is created, and other panels are spun off from it, but the nameless mangaka writing it keeps having to restart from the beginning after it spirals into BodyHorror and {{Gorn}}. (This may or may not be an explanation of the author's own [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs distinctive style]].)

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'' begins with Daffy Duck in full Musketeers garb jumping into action. Director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese had no idea what to do after that, so they pull the scenery away and substitute it with a barnyard scenario, then an Arctic scene, then a Hawaiian Island. Daffy adapts to each of these, and it's only the first two minutes of the cartoon.

* Ryohgo Narita, the author of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', says that the plot changes according to the characters' "movements". In particular, he calls [[AxeCrazy Claire]] [[ChaoticNeutral Stanfield]] the "number one problem child" for moving around too much and leaving the plot of the third novel "in ruins".

* Creator/NormanLear was in tears when he told Maureen Stapleton that they were going to kill off Edith for ''Series/ArchieBunkersPlace.'' When she tried to console Lear by reminding him that Edith wasn't a real person, he said "she is to me."

* One of Creator/AAPessimal's most finely-realised characters was only ever meant to appear in one story as an expansion of a one-line placeholder in canon. She was originally intended to be a rather stroppy "[[AmoralAfrikaner South African]]" who took all the NationalStereotypes of "White South African-ness" UpToEleven in a Discworld context, and, very deliberately, be hard for the reader to like or sympathise with. And that would have been it. Only... as WordOfGod has it, this [[FieryRedhead late-entry Assassin]] ended up standing behind Pessimal with a very large blade at his neck, demanding he write her more sympathetically and make her more of an ActionGirl heroine. Thus, the nineteen-year old new arrival in Ankh-Morpork evolved over a series of tales into a more mellow forty-something mother of three daughters. And her family started to appear in such numbers that the author realised he'd better make an effort to learn ''some'' Afrikaans and not keep winging it.