Has anyone discovered that sometimes while writing a story the plotline goes off in a completely unexpected way? I know with Bike I have more opportunity to explore cul de sacs than most and then bring it back to the main thoroghfare, but it never fails to amaze me how the story line unfolds in ways I wasn't expecting.
That sounds as if I plan Bike. It should be obvious by now that I don't, I try to follow on from the previous episode or if there's an obvious theme continue it or take it off in another direction. Yeah, there's lots of cliff hangers, but they enable me to change direction or pace. I get grumbles if there's too much action or too much domesticity, so I keep my readers on their toes and they in turn do the same to me.
So, does this happen to anyone else?
Always. My characters write
Always. My characters write their own story. I have a general idea but they tell me where to go and what to do. Sometimes that is why there are delays in my stories, I can't seem to write unless I am inspired.
Standard Operating Procedure here
I know roughly where the stories are headed, but I count on the characters to get me there eventually, and sometimes the detours they take make a good story even better. *grin*
Randa
Characters controlling story
Once T have plotted a story, the characters take on a life of their own.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Happens here as well
If the story is a journey I get to choose the main places and the characters tell me which roads I should take to get to the next one and sometimes they are country roads, other times single track lanes with passing places and occasionally just a dirt track.
Hugs
Cat
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You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.
Characters take on a life of their own.
Indeed! In one of my novels, I had a wonderful character. She was a Scottish-American, vivacious, red-head, captain of a smaller escort vessel. She was going places, as far as I was concerned.
Somehow, she managed to become a heroine, as she, her ship, and almost all her crew were blown to smithereens. It was a great funeral, and a real tear-jerker. Perhaps, it was the climax of the book, but that wasn't the plan. It just happened, and I had no control over it.
I know it sounds silly. I was writing it. Surely I was the one who had fingers on the keyboard. But, there I was, astonished at the way the story was writing itself. And, only authors can commiserate with you regardng such an absurd assertion.
Red MacDonald
Yes I have.
I noticed in allot of my unpublished works that the characters take over a lot of the scripting and plotting the action. That is how and when I know I am in the proper mind set to create quality story telling that is alive and not just dry narration. I have found that artists like us have a special part of our inner self which contains the ocean of creativity when we are in a receptive mood flows through our various talents and into the world. I just love the mystery of the creativity. We all have it, but some of us are disciplined enough, and focused enough to step aside from our earthly solid personalities to accept our inner creativity allowing it to flow.
It fits the old Bumper sticker I have which jokingly states. " You are just jealous that the voices in my head only talk to me." It's still funny ,to me, that I argue with my self while writing. Sometimes in the voices of the characters. My kids get a kick out of it but I must keep it to my self when I am in public.
PS
You are a great writer, and story teller who has inspired a lot of us to connect with ourselves and create. I still Wish Catherin was a real person It would be grand to have such a good person as a friend.
Thank you
Hug Huggles
Michele
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Oh, this happens to me all
Oh, this happens to me all the time. Story of my writing sometimes.
Heather
We are the change that will save the world.
belle
I have no idea what you mean ang.. Belle just goes off on these little.. well lets just say its taken me ages to get to the one spot in the story that I want to go.. For a story that was supposed to be maybe 3 chapters in total its up to chapter 24 and I still have not gotten to the end.. heck Ill have to make a new book to get there darn it.
Characters own Wills
Yes it does seem to happen often enough where I think the story will end up going in one general direction but the characters have other ideas. Also I have had a secondary character who I hadn't planned on working out in great detail steps forward to shine on their own.
-Elsbeth
Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste.
Broken Irish is better than clever English.
Characters
I have said it several times, but I believe in characters as the heart of a story. If one can write a person rather than a cipher, someone the reader can care about, then a plot can work without Big Things happening. I try to write people rather than placekeepers, and it is natural when they take over. A character is true to their soul in good fiction, and that truth dictates development. There are few things worse than a character that, for no reason, goes off the rails in a direction they should never have gone.
All the time..
Yep, it sure does. My stories are ever evolving and expanding due in no small part to my characters going beyond what I intended for them.
Incompatible took a very different turn because of a single line muttered offhand by a character. Transfigured went from being Derek's story to a continuation of Aryanna's because Aryanna seemed to have the stronger voice... And Destiny well Bryn really took the story in a new direction.
Have delightfully devious day,
Hell yes.
All the time, especially when one leaves a story for a few days then comes back to it or when one only writes a short piece then comes back the next day and the storyline has completely disappeared from inside one's head. Sometimes it can take almost a whole chapter to drag stuff back onto 'track'.
It's frustrating as well to have to pull stuff back iinto shape.
XX
Bev.
This might sound intrudsive
Excuse me if I sound intrusive but I would like to add a second perspective.
While giving life to a character is great, loosing control of the character just means that the author didn't know the character as much he/she thought. Even before the first word is written, an author should know all there is to know about the main protagonist. Starting from the beginning, the author should know exactly every significant event that brought the protag to the current state in his/her life. The author should know how the protag would react in every situation but MOST IMPORTANTLY: how the protagonist internally justify every decision (That the author WANTS THE PROTAGONIST TO MAKE).
Once the character is out of control, you end up with the number one reason why even professional authors have trouble ending stories. You start too many plot threads that the author has no idea where they're going or how they'll end.
maybe, maybe not
In my current novel, I have about 3 pages of detailed outline, not to mention a character list. I know exactly where the story is going, or do I?
I notice that as I go along, certain things get fleshed out certain ways. I was writing a scene the other day, and was like, wait, this character wouldn't act this way, and had to change characters to fit the scene so everything is consistent. But, some people don't take the time to do that, or to consider continuity. Sometimes I doubt many people read over what they just typed, they are so much in a hurry to post and get kudos (I know I am).
The thing that usually gets me is not characters by themselves, but how they interact that catches me off guard and I need to work around the chemistry between two characters.
Also, I don't know how my character will respond to situations, but I do know their core beliefs, to an extent. Sometimes I write a scene and find that if I take it the way I plan, it is contrary to the character. Either I have to rewrite the whole thing, or adjust my thinking of how the story is going to go. In the end, I get to the points I want to make, but sometimes not in as direct of a line as I thought. Sometimes, I think it will take a short time to get from point a to point b, but it takes much longer. Right now I have over 50 pages of my new novel written and haven't gotten past outline point I. I just wrote a little yesterday, but I don't know if I'm pleased with it. SOmetimes I write and when I'm done for the day (need to eat and sleep and that stuff) I have an idea where I want the next scene to go, but when I come back to it, I lost my train of thought, or thought of something different.
I would like to think that is because I have matured as a writer. But, if you read my stories, you will notice well fleshed out characters, with a history that I might draw upon but the reader never sees. If I write something just for the exercise of writing it (most things I post under 10 chapters) I might forgo planning and am at the mercy of my characters.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Tell me about it!!!
...for example... a story I've only just begun to plan. Four brothers, all with GID, decide to cash in on the buy three, get one free SRS. I haven't even started to write the story and here they are; Maureen, Kathleen, Eileen, and Bridget Adair, writing the story while I've been busy the past two days with laundry.
Love, Andrea Lena
Yes, and no...
Have I had a character who seemed to pull the story in a direction I din't expect? Sorta... (The priest in Reluctant Bridesmaid) But, when I stepped back, it wasn't so much the character pulling the story in a way I didn't mean for it to go, it was my subconscious telling me I wasn't dealing with something that needed dealing with.
That said, have I seen cases where apparently minor characters in stories suddenly take a big part of the story - and the story goes in an entirely different direction? Yep. When editing for someone that lets that happen, the author and I end up having a pointed discussion about the issue. Yes, the side store is interesting, but does it help the main store get where it needs to go? If the answer's NO, there's a good chance the side story should be cut (and if that good added as a stand alone parallel story later).
So - a character pulling the story? No, I don't think that should really happen. When it seems to, it's time for the author to take a step back and figure out why it's happening and decide what the right thing is.
Just my opinion there. I've heard quite a few published/successful authors talk about how their characters tell them the story and/or write the story themselves. So... My opinion probably isn't worth the bits it's stored on.
Annette
I have thought that we are characters...
I have thought that we are characters in G-d's story called Earth. I have had characters tell me what they are thinking and feeling all the time, Also we authors emulate G-d by putting our head, heart and strength into our stories. The only problem I have had with the characters telling me things is when the character is still hanging around six month after the story's is completed.
shalimar