Post #179 August 5 2019

“When Characters Won’t Behave”

In recent weeks, I’ve been working on an episode of my series Time Jumpers.  I have one character named Nathan Golich who just won’t do what my outline says he should do.  It’s like he has a mind of his own and insists on going off in a different direction from what I planned.  I’ll bet this happens to a lot of writers of fiction.  Sometimes characters are ornery and try to force an author to veer off from what he planned.  And I’m not talking about Pirandello and his “Six Characters in Search of an Author” either. 

The question is: should you follow this ornery character on his singular un-outlined journey or not?

1. Why follow a misbehaving character?
    

1. Maybe the character is developing along a story path that is more consistent with what has already occurred.  This could be a problem with your outline or how you originally imagined the character to be.  Try following this new path for awhile and see where it takes you.
2. Maybe the character is responding to things you didn’t outline.  This may be suggesting there are some plot mechanics that should be addressed.  Maybe it’s a motivational issue…the character is motivated by something you didn’t think of, but it’s there subconsciously anyway.
3. Perhaps the character has attributes you didn’t notice before or plan on.  Funny how this is…imagination and experience sometimes rear their heads at the damnedest times.
4. Or maybe the character (as he or she is evolving) seems more interesting, more intriguing, more off beat or quirky than you realized.  In other words, more memorable.  And if they’re more memorable to you, chances are they will be more memorable to your readers as well. 
    

1. Why you should not follow a misbehaving character
    

1. Darn it…the character is just not taking the story where I want it to go.  I’ve got my outline, all my character bios and motivations, my setting details, but this one just won’t behave.  Ask yourself this: what story are you actually trying to tell?  Maybe it’s not the story of this character at all, but of another one.
2. The character motivation somehow doesn’t make sense.  It’s not believable.  Re-think or re-do the bio of this character.  Or ask yourself: what would you do in the same situation?  It is possible to write a character into an impossible situation.  If this happens, you’ve got some backtracking and re-writing to do.
3. Consider telling the story from the Point of View (POV) of another character.  Maybe that’s what this character is telling you: Hey, wake up!  This isn’t my story at all.
4. Go back to square one and start over.

   
   

   A fictional character who won’t behave as you expect or outlined can be both intriguing and annoying at the same time.  There are always rich story possibilities when this happens but every character should always be in service of the greater story.  I believe this is especially true of serial characters, characters who continue from one story to another.   If this happens to you, pay attention and ask some of the questions I’ve outlined above.  Then move forward in whatever direction seems best. In my case, I’ve allowed the character involved to dictate some fairly major changes in the story in the hopes that it will all work out in the end.  Here’s hoping I haven’t misplaced my trust. 
   
5. The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 12, 2019.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.