By that, I mean do you often take a break from the actual plot and have your characters do things they normally wouldn't do? Or couldn't do depending on the setting? Do you attempt to be as realistic as possible when you have fun, or do you just go all out crazy? With me, some of my favorites are when I had my Colonial detective randomly start singing Biz Markie songs into his cane as if it were a microphone. Yes, my Colonial detective. Singing songs made by a guy who wouldn't exist for centuries. I liked it so much I considered putting him in the 20th century just so it would make sense. xD If so, does this often help jog your creativity? Reveal a side of your characters you didn't think about before? What are some of your favorite 'off-plot' moments when you allowed your characters to go nuts for grins/experimentation? Share if you feel brave enough.
Yes, in a book with heavy content, doing this (occasionally) stops the novel from becoming melodramatic / depressing. One of my favourite post-apocalyptic stories, The Road, never does this, and it suffers from melancholia. It's a great book, just don't read it after a break up.
I often use to imagine my characters in different situations before i fall asleep at night. It's fun and it's a good way for me to not lose touch with the story and the characters for too long. Plus it's a good way to get to know them better, especially their voices, character, way of speaking etc. Sometimes I even come up with something useful.
The very nature of the project that I am working on pretty much begs for this kind of thing. It is a mildly paced adventure story where the main characters are exploring the world at their leisure (most of the time), and they take every opportunity that they can get to goof off and do silly things all the time. It is also all very natural for them because they are all generally relaxed and easygoing characters.
I do this, but I can't take the characters out of their world. I can't transport them to the future or the past or to some other planet because their environment is a huge part of who they are. I write scenes about them that don't appear in the finished work, but those scenes are almost always still in the same world - the world that makes them.
