Have you ever thought about letting your characters do what they want?

[Deleted member 45782]

Probably not. I mean, shaping the characters is done by the author, even the actions they do next and what we think they may do stem from the author's thinking. Even their personalities were detailed in by us. So, when do they really have the choice to do what they want to do if it's really just us putting those ideas in that make them what they are?

 

[RepresentingCaution]

They always do what they want, especially Laura.

 

[Businesssn]

Is it wrong I jus5let my main character go pew pew every where

 

[WasatchWind]

I'm here to comment on my way of writing, I'm still starting, quite a beginner to tell the truth.

I never plan what the character is going to say or do, I just let the character choose.

I just stop paying attention to myself or something that has nothing to do with the story, I become the character, I think that gives me greater freedom when it comes to doing things.

Anyway, this can all be crap for you, if you want to ignore it, feel free.

But if you understand what I'm getting at and think it can work ... Why not try?

This is one way to write stories - while it has the advantage of making it feel like the characters control the plot, it can lead the story to not feeling interesting.

Brandon Sanderson practices a nice middle ground - he outlines his plot, but he allows characters to "veto" the plot.

Example, in my story I'm working on right now, the protagonist is offered the opportunity to learn magic. It is thematically obvious he'll agree. But instead he says no.

This I think is a great way to add a plot twist to your story, without it having to be some shocking revelation about something.

 

[CadmarLegend]

This is one way to write stories - while it has the advantage of making it feel like the characters control the plot, it can lead the story to not feeling interesting.

Brandon Sanderson practices a nice middle ground - he outlines his plot, but he allows characters to "veto" the plot.

Example, in my story I'm working on right now, the protagonist is offered the opportunity to learn magic. It is thematically obvious he'll agree. But instead he says no.

This I think is a great way to add a plot twist to your story, without it having to be some shocking revelation about something.

You are a big fan of Brandon Sanderson....

 

[WasatchWind]

You are a big fan of Brandon Sanderson....

I barely read anyone else these days. Mostly that's just because I don't have time to read anything else, but also, Brandon Sanderson has just tainted my view of much of writing. His characters and worlds just feel so interesting that I doubt that I could force myself to read something like hunger games ever again.

 

[MadmanRB]

You got the good grasp.
In writing, you have to prevent your personality from spilling else you break your characters

I mean, if you don't stick to the character's persona, you would end up creating contradictory characteristics and that's bad writing. Unless you want a hypocritical person.

I disagree, for me a lot of my characters have an aspect of myself that I explore from their eyes thus I become one with my characters and my characters become one with me.
Its how I give my characters humanity.
Also, one can have contradictory characteristics without it being bad writing for example I have a character who has one hell of a temper and can tear your arms off in a second... yet she is also very compassionate and while yes she has a bit of a rough edge to her, she can be very kind and sympathetic.
You see there is this thing called a three-dimensional character unless for some reason characters with only one personality trait are the only good characters out there while most out there hate flat characters.

 

[High-in-the-skys]

I disagree, for me a lot of my characters have an aspect of myself that I explore from their eyes thus I become one with my characters and my characters become one with me.
Its how I give my characters humanity.
Also, one can have contradictory characteristics without it being bad writing for example I have a character who has one hell of a temper and can tear your arms off in a second... yet she is also very compassionate and while yes she has a bit of a rough edge to her, she can be very kind and sympathetic.
You see there is this thing called a three-dimensional character unless for some reason characters with only one personality trait are the only good characters out there while most out there hate flat characters.

I think I didn't word it right.
I tend to type a few words at a time since I consider it a bother to think and type for long.

For the first part, I meant that having your own present thoughts spill from the character ruins it. For example, the character is the serious type, yet the author can't resist to make a joke and made the serious type make a funny joke which is out of his personality. Clarifying further, the serious character is fitting to make sardonic or cynical jokes but since the author don't do dark humor, he made the character say light-hearted humour which is out of character. Exception is if it's related to plot

For second part, say we got boy A. He really loves girl A but he gave his love to girl B. If all this happen not of his character or for no reason, this is bad writing. Now I said unless, if the exception is if girl B tempted him and he fell for it. Despite him really loving girl A, he fell for girl B because he got tempted, this is the hypocritical part I'm talking about. This 'hypocrisy' makes him more of a human character.

(Srry for telling a story instead of explaining. I really can't put the second part into simple words)

 

[Businesssn]

This would happen