Help, characters out of control!!

[mishap00]

What on earth am I going to do? I am in the middle of writing 3 different stories(I switch between them). One is behaving and going smoothly. Unfortunately the other two refuse to do what they should. I know how I want them to go. But they absolutely refuse.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Is it solvable?

Please help or they will all have to die. LOL

 

[KillerMuffin]

I'm having that problem in one of my stories myself. She's tossing him out on his ear. That's not exactly the way to get them to have sex. It is solvable. I don't know how others do it or what the best way is, but what I do is go back in the story to the point where it goes from smooth to a bit rough and delete the everything that's giving me fits and I start all over. Generally it's not that much of a problem, though.

There should be something in the plot itself that's causing the problem, perhaps? Have you looked it over with a critical eye?

 

[mishap00]

The problem isn't that the story won't go anywhere it just keeps taking off on a completely different tangent. It is supposed to be erotic and the characters refuse to get into the spirit. I have written and rewritten. They just want to talk, I don't know it may end up in non erotic. I guess I have to play it by ear.

The second story giving me fits is setthi 2. A new character was added and it is completely changing the dynamics. It is pushing the story in an unexpected direction. The character is essential so I can't just drop it. I have eight pages and no ending in sight.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

Help, characters out of control

The problem isn't that the story won't go anywhere it just keeps taking off on a completely different tangent. It is supposed to be erotic and the characters refuse to get into the spirit. I have written and rewritten. They just want to talk, I don't know it may end up in non erotic. I guess I have to play it by ear.

The second story giving me fits is setthi 2. A new character was added and it is completely changing the dynamics. It is pushing the story in an unexpected direction. The character is essential so I can't just drop it. I have eight pages and no ending in sight.

;
Well, as I see it, you have two choices.
1) Your characters can tell you that they don't want to
go that way.
2) Your readers can see them go that way but also see that
this isn't realistic.
I vastly prefer the first.
I've had characters who don't like my plan for their lives.
Sometimes, this leadds to a different story; sometimes it
cancels that story entirely.
What I can't see is dragging them kicking and screaming to
make love to a person whom they don't like.

 

[karmadog]

Not a problem

I think this is a good thing. This happens to me frequently, but I ask myself why it's happening. This might come off sounding like psychobabble, but usually it means that I have something that I would rather say. Something that I need to work out. Perhaps I have learned something that I didn't know that I knew. It's best to let it go. Often I have come up with a story that was completely different than what I intended, but it's a much better story.

The other possibility is that you have conceived your characters poorly for the plot, in which case you need to rethink your characters, or you need to let them do what they need to. If you like the characters, respect them and let them do what they need to. This sounds like a problem, but it's not. It means you have conceived your characters so well that they have taken on a life of their own.

Either way, something good is going on.

 

[Hudson]

Perhaps injecting another character may persaude your first two characters to get along, use jealousy as a starting point or maybe a sordid love triange you need a missing part to draw your characters back together to move towards your original idea of which way you wanted the story to go.

Once again your second story may need to have another character to be injected to regain balance or a link to bring it all back together, keep writing and think of an ending that brings it all back together and then, rewrite with the concept of your clever ending into your plot and see if that smooths it oout.

 

[jon.hayworth]

Mishap00

Am I correct in deducing that you write from the gut, rather than with any preconceived plot?

That being so maybe you should work on the story that is up and running well, then take one of the other stories and see what you can do with it. I have sometimes found it helps to print them, then apply a filmmaker's technique. Cut them up into scenes and lay them out in a different order. Maybe they will work better told Rondo than in the linear time frame. Maybe you will find changing the tense, or the narrator will improve the story.

I hope this helps. The final solution is to lay the part finished stories aside with a few notes of any ideas you have and start a new story - go back to the old ones in a month or so when you will reread them with a fresh mind and new ideas.

jon.hayworth

 

[mishap00]

Jon,

You are absolutely correct when you say I write from the gut. I don't think the brain even gets in on it. LOL

I think that my main difficulty is that I am in a fever to get it down and when it doesn't go the way I plan I get very impatient with it.

I typically am working on anywhere from 2 to 4 at one time. I think I may be spreading myself a little thin.

Thanks for the idea I will definately give it a try.