How often do your characters derail the plot you were going to tell?

[taytay4eva]

I was going to write another Silus and Rebb story, with one of Silus's old coworkers being deaged from 70something to 20something, then fucked by the pair of them (consentingly). The problem with that story was that I decided to write it from his coworker's perspective, and I wrote her boss into it, with whom the coworker had FANTASTIC chemestry, so I sat there and changed course because "well now I have to see where this goes".

I still have the bits of dialog from the original tale I was going to tell, and I plan to write it someday, with someone else standing in for the person Silus and Rebb have a threesome with, but has this sort of thing happened to anyone else? You're going in to write a story and include a throwaway character to give someone some depth, but the throwaway becomes MUCH more interesting than the original plan?

 

[TheRedChamber]

I've posted this before, but it sounds like you're having a 'not about the wolf' moment. It happens to us all sometimes.

(The second of the three clips, though all are gold. Apologies if this has stopped working, can't access YouTube myself atm and just copying old link.)

 

[TheRedLantern]

Every time I think I know where a story's going to go, my characters ambush me in a dark alley and I wake up at a bullfight in Tijuana.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I was going to write another Silus and Rebb story, with one of Silus's old coworkers being deaged from 70something to 20something, then fucked by the pair of them (consentingly). The problem with that story was that I decided to write it from his coworker's perspective, and I wrote her boss into it, with whom the coworker had FANTASTIC chemestry, so I sat there and changed course because "well now I have to see where this goes".

I still have the bits of dialog from the original tale I was going to tell, and I plan to write it someday, with someone else standing in for the person Silus and Rebb have a threesome with, but has this sort of thing happened to anyone else? You're going in to write a story and include a throwaway character to give someone some depth, but the throwaway becomes MUCH more interesting than the original plan?

My story "Wager" is about a minor side character who I actually cut out of "Pranked". Maureen refused to stop living in my head, and eventually started having her own adventures.

--Annie

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I frequently seem to find myself with a well developed concept for the next act in my story, then I sit down and start writing the transition to set that up and my characters go in a completely different direction.
Very frustrating.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Never. I am the Mistress of my Domain.

 

[NuclearFairy]

The whole plot, no. But sometimes a scene will go in a very different direction than I originally thought it was going to.

 

[Bassytian]

Every time I think I know where a story's going to go, my characters ambush me in a dark alley and I wake up at a bullfight in Tijuana.

Doesn't that shit suck? God, I hate when that happens!

I've never had characters completely change the direction of a story, but I've had characters be responsible for dialogue and scenes going differently than planned. But it's always been for the better so I welcome it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I don't plan or plot, and many stories get taken over by a character who comes steaming up from my subconscious, demanding to be written. Happens all the time, and they often go on to get stories of their own.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I don't plan or plot, and many stories get taken over by a character who comes steaming up from my subconscious, demanding to be written. Happens all the time, and they often go on to get stories of their own.

That sort of thing can lead to needing an exorcism.

 

[Bamagan]

Every time I think I know where a story's going to go, my characters ambush me in a dark alley and I wake up at a bullfight in Tijuana.

Well, coulda been worse. Coulda been a donkey show.

 

[NotWise]

Derail the whole story, never. Take conversations in different directions, now and then.

 

[iwatchus]

In my long series, a main supporting character was being an obnoxious ass. I had not planned on it and I had no idea why he was doing this. It just felt right for his character. I only found out that he had been laid off two days earlier and had lost all self esteem midway through typing the sentence where he admits it. Somewhere in my brain, I had to have worked that story line out, it fit too perfectly to what I had been writing already. But I had absolutely no conscious awareness of it until that moment. It was a very eerie feeling.

It did significantly change the planned trajectory of the next three stories in the series.

 

[Abbafan]

They always seem to be in control.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I have had a character take over a story though, but it didn't have much of a plot yet when he did that. But still he pulled a Sam Vimes on me.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Never because the plot usualy determines the characters for me

 

[YDB95]

It happens to me now and then. Probably the most severe case was City Girl in the Desert, where I originally envisioned it as a pair of girlfriends on a nudist adventure where the more outgoing one helps draw the shy one out of her shell. Instead, I ended up with a story where the "shy" one was the one who was comfortable with Nude Day while her friend was the most arrogant jerk I've ever written. Reviewers have pointed out that I put myself at a big disadvantage telling the story through a thoroughly unlikable narrator, and they're right...but she was a lot of fun to write! Almost every paragraph had me asking myself, what outrageously conceited or rude thing can I have her say next?

 

[filthytrancendence]

Kinda? It's more like I point them in the direction I want them to go, and then work with them to fill in the details.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I write from a plot, so a complete takeover never happens. I have had characters add plot points or throw curves. I've had minor supporting of incidental characters spawn on into their own stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That sort of thing can lead to needing an exorcism.

So far, no real demons. Alrhought my incarnation of the Arthurian Morgana had her moments.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Derail, never. Bend for a sidetrip, now and then, yes.

 

[Writer61]

Two years ago, I was working on a lockdown story. I began thinking about the backstory of one of the characters. The next thing I know, she has her own series (The Fall of Laura), another planned, and the original standalone piece is still not finished (although it is back at the top of the WIP pile).

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

What was the movie (maybe TV show) where the characters were afraid of the artist's pencil?

 

[MelissaBaby]

What was the movie (maybe TV show) where the characters were afraid of the artist's pencil?

I don’t know, but for some reason it reminded me that there was a really cool issue of The Fantastic Four where they got to meet God and it was Jack Kirby sitting at his drawing board. That pretty much sums up my attitude concerning the author/character relationship.

 

[Voboy]

I know a story is good when my characters take over and do their own thing.