When you’re writing your story, quite often your characters will start going in a different direction than you expected.
Maybe they’re turning out different than your initial idea, or maybe they’re even deviating away from your 30-page outline.
What do you do when that happens? Let’s DISCUSS!
During the last stream, the subscribers voted that we talk about “what do to when your own characters rebel against you.”
Watch the full video here or scroll down for highlights.
Characters Rebelling Against You
- It’s not uncommon for your characters to rebel against you and change as you write them
- Even if you have an outline for your story, it’s impossible to know what the final shape of your characters will be like until you’ve finished it
- The reason for that is because there is so much connective tissue that needs to be filled in between your outlined plot points — the outline is only the skeleton
For example, in your outline you might have something like this:
- “And then Steve and Samantha travel from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain.”
- The journey up the mountain may only be a small part of your outline, but when you write the book, you can’t just have them magically teleport there
- So when you’re writing, you may decide that Steve is an experienced mountain climber, or that Samantha has the power to fly, etc.
- Either way, these things will change how the character goes from there, and will require editing to make sure it’s properly setup beforehand
Caution!
- Be wary if your characters DON’T change from your outlining phase to the end of your first draft, it may be a sign that something is wrong
- Perhaps your story is missing some connective tissue and is moving too fast, or perhaps it’s too stale and boring
- A lot of the issues in season eight of Game of Thrones were due to the writers not allowing the characters to change from their initial ideas of what they were
Examples:
- Daenerys: In the outline she was supposed to go mad and burn King’s Landing, even though her character ended up as someone who wouldn’t do that, so it felt forced
- Jamie: In the outline he was supposed to return to Cersei and die with her, even though his character ended up as someone who wouldn’t do that, so it felt forced
- Arya: In the outline she was supposed to be a scared girl afraid to take revenge, even though her character DEFINITELY ended up as someone who wouldn’t do that, so it felt forced
In my book Metl: The ANGEL Weapon, several characters changed a lot from outline to the final version
- Dominic started out as a generic teenage bully at the Home with Caden and Annika, but as I wrote the story, he evolved into much more than that.
- Originally I needed a way to show off the town priest’s power…
- So I had the priest use his powers on two people on stage…
- Originally they were just strangers from the town, but having familiar characters would make the scene more impactful…
- So I brought back Dominic…
- Now since he was there, I needed to go back and fill in how he got there, his story continued afterward with a brother, he got a whole backstory, and he became one of the main antagonists
- Annika started out as a clumsy sidekick for Caden who was always messing things up, but as I wrote the story, she evolved into a stronger character
- I liked the idea of Annika being comic relief, but Caden was already the clumsy one
- I Needed a different foil for him so the characters would feel distinct
- At the end of the first draft, I went back and added/changed some scenes:
- Annika saving Caden (when he falls and breaks his legs, and when he drowns)
- Annika making silly mistakes (choosing the wrong exit out of the Basement, and not recognizing Dominic when they meet again at the end)
- This felt much more natural for her character, unlike the original
where her actions felt awkward/forced
After going over that, chat voted that we outline and then write a small part of this prompt, to see how different they end up: a writer tries to get his book published and can do so if he promises to complete a dark task.
Here’s the outline for the story that we came up with:
- Dimitri has written 23 books, none of which have gotten published
- He’s abandoned everything else, his jobs and relationships as he’s spiraled further into desperation.
- He goes to a writing group and meets an old friend there who has recently had some success in publishing. Dimitri asks him how he did it, and the friend tells him the dark task that he can do to get published: “You are what you eat… and what you want to be is a published author.”
- Dimitri must murder/eat another famous author’s brain to gain their writing power.
- He goes through wit it, gets the author’s power, and then the next book he sends out becomes a hit.
- But then it’s revealed to him by another writer that all writers are a part of a centuries-long secret society, where they eat the brains of famous writers after they die to keep the flow of talent going. There were writers waiting to eat the famous author that Dimitri killed, and since he stole their power, they want revenge on him.
- Dimitri runs away and thinks he’s escaped. He feels bad about what he did and he’s still lonely and miserable.
- …but also, he’s ended up trapping himself in an enclosed/jail area where he is forced to write book after book, watched by guards, fattening up his brain for a future writer to eat.
- Plot twist! The writer who gets to eat Demetri’s brain is Stephen King. It’s his origin story.
And here’s the beginning to that story that we wrote together:
I really had high hopes for number twenty-three. And yet, sitting here in the dank basement of my landlord’s house, staring at my laptop screen, nothing but rejection is staring back at me. I’d sent out the manuscript for Squeegee and Gulliby to over fifty literary agents, and the best response I’d gotten so far was, “Sorry, it’s just not for me.”
The first few hundred times that happened, I had to resist the urge to send back a salty, third-grade level e-mail. Something like, “Sorry, your rejection just isn’t for me.” But nowadays, it’s just expected. I’ve spent the past twelve years going back and forth between pouring my heart and soul into a book, and having it ripped apart by silence and rejection every time. It’s an abusive relationship that I’ve grown numb to, but can’t run away from because of that small glimmer of hope that maybe next time will be different.
With a heavy sigh, I close out my e-mail and open up my work homepage: The Postmortem Report. It’s an exclusive website where coroners and medical examiners upload videos of autopsies being performed, and failure writers such as myself can watch them and transcribe the actions and dialogue for a few pennies per word.
If you get really detailed with the gory bits, you can stand to make a decent amount of cash, and let’s just say I have a way with describing the way “crimson blood puddles into hollow cavities carved within the hills of mustard-yellow fat, no longer coursing through flesh and bone by the pumping of a heart, but merely dragged down by the undead throes of gravity.”
For some reason, I always get called back specifically to do more. Supposedly the transcriptions are just supposed to help with database organization and searches, but I have a feeling there’s some sicko who just loves getting off to my visceral descriptions. Whatever. It pays the bills and leaves me plenty of time to waste my life away.
As you can see, there’s a key detail added in the story versus the outline: Dimitri’s job as an autopsy transcriber.
Once we started actually writing the story, we found out pretty quickly that we needed a way to connect Dimitri to the eventual murder he would commit. Not only that, but we needed a conceivable job that he could have. Something connected to writing, but also a little strange and unique. Autopsy transcriber hits all those notes, and we had no idea that’s what he’d be until we wrote the actual story. (Huge thanks to MookieMC in the chat for the great suggestion!)
Not only that, but his job could also add more to the story as well. Maybe he transcribes the autopsy of a famous author and notices bite marks on their corpse? Maybe his friend, the one who tells him about the dark act, is an autopsy video that he watches, which makes him realize he will undergo the same fate? So much of the story is brought to life simply by writing the connective tissue between the bones.
After that, chat voted that we write a story based on this YouTube video about Mount St. Helens.
Here’s what we came up with:
Everyone else is afraid of my fiancee Helen. They just don’t understand her like I do. Where they see an uncontrollable, unpredictable force of nature that can erupt at any time, I see a sweet woman, who doesn’t bother with any of the superficiality that society demands.
Helen is completely natural, hates being confined by such trivial things as clothes and makeup, and has curves so smooth you can rub your fingers along them for days and still find new, exciting places. Her trembles are not from anger, but from the intense pleasure with which she faces the world. A joy that most of humanity has forgotten in their race to the bottom, but that has always been a part of her.
And now, it’s time to show everyone who Helen really is, and how much she means to me. She’s in the news again, something about smoking in public, but I’m not concerned with how the media tries to spin her into something evil. Only I know who she really is.
I take the next plane to Washington State, and ren a car out to Skamania County, where Helen lives. It’s where we first met each other, and I’ve always meant to move out there, finally putting an end to our long-distance relationship. Maybe now, this is a sign that it’s finally time.
As I walk toward Helen’s home, hundreds of people try turning me away from her. They shout warnings, point to the sky, but nothing will stop me from seeing my love. Especially not when I have a ring ready for her in my pocket.
It gets harder to breathe as I get closer to Helen. It must be my nerves. I force myself to stay steady and trudge on. Through the trees and the smoky air, I can finally start to see my love.
Finally, there she is. I peer over Helen’s necklace of rocks that circles around her lovely red face. Down below, her cheeks are bubbling with excitement, so warm and passionate like a fire beneath me.
Unable to wait any longer, I take out the ring from my pocket and offer it to Helen, along with my heart, my breath, my life. Eyes closed, I await her response.
And would you believe it? She says yes! And of course she doesn’t do it in the typical way. Not my Helen. No, she erupts in happiness, spraying magma-hot kisses all over my face, neck, and the rest of my body.
Most marriages just last until “death do us part.” But for me and Helen, that’s not long enough. Now, I get to spend the rest of eternity here with her, as a part of her. A hardened rock of a mole on her pretty face. I couldn’t imagine a better fate.
Because I lava her.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Featured image: Pakutaso (edited by me)