History Main / IJustWriteTheThing

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[[folder:Theater]]

* PlayedForDrama and [[AvertedTrope averted]] in ''VideoGame/AlanWake''. Writers who go to Cauldron Lake are struck with inspiration and make some of the best work of their careers, [[spoiler: but the lake houses the [[EldritchAbomination Dark Presence.]] It gives them the power to rewrite reality, but it's constantly trying to usurp the stories to free itself by forcing the writer to make stories where it wins or using plotholes. The book Alan is writing is the villain, so he has to figure out how to defeat his own plot.]]

* Katsura Hoshino, author of ''D.Gray-man'' often mentions in her interviews how her characters "refused to do this" or "decided to do that", even saying that she was surprised by their behaviours.
* ''Anime/YuriOnIce'': According to Kubo, her initial ideas were knocked off-track when [[spoiler:Yuri and Victor fell in love instead of keeping their relationship strictly as coach and skater as initially intended]], and certain plot points [[spoiler:such as the possibility of separating the pair at the end of the series]], no longer made any sense. In short, the characters hijacked the plot.

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Creator/TamoraPierce:
** In the ''Literature/TortallUniverse'', leading lady Alanna was apparently so annoyed at marrying Jonathan and being made queen that she demanded her writer ''go back and rewrite half the book''.
** Similarly, Lord Wyldon of Cavall's reaction to being written as a villain was, "No." Cue an EnsembleDarkhorse JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
** Evvy, the stone mage from ''Literature/TheCircleOpens'', made Tamora Pierce change the entire plot because she didn't like the teacher she was supposed to go learn from.
* Creator/TerryPratchett has often remarked that his characters take on lives of their own, and how they turn out quite differently from how he originally envisioned them.
** Vimes began as simply a placeholder character in ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'' to [[DecoyProtagonist tell the story in Ankh-Morpork until Carrot got there]], and ended up basically [[SpotlightStealingSquad taking over the Watch series]]. This mirrors his in-universe CharacterDevelopment, where he's gone from a drunken beat cop to an intercontinental MemeticBadass.
** Also notable is the true identity of Ronnie Soak. Pratchett found out about it about the same time the characters did.
** Also referenced in ''Discworld/EqualRites'':
-->Because this is also a story about sex, although probably not in the athletic, tumbling, count-the-legs-and-divide-by-two sense unless the characters get totally beyond the author's control. They might.
** The Assassins' Exam sequence in ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' apparently appeared in a haze of creativity using authors' autopilot
** According to the afterword of ''Literature/GoodOmens'', which he co-wrote with Creator/NeilGaiman, one of them congratulated the other on a bit both were absolutely sure they didn't write. They suspected the book had begun writing itself when they weren't looking.
** He also occasionally referred to the "much better writer" who used his brain while he was asleep, and occasionally left fragments of an idea behind.
* Creator/JodiPicoult would call up her friends to update them on what exciting things her characters were doing.
* 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.
** 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.)
* Jonathon Stroud, author of ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'', said he experimented with various endings, but only one was truthful to the story and the characters. [[spoiler: In the end Nathaniel, one of the main characters, dies.]]

* From her series ''Literature/ConfessionsOfGeorgiaNicolson'', Louise Rennison often speaks of Georgia this way - although given that she's stated that Georgia is [[AuthorAvatar the writer herself]] as a teenager, the character technically ''is'' a real person.
* Creator/JKRowling
** The Plot Gods made a decision that she claimed made her cry while writing the deaths of [[spoiler:Sirius and Dumbledore]]. She went ahead because that was what the plot demanded.
** She said that she changed her mind about killing one character because she couldn't bear to kill them. The theory goes that [[spoiler:Nagini's attack on Arthur Weasley]] in the fifth book would have been fatal. However, as a bit of compensation, Rowling stated that saving [[spoiler: Arthur]] might have had an influence in her decision to kill off [[spoiler: Lupin and Tonks]]. In other words, the Plot Gods demand a sacrifice; [[BalancingDeathsBooks if one is spared another must take their place.]]
* In the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse book ''Who Killed Kennedy'', a number of [[MindRape extremely]] [[BreakTheCutie unpleasant]] [[BackForTheDead things]] [[StuffedIntoTheFridge happen]] to Dodo, a former companion of the Doctor. In the author's [[http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/wkk/commentary11.html commentary]], he puts the blame for this on ''Dodo herself'':
-->What happens to Dodo is probably one of the more controversial aspects of ''Who Killed Kennedy''. She was a late addition to the cast of the cast and was originally only going to appear in this chapter, passing on information to Stevens. But once she appeared on the page Dodo wanted to stick around. It's a strange experience when a character takes charge of their own destiny while you're writing and Dodo was the first time this had happened to me.
* Creator/MatthewReilly claims to be constrained by AnyoneCanDie. According to interviews, he had a hard time killing off [[spoiler:Elizabeth Gant]], but forced himself to go through with the scene to keep the audience in suspense that the main characters might not make it.
* Creator/RayBradbury has said that his characters take on a life of their own, and he often learns new things from them that even he didn't know about. He also criticised the idea that the writer is the boss
--> '''Interviewer''': I remember listening to a writer talk about her characters once. She said that she was the boss, and they were puppets: they went exactly where she told them, did what she ordered them to do...
--> '''Ray Bradbury''': You can't do that. That's bad writing. They must write you. They must control you. They plot me. I never control. I let them have their lives.
--> '''IV''': Is that leap of faith scary?
--> '''RB''': No, it's wonderful. I love my characters. I trust them.
* In ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', Chaucer apologizes for having to record [[ToiletHumor The Miller's Tale]].
** Which is HilariousInHindsight, because the Miller's Tale is one of the stories that people like the most, even today, precisely ''because'' of the crude humor. It's just great to go into what you think is going to be tedious old literature, and get a story about LiteralAssKissing.
* Ryohgo Narita, the author of LightNovel/{{Baccano}}, says that the plot changes according to the characters' "movements". In particular, he calls [[AxCrazy Claire]] [[ChaoticNeutral Stanfield]] the "number one problem child" for moving around too much and leaving the plot of the third novel "in ruins".
* Creator/SandyMitchell on his character Literature/CiaphasCain, THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM:
--> Is he really the cowardly scoundrel he paints himself to be, or far more courageous than he gives himself credit for? To be perfectly honest, I don't really know, although I suspect a little of both; but that's one of the real joys of a writer's life. I may have invented him in the first place, inspired to some extent by Harry Literature/{{Flashman}} and Edmund Series/{{Blackadder}}, but by now he's become enough of a personality in his own right to keep surprising me, and long may he continue to do so.
** This is also self-admittedly how he finds his plots: he envisions a suitably [[{{Spectacle}} spectacular]] climax, puts Cain in it, and retraces his steps to figure out ''why'' and ''how'' Cain got there.

* Towards the end of Creator/RoaldDahl's Henry Sugar story, Dahl/the narrator goes off on a tangent about how the story would end if it were just a story being written by some guy. But since it's a TRUE STORY he goes on to explain that's NOT what happens and details the actual not-quite-an-ending (ie Life goes on) that "really happened"
* Creator/StephenieMeyer uses the Characters Said So version of this.
* Thomas Harris used this as an excuse for the ending of ''Literature/{{Hannibal}},'' citing the old story of the sultan who said, "I do not ''keep'' falcons; they ''live'' with me."
** In his introduction to a later addition of the trilogy he also describes being a spectator to Graham's first meeting with Lecter, and being surprised when Lecter identifies Graham by smell, suggesting that the character had taken on a life of his own before the author even "met" him.
* Creator/AynRand, believe it or not. She said that Tony's (the Wet Nurse's) final actions in ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' came as a surprise to her.

* Creator/DennisLehane explains the 11-year gap between novels in the Literature/KenzieAndGennaroSeries as the result of the lead character, Patrick, refusing to talk to him for that amount of time.
* ''Literature/HowNOTToWriteANovel'' advises against using this trope as an excuse ("The Fig Leaf"). If you don't agree with what you are writing, you should not complain about it or not write it. And if you ''do'' agree with it, protesting otherwise will most likely not work and will just make you look like a hypocrite.
* Creator/DouglasAdams once described the difficult process of converting the film script ''Series/DoctorWho and the Krikketmen'' into ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' novel ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'', by saying he sat the main characters down, explained the plot to them, and none of them seemed at all interested.
* Creator/JRRTolkien often remarked that at several points in the composition of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', he felt as though he were discovering the plot rather than creating it, and often had to wait a long time until he could figure out "what ''really'' happened"; he didn't know, for example, that the character of Faramir was even going to be in the story until the chapter that introduced him.
* Creator/PatriciaCWrede has commented that the plot outline for ''Literature/TheRavenRing'' looked rather different than the version she wound up writing, because about halfway through one of the characters flatly refused to do what he was supposed to do, and by the time the scene was over the story had gone down a completely different path.
* The academic introductions to several Creator/EmileZola novels explain he saw his work as a "social experiment" with him only writing down what the characters would do in that situation.
* Creator/AgathaChristie once commented that she hated Literature/HerculePoirot, but he made it clear she couldn't just get rid of him.
* In an [=FAQ=] for ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Creator/RickRiordan said that Nico [[spoiler:being gay and having a crush on Percy]] wasn't as much something he planned as something that became more and more obvious as he was writing.
* In ''The Mind of the Maker'', Creator/DorothyLSayers writes:
-->[T]he free will of a genuinely created character has a certain reality, which the writer will defy at his peril. It does sometimes happen that the plot requires from its characters certain behavior, which, when it comes to the point, no ingenuity on the author's part can force them into, except at the cost of destroying them.
** Elsewhere, Sayers notes that this was why Harriet Vane did ''not'' fall into Lord Peter Wimsey's arms at the end of ''Strong Poison'', but rather took several more books to agree to marry him.
* Creator/JoWalton has said that she's tried writing a sequel to ''Among Others'', and that she has a pretty good idea what Mori does next; but that after the traumatic events she's already lived through, Mori seems to be deliberately steering clear of anything that might turn into an Adventure, which means there's nothing to write a novel about.
* In her essay ''My Friend Mr Campion'', Margery Allingham wrote that Literature/AlbertCampion just appeared at the dinner table in ''The Crime at Black Dudley'', and she had no idea who he was or what he was doing there, which was annoying as that was very much not the way she normally wrote.
* Ben Aaronovitch on ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'': "What usually happens is I start writing and the characters start going off in all sorts of directions, and I'm going 'No! Get back to the plot, you bastards!'" He also [[http://temporarilysignificant.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/spontaneous-character-creation.html describes]] how a character can exist just to say a line or something, and then an entire backstory and personality appears from nowhere and you've got to rewrite the rest of the story to fit them.
-->Which is why, sometimes, when people ask me where the series is going the only answer I can give is – beats me mate, I just work here.
* Creator/SarahAHoyt [[https://madgeniusclub.com/2016/08/17/when-the-gate-opens/ stated]] that stories tend to just leap into her head, usually at rather inopportune times, and refuse to go away.

* The writers of ''Series/TheWire'' said as much about [[spoiler: the death of Stringer Bell.]]
* J. Michael Straczynski has said that whenever he got stuck writing ''Series/BabylonFive'', he'd just sit back and let the characters tell him what to do. In particular, he says that the part of his brain that speaks for Vir had the idea that [[spoiler: Vir should kill Cartagia; he had planned on Londo doing it.]]
** Sometimes Joe would take the wheel despite the characters' wishes. He claims that all of them stopped what they were doing in his head and gave him a WhatTheHellHero when he killed off [[spoiler: Emperor Turhan.]]

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber "The Mind Robber"]] ends in a confrontation between the Doctor and a Victorian children's author whose writing creates the universe they were in. Even though the writer claims to be in control, the Doctor points out that the story is controlling ''him'' in a way clearly reminiscent of this trope. The story's control over him is even represented as mechanical parts and the writer lapsing from his usual genial personality into RoboSpeak as he performs the story's bidding.

[[folder:Theatre]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'', [[spoiler: WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic comes face-to-face with [[Creator/DougWalker his creator]]. The writer says that over time, the Critic evolved to the point that the writer only had to think about what the Critic would do, rather than writing wholly original scenes. Since the writer is essentially Creator/DougWalker as himself, this is probably the case in real life as well.]]

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[[folder:Fanfic]]

[[folder:Film]]

* When discussing ''Film/DragMeToHell'', Creator/SamRaimi [[https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20100102081824/http://screencrave.com/2009-05-27/sam-raimi-interview-for-drag-me-to-hell states]] that while in his view the CruelTwistEnding [[KarmicTwistEnding was earned by the protagonist]], "Maybe she was a little over punished. I wouldn’t have been as harsh personally." But this also showed how she is relatable because Raimi himself is flawed like her - "I wish I had more noble problems. She’s such an awful character, it’s really embarrassing. That’s how writers work I think."

[[folder:Roleplaying Games]]
* In the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' RPG, it's recommended that the GM ''not'' include Miles Vorkosigan as an NPC. "If you include him, he'll try to take over the plot from the [=PCs=]. If he doesn't try to take over the plot, you're not doing him right."

[[folder:Theatre]]
* A minor example: Creator/LinManuelMiranda once complained that he had to go learn French because "[[Theatre/{{Hamilton}} Lafayette]] wants to rap in French. Dammit, Lafayette."

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* No matter what PlayByPost roleplay you play, you will ALWAYS stumble across one of these guys.
* Any form of role-playing (forum- and journal- based games ''especially'') has a tendency to induce this, as a character may be created with a specific personality and goal in mind but will become unintentionally more or less sympathetic depending on other characters, players, etc. Many characters evolve past their original write-up, either because the character's "voice" becomes clearer or the player plays this trope. This can lead to unfortunate situations in which players are unable to release even characters slated to die by WordOfGod.
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* The ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' writers in the 70's killed off Gwen Stacy because 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. When asked why they had written their relationship into such a dead end in the first place, this was their explanation.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1559982000004639900
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/quote_when_the_characters_are_really_alive_before_their_author_the_latter_does_nothing_but_luigi_pirandello_23_26_32.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: "Inchoat vitam artis"[[note]]"Art Initiates Life"[[/note]]]]

* At the end of ''[[{{ComicBook/Cerebus}} Rick's Story]]'', Cerebus, after spending a 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/NimbusLlewelyn has similarly remarked that while he tends to have a sketched outline of a grand plan, the details are often subject to change, [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants usually at the last minute.]] He's also noted that several things, including [[spoiler: the budding romances between Uhtred and Jean-Paul, and Harry Dresden and Wanda Maximoff, in ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'']] took him entirely by surprise.

----

[[caption-width-right:350: "Inchoat vitam artis"[[note]]"ArtInitiatesLife"[[/note]]]]

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' featured a playwright whose characters kept acting on their own until finally they walked into his room and started a conversation with him. [[spoiler: His wife is one... and so is [[BreakingTheFourthWall Rod Serling himself]].]]

This approach also tends to make an author more accessible to fans, since they come across as [[OneOfUs just one of the group]]. However, some fans will call FridgeLogic by pointing out that if the author felt ''that'' badly about the turn of events, nobody forced them to write it that way (at least, [[ExecutiveMeddling we assume not]]). Writers may also risk making hypocrites of themselves if they then dictate exactly what happens in the universe and leave no room for fan speculation, beating down dissenters who write fanfic that goes against canon, or those who note that they preferred the story when it was cute and funny and Bob was still alive.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheMindRobber "The Mind Robber"]] ends in a confrontation between the Doctor and a Victorian children's author whose writing creates the universe they were in. Even though the writer claims to be in control, the Doctor points out that the story is controlling ''him'' in a way clearly reminiscent of this trope. The story's control over him is even represented as mechanical parts and the writer lapsing from his usual genial personality into RoboSpeak as he performs the story's bidding.

[[folder: Comics]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Played with in ''Series/StargateSG1'' in the episode "Citizen Joe", where an ancient device allows an ordinary citizen to see the events in Jack O'Neil's life. He tells everyone around him about the stories and eventually starts writing them down and tries to get them published. When the people he's telling the stories to ask questions (hilariously similar to ones that Viewers or [[ExecutiveMeddling Executives]] might ask while watching the real show), Joe dismisses them because "that's how it really happened!" Of course, in his case, that really IS what happened.
* The Comic Relief ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' spoof "Uptown Downstairs Abbey" portrays Julian Fellowes this way, making something of a catchphrase out of "How do I do it?" He also protests that he can't do anything about an actress' issues with her character, because "I just do the silly writing."
* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' featured a playwright whose characters kept acting on their own until finally they walked into his room and started a conversation with him. [[spoiler: His wife is one... and so is [[BreakingTheFourthWall Rod Serling himself]].]]
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "The Mind Robber" ends in a confrontation between the Doctor and a Victorian children's author whose writing creates the universe they were in. Even though the writer claims to be in control, the Doctor points out that the story is controlling ''him'' in a way clearly reminiscent of this trope. The story's control over him is even represented as mechanical parts and the writer lapsing from his usual genial personality into RoboSpeak as he performs the story's bidding.
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[[folder: Theatre]]
* ''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' by Luigi Pirandello dramatises the writing of a play and portrays an author's characters as driving his writing, including arguing about whether the setting is realistic, rather than having the author in full control.
* The narrator in ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'' has no more control over the events of the play than the characters, as proved when [[spoiler:they band together and kill him]].

[[folder: Web Original]]
* In ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'', [[spoiler: WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic comes face-to-face with [[Creator/DougWalker his creator]]. The writer says that over time, the Critic evolved to the point that the writer only had to think about what the Critic would do, rather than writing wholly original scenes. Since the writer is essentially Creator/DougWalker as himself, this is probably the case in real life as well.]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* In some of the ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' books, Watterson speaks as if he's just letting Calvin run loose to see what he does.
** In the Tenth Anniversary collection, he says that he found Calvin and Susie's relationship initially to be too forced, and in the second arc he just let the characters bounce off one another. He further notes that he very nearly wrote himself into a corner doing that.
* Lynn Johnston often used this when discussing ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse''. Dissenters consider this her way of abdicating responsibility for poor narrative decisions, but you can definitely see how characters would take on lives of their own after nearly 30 years.

* Creator/MarkEvanier said this about [=DNAgents=], and how it was just like many of the times while writing the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny comic book.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* This, and TrueArtIsAngsty, tends to be Creator/JossWhedon's justification for killing off any of his characters. [[SignatureStyle He's gotten rather known for it.]]
* The writers of ''Series/TheWire'' said as much about [[spoiler: the death of Stringer Bell.]]
* J. Michael Straczynski has said that whenever he got stuck writing ''Series/BabylonFive'', he'd just sit back and let the characters tell him what to do. In particular, he says that the part of his brain that speaks for Vir had the idea that [[spoiler: Vir should kill Cartagia; he had planned on Londo doing it.]]
** Sometimes Joe would take the wheel despite the characters' wishes. He claims that all of them stopped what they were doing in his head and gave him a WhatTheHellHero when he killed off [[spoiler: Emperor Turhan.]]
[[/folder]]

* Creator/TamoraPierce
** In the Literature/TortallUniverse, leading lady Alanna was apparently so annoyed at marrying Jonathan and being made queen that she demanded her writer ''go back and rewrite half the book''.

** Evvy, the stone mage from the second Circle series made Tamora Pierce change the entire plot because she didn't like the teacher she was supposed to go learn from.
* The "omnipotent plot" example is played with humourously with Lemony Snickett's ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. He's [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis supposedly narrating]] the thing, so naturally he expresses great sympathy and regret during the horrible events that occur within the book.

[[folder: Web Original]]

* This trope veers all over the place in Creator/JasperFforde's ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' books. Are the Bookworld characters just playing what the author wrote, or are they putting the original ideas into their mind? When you consider that Thursday [[spoiler:changes the end of JaneEyre]] it becomes even more confusing!

Justified to a certain extent: The RuleOfDrama dictates that what makes the best story isn't always the easiest thing to write. The author might ''know'' that killing off Bob is the most exciting/logical/dramatic/marketable course of action, but we can assume that as an author, he ''likes'' his character and will suffer a bit of heartache over it... heartache which is going to be magnified when the move proves to be extremely unpopular, or the fans react with horror and run away screaming, "[[FanonDiscontinuity That never happened]]!"

This approach also tends to make an author more accessible to fans, since he comes across as just one of the group. However, some fans will call "FridgeLogic!" by pointing out that if the author felt ''that'' badly about the turn of events, nobody forced him to write it that way (at least, [[ExecutiveMeddling we assume not]]). Writers may also risk making hypocrites of themselves if they then dictate exactly what happens in the universe and leave no room for fan speculation, beating down dissenters who write fanfic that goes against canon, or those who note that they preferred the story when it was cute and funny and Bob was still alive.

A writer who claims he just writes the thing usually takes one or both of two different forms:

A step down from the LiteraryAgentHypothesis, this is an author who speaks about the events in thier stories as if they had no control over them. The author claims heartbreak when a character gets KilledOffForReal, commiserates with the fans over the ShipSinking, laments when CharacterDerailment strikes, and rants along with the fans at characters' WhatAnIdiot moments. Often becomes prominent when CerebusSyndrome strikes.

A step down from the LiteraryAgentHypothesis, this is an author who speaks about the events in his stories as if he had no control over them. He claims heartbreak when a character gets KilledOffForReal, commiserates with the fans over the ShipSinking, laments when CharacterDerailment strikes, and rants along with the fans at characters' WhatAnIdiot moments. Often becomes prominent when CerebusSyndrome strikes.

* Trailers for ''Film/TheManWhoInventedChristmas'' strongly suggest that the character-driven version was a major part of the creative process for Creator/CharlesDickens. At one point he even tells Scrooge that the characters should do what he wants them to do, since "I'm the author!" Scrooge's response is an amused denial.

* The ''{{Spider-Man}}'' writers in the 70's killed off Gwen Stacy because 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. When asked why they had written their relationship into such a dead end in the first place, this was their explanation.

* ''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' by Luigi Pirandello dramatises the writing of a play and portrays an author's characters as driving his writing, including arguing about whether the setting is realistic, rather than having the author in full control.

* The narrator in ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'' has no more control over the events of the play than the characters, as proved when [[spoiler:they band together and kill him]].

Justified to a certain extent: The RuleOfDrama dictates that what makes the best story isn't always the easiest thing to write. The author might ''know'' that killing off Bob is the most exciting/logical/dramatic/marketable course of action, but we can assume that as an author, he ''likes'' his character and will suffer a bit of heartache over it...heartache that is going to be magnified when the move proves to be extremely unpopular, or the fans react with horror and run away screaming, "[[FanonDiscontinuity That never happened]]!"

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', this is [[TheStoryteller Varric's]] response when Aveline asks how his city guard serial (loosely based on her) is going to end. "The story will go where it wants to go. The characters drive it, not me."

See also WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants, which can lead to this. At its source, the DeathOfTheAuthor theory builds on a variant of this idea, that a writer is a "conduit" for a story, and when their work is done their opinion on it is no more important than any other reader's.

A step down from the LiteraryAgentHypothesis, this is an author who speaks about the events in his stories as if he had no control over them. He claims heartbreak when killing off a character, commiserates with the fans over the ShipSinking, and rants along with the fans at characters' WhatAnIdiot moments. Often becomes prominent when CerebusSyndrome strikes.