At what point do your characters begin to take over the story?

[Iri.Mosaic]

I find my characters begin to buck in their first chapter, and by the fourth, it's their rodeo! What's that point for you?

Or, are you a strict guardian, who keeps them on a short leash? How do you manage that? Can I have one? Pretty please, with sugar on top?

 

[Azamukul]

I find my characters begin to buck in their first chapter, and by the fourth, it's their rodeo! What's that point for you?

Or, are you a strict guardian, who keeps them on a short leash? How do you manage that? Can I have one? Pretty please, with sugar on top?

I wanna do the opposite, I want them to take the reins of their stories but I think they're too shy, but sometimes I find that some how I take the story into an entirely different direction usually around the middle of chapter drafts

 

[minacia]

Uh, my story is a complete mess because the characters do whatever they want.

 

[MarekSusicky]

You don't control the characters, but you control everything else :) They're enjoying a nice coke in a beach episode? Well, too bad, tsunami.

 

[Iri.Mosaic]

You don't control the characters, but you control everything else :) They're enjoying a nice coke in a beach episode? Well, too bad, tsunami.

Oops, you have stage four cancer, now! That's rough buddy...

 

[RoyalTime]

19 chaps but still my mc is looking like a sc of the story

 

[Clo]

My characters' fate is predetermined (I know how the story ends). But how they handle each scene is up to them.

 

[Corty]

Never. They do what I write them to do like good little mind slaves. They must satisfy my dreams as I live vicariously through their experiences. Like a good little writer!

 

[Sagefox]

That depends. Writing in 1st person does make this tend to happen early and often. Currently the direction my story has taken has long derailed from my initial plans. For me it happened at chapter 9 in the story I'm publishing here. I didn't plan her initially to be a lightning bruiser loli (initially I wanted the weapons training to take several chapters), but I realized the character took to it like fish in water. So, I squeezed a lot in.
In another story I plan to publish somewhere else, it was around Chapter 3. That time, I initially planned for the MC to go the direction of crossbows, but her logical thinking didn't omit the possibility of guns (with some form of magic replacing the propellant of bullets).
Both stories I'm now a passenger and I'm struggling to think of what to throw at them in the short term while planning long term story points.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Don't forget that you are the literal god of your story. Don't let this perceived autonomy get in your way of completing/continuing/changing your work to not get stuck.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

I've never understood the concept of characters running away in a story. Do you just not realise your preconceived plot and characters contradict until you're in the middle of writing it or something?

 

[MasterY001]

My characters' fate is predetermined (I know how the story ends). But how they handle each scene is up to them.

Similar situation with me. It's even better when you have an ensemble cast with many protagonists because then you can see how different characters react to the same situation.

 

[Keene]

I've never understood the concept of characters running away in a story. Do you just not realise your preconceived plot and characters contradict until you're in the middle of writing it or something?

Pretty much this. I didn't understand writers talking about their characters as if they were real independent people until I really found the voices of my protagonists. Writing scenes then became less of me directing them as opposed to me placing the protagonist in the scene and seeing what they'll do with their personality to achieve their goals. It's a weird sensation to experience that despite it all happening in my head, my writing is a reaction to my character's acts of free will.

 

[MasterY001]

I've never understood the concept of characters running away in a story. Do you just not realise your preconceived plot and characters contradict until you're in the middle of writing it or something?

IMO, it's less about not having a plan and more about not following it to the letter. Even if you know the plot you want to write, how it plays out may be less predefined.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

They start taking over from chapter one. Yet, I still get some people acting like I am some big brain author who planned something that happened at chapter 30 from chapter 1. Nah, mate. My characters got there themselves.

 

[AmbreaTaddy]

My characters' fate is predetermined (I know how the story ends). But how they handle each scene is up to them.

Same. The start is point A, and they have to reach the end at point B. I put fences all along the way so they don't run away or get side tracked. But the pace at which they reach point B, and the way they do it, is up to them. Some like to crawl, others like to run, and one wants to seduce every characters while walking to the finish line. I just document their struggles

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I've never understood the concept of characters running away in a story. Do you just not realise your preconceived plot and characters contradict until you're in the middle of writing it or something?

It very much depends on a lot of things. So far, I had almost complete control with Jack Diamond's first book, but they have gone a little off script on the second.

Strange Awakening stuck pretty close to the plan, except for a side-jaunt to New Orleans which was not planned initially. Oh, and the ghost that decided to get involved was not intended either, just appeared out of nowhere.

Between Worlds ... Liz wound up taking on a life of her own and becoming much more important than I'd ever meant her to be.

In one story I have not posted anywhere (tentatively The Grey Files) , the MC is intentionally ... problematic (and both a lot of fun but also a lot of WORK to write) - he has no qualms about hijacking the story, misdirecting other characters, the reader or even the author. He's just that problematic. Especially for a guy who "just drives a cab" (Oh, and is possibly the last Mage left on Earth.... but mostly he just drives a cab - or so he keeps claiming, but he has contacts everywhere, knows more about the story than he lets on and ... well, he's fun but a lot of work).

Another story I've only finished two chapters on (Tentative: A Subtle Distortion) has no real plan, so the characters very much are free-forming it. There's a rough idea where I want to go with it, but I let them - at least the three main characters presented so far - have their own head for a while before I reign it in.

Yet another story that I have pretty tightly plotted (tentative: Digital Cowboy) still has a few deviations but nothing significant so far, aside from the introduction of a character who promptly dies but may very well return later... probably more than once.

And there's From the Past, a story that went so far off the planned rails by chapter two that I had to restart it completely...

 

[Clo]

I've never understood the concept of characters running away in a story. Do you just not realise your preconceived plot and characters contradict until you're in the middle of writing it or something?

I am somewhat of a plural system, myself.
So I create new facets for my characters, feed them data about what they know (which is distinct from what I know), and let them tell me what they do and how they respond.

And then I essentially act like a GameMaster for them, and adjust things to try to get them to do what I want them to do.

But they sometime surprise me with sudden depth or metaphors so good that I change my plans to now follow the thread they made me discover.

Which could even change the way the story ends.

 

[JayMark]

I find my characters begin to buck in their first chapter, and by the fourth, it's their rodeo! What's that point for you?

Or, are you a strict guardian, who keeps them on a short leash? How do you manage that? Can I have one? Pretty please, with sugar on top?

As soon as I create their character file and drop them into the world they start saying and doing shit counter productive to the narrative.
I try to predict it by knowing their personalities and backstories. I try being a manipulitive eldritch being puppeting them like the pawns they are. I enclose the world around them like a trash compactor.

When that fails, I manage it by adding more characters.

I'm writing an experimental piece with over a hundred characters that breaks the prohibition against such because rules and guidelines are for losers.

My head is like severe multiple personality disorder.

I can only alleviate the symptoms by killing them off in the most brutal ways possible.

Help...

 

[DireBadger]

If my characters don't start taking over their stories a few chapters in, and help me write the book, I get bored and switch to a new story.

Then again, I have been a gamemaster for the same group of friends for thirty years.... we like to joke that they can screw over their characters more in fifteen minutes of roleplay than five hours of combat.

I am used to just basically generating a central plot, and then just letting the characters go and react to wherever their stories lead them, with only occasional gentle nudges back on track... and that applies to my stories too, since I do the exact same thing when I am playing instead of running.