Well, one of my characters kinda surprised me when he kissed his male best friend on the cheek when he was sad. I dunno how that happened. Though it was kinda my fault for reading BL until three in the morning and trying to work on my screenplay when I was half asleep. And there was the time that I found one of my mega-old stories from sixth grade and decided to rewrite it. My main character was a total Mary Sue, so I gave her an "extreme makeover" that involved turning her into a guy. I swear I heard her yell "**** yeah!" and pump her fist in the air. S/he's a weirdo.
I must admit this thing that other writers talk about where "the characters run off on their own" rarely seems to happen to me ... the only things i can think of close to this are in the 2nd and best novel i finished where: 1. I planned to have 2 of the main characters dislike eachother at first, as they had an argument when they first met, but after that it felt more realistic for them to put it behind him, so they got on fairly well from the start. 2. The plot was split in half basically (each half marked by a newer and larger "baddie's plan"). There was a character who was in chapter 1, and briefly in chapter 2, before leaving the city that the novel was set in. I then later decided to have him in it again at the start of the second half, as a novelty, but he ended up being one of the main characters after he returned because i liked him so much
My main character's father just died. I'm not sure why, I wasn't planning him to, but he did. I'm pretty angry.
It happened to me in the RP the phoenix colony just a couple days ago. A giant monster had come into camp, trashed things, and then gotten slain. My character told the leader that they would never be able to stay in the camp after this. They would have to move. The reasons he gave were legitimate, but it wasn't until later that I figured out his real reasons.
My my, it sounds like you guys are talking about your pets and how they're living... Well, the characters rarely come alive for me. Maybe I'm awkward, and my characters don't feel like talking to me. Maybe it's because I have only one chapter down on my novel. But I hope that they tell me how to work my story instead of me doing all the work. You know, I need a break sometimes, too!
I think if you spoke to a non-writer about this they would indeed think you were crazy! However, this is similar to a thread I was just reading, about getting upset if something bad happens to your character. If you get upset by this, or if your characters begin to take over - it means you have succeeded in making them real enough for the readers too to believe in! I find postmodern stuff and metafiction really interesting as many of these novels bring up the point of the character becoming real and play on it. I love the French Lieutenant's woman - where the author becomes a character and there are two alternate endings because the characters don't like the first ending, as far as I can remember anyway it's been a while since I read it. There's this awesome Irish novel as well, At-Swim-Two-Birds, where one of the characters is writing a book, but the characters are so real they take over and kill the author! So I suppose you really do have to keep an eye on them...
I never thought it would happen but yeah sometimes they do. For example, I've planned out a course of actions for a character to take but I then realise that the character has developed in such a way that the long-standing plans have to be altered in order for them to be believable because they just wouldn't realistically go through with the wanted action.
I don't think I've ever encountered that before. Maybe it's because I always let the characters carry the story. I just gather the ideas and let the characters piece it together.
I never truly know my characters one hundred percent. I rarely write about people I know, and rarely from lifetime experiences, so that may account for it. They're so much like real people to me, like a neighbor that could be next door, but really isn't: There will always be parts of them that remain a mystery, even to me. So, yes, sometimes my characters surprise me.
My characters are all different variations of me. And I don't usually surprise me. Therefore, my characters don't either. They do, however, talk to me, and I talk back. I'm having a psychiatrists appointment this week.
That's what it's like for me. But they still do surprise me some. I think the biggest character that's surprised me is a girl named Madison. She wasn't a huge character but she just slowly got involved in bigger and better plots and became a much bigger character. Her friend Emilee on the other hand has tried to get involved in larger plots but they don't work the same for her. She likes being a smaller character I think. But with Madison, I was going to have her enter this singing competition but she is a painter so she wasn't thrilled with the singing thing. And then she met Alekzander at an art camp and she hated him with her entire soul. But she started to get to know him a little better and now she loves him.
My characters surprise me a lot because they always seem to be in my head living out their lives and some times I feel I'm playing catch up to write down what they've done or are doing. Plus one character who at the beginning was in my story but I then deleted because she made things complicated refused to be left out and kept bugging me to be in...so now I'm rewriting to include her. Now she has a VERY important part in the plot and ending of my story. P.S. don't know what my story would have been if she had let me leave her out!
