Story Hijack Frequency

[designatedvictim]

Rather than reviving an older thread, I'll start a new one.

You, as a writer, work on your latest project and you feel that some relatively small aspect of it needs some expansion.

It could be a character, a scene, a motivating event, or even a setting, but eventually it begins to balloon out of control and overshadows everything else.

This happened to me this week.

I was working on a new short and I needed a scene, an old reminiscence, that the POV character could relate - through direct dialog - to another character. Back-story to explain his current personality.

I started writing it and... I kept fleshing it out. Kept adding things.

What started out as what should have been 1000 to 1500 words of backstory, is now over 9K-words (and growing) and already spalled off into its own first-person POV story.

I intend to publish in Taboo/Incest. The story is, so far, arguably only Taboo. I haven't quite determined if it will wind up as Incest, though.

Anyway, I know this happens, I was just wondering how often it happens. Does it happen once? Or do things mutate out of your control frequently?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I began Savage Daughter with the idea of it being a clever little short story about a trans girl finding herself with the help of an older man.
When I wanted a song to go with the story, it morphed and grew into a 41K short novel, so yes. it happens.
Similarly, The Emasculation of Henry Smith was originally published at about 15K words. One early commentor asked, what's Bonnie's (the FMC) motivation and it became a 46K word short novel

You are not alone. I tend to start with an idea and let it lead me where it wants to go, so it happens a lot for me to varying degrees.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Anyway, I know this happens, I was just wondering how often it happens. Does it happen once? Or do things mutate out of your control frequently?

I have many stories where a key character arrived out of the blue, with no clue she was coming nor who she was - in my stories, the interloper is always a woman. In any of my stories with a threesome, it's almost guaranteed that one of the three turned up like that and stayed for the duration.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Milk From Cookies was never supposed to be a romance or even involve Cocoa the elf in more than a single scene and then suddenly I was at 4 lit pages and want to expore their relationship more in a sequel. Quoth the Maiden "I'm No Whore" was supposed to be "Quoth the Raven: She's a Whore" and then...I suddenly had a maiden instead. And I've only just started writing a few months ago.

I suspect given my style of writing any story *other* than my main series - this is going to end up happening to me a LOT.

 

[ColtonWrites]

I had an idea for a single scene - space traveler kidnapped by pirates and forced to trade his body for safety.

65,000 words later I'd written a romance novel.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Anyway, I know this happens, I was just wondering how often it happens. Does it happen once? Or do things mutate out of your control frequently?

I'm a plotter so it has happened so far, just once. Aunt Tina, Recovering Slut Vol. 01 was intended to be a femdom auntie story but it morphed into a loving dom/sub thing with her encouraging her nephew to be dominant. The readers seem to like it though. In most everything else, though, I'm able to stay on target.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

All the time. I go from trying to get into the heads of my characters at all, to knowing them and them wanting to tell me their entire life stories.

Some then insist on getting to hang out with my other characters. Richie was meant to only appear in I say ass, you say arse: Again but wriggled his way into Educating Laura, making a short story into a six-part series with extra bits.

Sometimes I end up writing as it's clearly being therapeutic for some reason, followed by me cutting the most self-indulgent parts before subjecting the Lit public to them.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I had a short story in mind that became a 19K story and hopefully will be my entry in the Winter Holidays contest

 

[ColtonWrites]

Some then insist on getting to hang out with my other characters. Richie was meant to only appear in I say ass, you say arse: Again but wriggled his way into Educating Laura, making a short story into a six-part series with extra bits.

I wrote one story with a character named Marcus. I accidentally reused the name in another story but instead of changing it, went "hmmm but what if its actually the same guy?" And that went interesting places!

 

[designatedvictim]

I wrote one story with a character named Marcus. I accidentally reused the name in another story but instead of changing it, went "hmmm but what if its actually the same guy?" And that went interesting places!

I've only written two other things that I've published.

An on-going story about an un-named MMC university student getting involved in a steamy long-weekend with his landlord's daughter, set in 1985.

A one-off contemporary story with an older MMC getting involved with his sister.

When I was done, I realized... this could be the same guy, thirty years later. It wasn't intentional and the ages don't quite mesh for a timeline, but the setting of the second one was ambiguous enough that it could work.

Now, with the story I mentioned that started this thread, any ambiguity in the story is there deliberately to let anyone who reads them all decide for themselves, if the dots connect and they are the same MMCs.