Do your characters surprise you?

[stickygirl]

I'm probably about to overshare and look stupid, but if you can't make a fool of yourself amongst friends...

When I'm immersed in writing and my characters, they'll come out and say things I never planned. Often there's emotions too that unexpectedly bubble out onto the page. Even now, if I re-read an old story I'll arrive at the emotional section, knowing full well what I wrote and end up with my eyes full of tears and sobbing.... sometimes it's laughing though - it's not like my stories are totally black and weepy. Should I put this down to short-term memory loss or clinical sentimentality? I am the sort to cry at adverts on tv.

Maybe you don't re-read your stories at all, or won't admit to it? Maybe you're an author who casts their story to the wind with never a backward glance?

There ought to be a proper question here so...
How often are you surprised by your own fictional characters when writing?

 

[sirhugs]

all the time. Not just by what they say, but what they do, or won't do. I try to give them hard limits, they dash off to screw the pool man. I cast them as a tramp, they just want to watch. And the guys are worse- always give in to temptation. At least the tentacle monsters are reliable.

 

[brodieloads]

Yes, but not often as I think I've spent enough time in my own head to know what I'm getting myself into. When they do get me though, they hit hard.

In a short series I wrote a few years ago, one of the characters stole the story away from me a couple times. The third chapter was supposed to just be her taking a shower and then progressing plot. It somehow turned into a whole feature length chapter of her masturbating and exploring new kinks and fantasies.

Initially, she was meant to be the more submissive partner during sex, but by no means a submissive person. When the time came for her to hookup with a very dominant partner, she flipped the script again. Instead of doing what she was told and pleasing her mistress, she matched the alpha energy and, to some came off as "bratty" but really was more like an untamable wild animal. She wound up as some kind of sexual catalyst made human, capable of synching up with whatever vibes her partner was giving. A true lady in the streets, freak in the sheets.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I am surprised by how they evolve as I'm writing. The first draft is me giving the outline scope and shape, establishing the setting, and setting up the sex scenes in a way that flows organically. Then the second draft is me really figuring out who the characters really are, and punching up the story's interest. After that is just repeated polish edits until I finally have a product that I can sit back and enjoy.

I do go back and reread my work. They are my fantasies brought to literary life and I enjoy them.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Constantly. My characters quickly establish lives of their own (or is my subconscious really that busy?), and my job as their writer is to keep up.

 

[Seadog777]

I wouldn't say that the characters surprise me.
What will surprise me sometimes, is where I will take the character when I "free type".
That's when I don't think at all, I just type. When the mood is done, I'll take what I like from that session and incorporate it into the story.

 

[Defluer]

I am literally writing something now that was supposed to be, Character 1 telling Character 2 that he needs to get laid and that she knows a couple ladies who are interested. I was hoping for some hot surprise threesome action when Character 2 went there to ask out one of the suggested ladies and ends up getting both options. Now I'm just wrapping up the first little tryst between Character 1 & 2 (Which was supposed to be a Chapter 3 or 4 thing) and there was zero mention of the other characters I'd intended to be the stars of the story. I think a lot of times I fuck up a story beyond continuing is when I force my "plot" on the characters.

 

[TxRad]

Since most of my stories and characters are free range. What can I say besides yes, I'm surprised by everything most all of the time. Seat of the pants writing is that way and I never outline or put limits on my characters. For me it works best in my erotica. Not so much in my paying writing. There, I have rules and boundaries.

 

[MrPixel]

Not only do some of mine surprise me, in a couple of cases they took the story in a totally different direction than originally intended.

 

[MajorRewrite]

It’s leakage from alternate universes.

 

[TxRad]

I can see that. (Plot bunny anyone?)

 

[stickygirl]

Initially, she was meant to be the more submissive partner during sex, but by no means a submissive person. When the time came for her to hookup with a very dominant partner, she flipped the script again. Instead of doing what she was told and pleasing her mistress, she matched the alpha energy and, to some came off as "bratty" but really was more like an untamable wild animal. She wound up as some kind of sexual catalyst made human, capable of synching up with whatever vibes her partner was giving. A true lady in the streets, freak in the sheets.

So you intended her to have one kind of character and then she switched. Interesting.

I tend to have fleshed out characters first - how else to start? Maybe I pull characteristics from someone I know or have seen on film/tv but I know in an instant what their temperament is, what their facial expressions are, how they walk. Maybe I need that certainty to then let them loose in a situation to see what they say and do?

Along the way, I'll find myself puzzled about why they said something... because it is my brain having fun after all. All the same, I encourage my characters do my talking for me - they can be more outspoken than I could ever be, or smarter or hornier. A court jester's puppet could say things that would otherwise see the speaker on the gallows.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I often start with very basic summary points, but as they do more talking and action they acquire more personality. I try to prevent them simply being anyone I know!

Sometimes characters want to talk about something because it seems important. It's probably a bit like therapy for me. Other times, they just know best - in particular, my Educating Laura series was meant to be a simple story of girl working at a summer camp, not getting on with the other three women, eventually gets together with a shy quiet guy.

Until Richie, previously seen years later on a different continent (wandering in on someone fucking his girlfriend, and blandly offers advice) decided he had to get invited along, shag Laura himself, then get her together with the intended guy, and also get one of the women together with both of them. As you do. And then demand a couple more chapters and a couple spin-offs. He's a right git...

Sometimes conversation goes in strange ways. Laura is very much not a self-insert despite elements of me, but a rant of hers about infertility is definitely mine. Other stories are nicked from all sorts of things I've overheard over the years.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

They used to, a lot. This is the story of the Alexaverse when I first began writing it. the characters grew beyond my stated intentions, and alluva sudden, my six chapter story was seventeen. More than that, I had spin-off series happening. And now the original concepts from 'Alex & Alexa', which started everything, is out of date and not canon.

So I have to rewrite it to catch up with current canon, at some point.

I do my level best to think far ahead and make sure I don't paint myself into a corner again because my characters turn out to be far more fun than originally intended. It still happens, but only with new characters I introduce, and I'm more ready for it this time.

 

[brodieloads]

So you intended her to have one kind of character and then she switched. Interesting.

Exactly. Despite how little time I spent with her, compared to the fantasy epics I've had in my head since a teenager, she's one of my favourite characters.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I started writing "Lifestyle Ch 11 - Demons Past" in my series with the intent that the swinger MC and MFC would have flings at a high school reunion. My initial thought was they would do this as a sort of payback to others among their HS peers who ostracized them 30-years earlier. The idea of how others treating you badly affects you in the long term, making you who you are today was the theme.

It evolved to Jan, the MFC setting up an encounter with an old fling she had at a nearby nightclub, and she needed to come to closure. The story turned into how she handled a bad experience, and her describing how her mother's PTSD impacted their relationship and her personality.

One comment I received on that story said my series lacks catharsis, but IMO that commenter oddly missed the catharsis and explanations told in that story. My MC and MFC told ME their stories in that one.

 

[stickygirl]

The idea of a long 10+ part series seems intimidating, but then I guess authors never intend for that to happen - they just keep going. Difficult for me to see how I'd keep it fresh and avoid repetition, especially in the sex scenes

 

[SimonDoom]

No, they don't.

I keep pretty tight control of my storyline, and I don't let the characters veer from it.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

It does happen sometimes, as I tend to plan events and scenes only roughly, and the dialogue is created only when I actually start writing, so more than once it happened that my characters took me in a direction I hadn't originally planned.
More than that, as I write chaptered stories, I tend to forget the details that happened in my previous chapters, so when I read the chapter again, for whatever reason, I am often like : "Wow... Did I really write it like that...?"

 

[Lifestyle66]

The idea of a long 10+ part series seems intimidating, but then I guess authors never intend for that to happen - they just keep going. Difficult for me to see how I'd keep it fresh and avoid repetition, especially in the sex scenes

The sex itself is secondary to the setup of the sex scenes and the dynamics of the MC and MFC couple in those scenes.
The series is told from the husband's POV, but it's really about his flirty wife and their evolution and learning curve as swingers. For example, the next chapter will present the husband having performance problems, as the wife describes her ability to go on and on at those parties. Does the husband feel deflated and want a divorce when she's having more fun? Or does he remember the good times he had as she sat back watching him with her partner deflated? (He's not insecure, and he'll recognize that his physical problems should not stop her fun.)

And they provide the consistent basis for learning about other couples in life. Other chapters have focused on a different insecure husband and his oversexed wife trying to join a sex club (ch 08). Another idea for a future chapter would have them encounter at a house party another husband (her previous play partner) from their past who is now divorced from his homophobic wife, and he is now Bi/leaning gay. Or what happens when the wife walks into a bedroom to find her husband in a position where he is choking the woman he's fucking?

With the series, it's merely a matter of coming up with a new dynamic between people to illustrate. But there is some repetition needed to keep the characters consistent and real between chapters, as I described in a different thread.

 

[Euphony]

The idea of a long 10+ part series seems intimidating, but then I guess authors never intend for that to happen - they just keep going. Difficult for me to see how I'd keep it fresh and avoid repetition, especially in the sex scenes

I've been experimenting with sexual "problems" or the natural curve/ebb & flow of a relationship transitioning out of the honeymoon phase.

I used to worry readers expected idealized sex throughout because "escapism" but have slowly shifted my belief and confidence in myself that, deep enough in where sex might get stale/repetitive, I've written characters readers fell in love and want to continue along their journey/path good (successes) and failures (aka. conflict)

A real life relationship predicated on always mind-bending sex or it flounders would easily be viewed as an unhealthy one so it feels like a fiction version of the same would similarly being problematic.

Real life has to get in the way somehow (for my taste in fiction) and I like testing/exploring various avenues that can reasonably happen for my couples.

 

[SamScribble]

A writer friend (who has recently shuffled off our mortal coil) used to say that she wrote in order to find out what she thought. And I think, to some extent, I do something similar. So, yes, even when I think I 'know' the characters I am creating, there always seem to be surprises. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Euphony]

I've been experimenting with sexual "problems" or the natural curve/ebb & flow of a relationship transitioning out of the honeymoon phase.

Self-help books, both inside and especially OUTside the writing genre, have been an incredible resource for my fiction. (and my characters and I fight about their need for "help" CONSTANTLY. )

I found, fascinatingly, a lot of my couples early compatibility, while genuine, was also very much products of presenting their best selves and being "in love" with being in love.

This led me to write assumingly perfect context for every sexual interaction throughout which felt right (true love conquers all sex) at the time but quickly unraveled (seemed flat, try hard) under any real scrutiny.

Extremes we all know and are easy to spot (stressors, big life changes i.e. new baby, family conflicts etc.) but aren't the only or even the biggest influencers (over time little things collectively do more damage to connect by adding up, establishing a "history," and often being very covert in all of their machinations.)

Having all these "little things" deconstructed has given me both more tools to represent realistic relationships and more delicate tools meaning I'm not so reliant on big issues (which are often also tropes.) These little nicks and cuts can be incredibly engaging (done well) make fantastic callbacks, and give the couple more "wins" showing off their couple skills.

 

[Mal_Bey]

My writing has always been a process of transcribing my character/actors performing a script I wrote. The script is what I intended to happen, but occasionally a character will Ad-lib a line that is just so TRUE, I have to include it, even if it shreds the intended script. I have had background characters step forward and unexpectedly become headlining stars. I find that these unexpected flashes are usually some of my best ideas.

 

[Lifestyle66]

(and my characters and I fight about their need for "help" CONSTANTLY. )

That sounds like the humorous story I wrote earlier this year: "Getting Too Close - 750 Words".
"Sometimes writers just need a break."