How often do your characters decide to go off-script?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Snapshot084, Apr 20, 2014.

  1. Bryan Romer

    Bryan Romer Contributor Contributor

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    Perhaps it also depends on the kind of novel you are writing. If the novel is based upon a structured plot or a predetermined culmination or climax, then while the characters can be allowed to wander a bit on their course, certain trigger points and nexus must be hit for the plot to work.

    And the more elements that are integrated into the plot, the more impossible it becomes to drastically change course. This becomes even more rigid if you are writing a historical novel based upon real events. For instance, if all the characters are going to face their ultimate destinies at the battle of Waterloo, then no matter what happens, they have to stay in the army, they have to travel a certain route, and they have to end up at Waterloo at a fixed time. Personal relationships might change, clashes and events might vary on the way, but nothing drastic can happen to change their "fate".
     
  2. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    It has happened. I write together with @T.Trian (we have conjoined brains -- figuratively speaking), and sometimes we have some idea of a scene, like, ok, this is the goal and this is what the characters are going to do, but sometimes as we write, we just come up with unplanned things and it feels like the characters are taking lives of their own. It happened not too long ago when two characters were supposed to talk about serious plot-related stuff but ended up having raunchy sex (note, we don't even write erotica). Sometimes the characters compel the writer to do something s/he didn't plan, I guess.
     
  3. Slade Lucas

    Slade Lucas Member

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    Always happens to me. It can be a blessing, because it can give you a better idea for how to approach your story, or it can be a curse, because it can totally ruin what you want to do. Sometimes you can't control how your story progresses, as stupid as that sounds, because it is like a creature which you can tame but not entirely take over. But maybe that can sometimes be good, because it can take a more natural progression.
     
  4. Uberwatch

    Uberwatch Active Member

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    All the time. Sometimes I look back and get fascinated on how much my characters have evolved. I do a lot of brainstorming in my head. So I know my characters better in my head than they are on paper.
     
  5. Wild Knight

    Wild Knight Senior Member

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    My characters don't just act off-script, they outright defy "the Script" by kicking it straight in the teeth, saying, "I don't think so!"
    Then again, it makes sense, because I also defy anything "scripted". I tried writing outlines for some stories lately... no luck. I'd take one look at my outlines, and then some part of me would decide: "To hell with this!" and I'd end up making the characters act in opposite of what they're supposed to be doing... like being temporarily rendered helpless, or doing something that could almost get them killed.

    Instead, a villain would get bashed in the head with a baseball bat by a five-year-old repeatedly yelling: "Tag, you're it! Tag, you're it!" The brats were supposed to be abducted at that point... and that scene happens. Why? Because a six-year-old had that kid convinced that they were just playing tag, and that he was "it", and that the abductor HAD to be "tagged"...
     
  6. LeighAnn

    LeighAnn Member

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    I find threads like this fascinating. Personally, I've never used an outline, or even had the barest of idea of what happens in my novels before my pen scrawls it across the page for me. I typically don't even know what genre I'm writing in until about halfway through. It works for me, but it's probably not for everyone.
     
  7. Morristreet

    Morristreet New Member

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    We use scripts?

    I've never scripted my work. Most of my work starts with a single idea or image, then I allow the story and characters to develop on their own volition from there. One of my current projects is a Naval fiction work that started with the single image of a naked woman falling into the cold water of San Francisco bay in front of a sailboat captained by our Hero. This work is currently sitting at 35,000 words and I am steadily working towards a fleshed-out work that is still finding ways to surprise me at every turn. That scene is now half-way through the book, and although it's integral, is not the defining image any longer.

    Our characters are a part of our conscious or unconscious minds, and we develop them like we would want to see characters develop on Film, TV, or in books we read. Are they truly independent? Probably not, unless we are all schizophrenic and society just accepts us all being crazy the way we are. But, I must say, it sure is fun to let my imagination run wild when I'm writing and to see what happens with my characters when I'm not really thinking about it, just writing a story and letting the words come to me.
     
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  8. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    I'm guessing 'pantster' means something along the lines of 'writing on the fly, or by the seat of your pants'?

    I do like to plan - the basic plotline - and I use a number of ways to do that but yes, my characters constantly inform me of things that I don't actually know.

    Plus, as I write out of sequence, I do spend a lot of time making sure the continuity works and this is where my characters always surprise me.

    When I started the first fiction book, I knew the names of my two MC's. One was completely wrong considering the character was Italian so I changed it to something more appropriate. The other, who was originally called Nick, I changed to Gabriel. At the time, I had absolutely no idea why I chose the name Gabriel, it wasn't until I was half way through writing the story that Gabriel's mom actually came into the book and told me why she had given her son that name. And the reason blew me away.

    This happens a lot, it's almost like my characters are constantly telling me things. I don't know why I make the changes that I make but at some stage further down the line, it all becomes clear and I find myself grinning from ear to ear when the realisation hits me that he did that for that reason, she's named that for that reason and they now do that because of that reason.

    I actually consider myself extremely lucky to be able to work that way.

    It also helps that I have a very trusted friend who I bounce my thoughts off. She tells me when it's all a little bit wrong but also tells me when it's all a lot right. I really think every writer should have one!
     
  9. Magnatolia

    Magnatolia Active Member

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    I like to have a plan, but can also write off the cuff if I need to. I'll give an example of my current book, a zombie apocalypse. I was out having drinks with friends overlooking our city river, and one of the bridges had red lights all over it which coloured the water red. My immediate thought was river full of blood, as you do when you've been writing a zombie book haha. I then texted myself to write a scene based on that. It was pretty good actually, about 500-1000 words, added it in to a long road trip that my characters made. I obviously fast-tracked it but slowed it down in the middle to add this scene. They're crossing the river over a bridge and they see the water is full of blood and bodies that had been swept down-river. Haven't decided if I want an actual plot point from the origin point of the bodies, but I've marked my ms with a comment so I can decide later if I want to follow that. At the moment I have a conversation about it, and the guy who's driving says they need to keep going. Whatever did it could still be there.

    I do the same thing all the time. If I'm reading something and a scene catches my eye I'll add it to my list of scenes with some comments and then later I'll decide if I want it. What I usually do is write these scenes out then decide if I want them, at which point they may need a rewrite at the beginning and end to click smoothly into what's existing.

    Same goes for characters. I've got this secondary character who knows about the cure, and at one point I kept stopping myself from writing a confrontation between him and my MC, because I totally saw him as his nice peaceful guy who gets along with everyone. Apparently he doesn't like that. So I either spend some time rewriting his interactions, or I have him slowly succumb to the madness of surviving the apocalypse on a daily basis.
     
    cutecat22 likes this.

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