Being a Generous God - when they go against the divine plan

As creators, we believe that we are the gods of our stories. The tales we weave are of our construct and the characters are subject to our petty whims…at first. When we begin to craft our worlds and populate them with, what we hope, are well rounded characters, we usually do so with an ultimate plan in mind. The character will go here, say and/or do this and then the following will happen.

But more often than one might want to admit, we find that when our characters get to the designated place in our story they say something completely different and you are left sitting there, staring at the screen or paper thinking, “Excuse me?”

It is a very exciting and worrisome moment. You’re proud of how your creation is becoming their own person and you want to encourage that in some way. But then you look at your master plan, tap your fingers on the desk, and maybe try and urge them in a different direction. So they say what they are supposed to say and you both think your happy, but, lingering in the back of your collective minds, you know that it doesn’t ring true.

Characters running away with a story is more common than you think. Sara Douglass, the Australian author of the popular Axis Trilogy and its sequel, the Wayfarer Redemption, commented on one such character, Faraday, saying, “She was never meant to become a major character – she just "grew". I couldn't control her.” (You can read the article here.)

So what do you do when a character suddenly becomes more major than you expect? There appears to be two options. First one is to say, “Tough nuggets sweetheart! We’re doing it my way!” but you run the real risk of producing forced dialogue and inconsistent actions from your characters.

The other? You sit them down and have a long talk. Reflect on what it is that makes them a strong character. Is there a place for them to grow and have more weight in the story? Can you mould parts of your story around them to accommodate them? Are you perhaps neglecting other characters? Could fleshing them can provide a balance? Take the time to understand their character.

And maybe just give them a little bit of leeway from time to time. What’s the harm if they go a little off script?

Want to talk more about this with us? This will be the topic of our Quackchat this Sunday evening at 5:30PM(EST). In the meantime, let us know if you have experienced this! What did you do when you realised this was happening?

Till next week lovelies!