Saturday, May 7, 2011

Help! I'm being overrun by my characters!

For the first time, I diligently worked on an outline before I began writing my current story. Now here I am less than 2000 words into it and the storyline has already changed—dramatically.

Why can’t I stick to my outline?

I suppose my characters have stronger wills than I do. My main character has refused to take the path I charted out for her. Stubborn woman! I sure hope she knows what she’s doing. She seems to have developed into a headstrong woman, instead of the docile, moldable creature I first had her pegged as. Who knew? I suppose I’ll give her a little time to prove her way is better, but I’m reluctant to completely let her have her way.

I am the boss here after all!

At least one of my supporting characters is behaving. She’s a snappy, tell-it-like-it-is kind of woman, so I’m counting on her to keep my MC in line. I can’t allow myself to be overrun by my own creationscan I?

What about you? Do you create detailed outlines for your stories, or do you just wing it? Have you been overpowered by your characters? Please tell me I’m not alone…

4 comments:

Rain Chapman said...

Characters always demand more page time. In my last book, sigh, they took what should have been a novelette somewhere around 20,000 words and , and , and i>, until the darn thing was a 50,000 word book. I didn't ouline for this one and it took over. However I do have one here that I did outline and did stick to the outline... I hate it, lol. I think it's because I didn't let the characters have their say it feels to me like it is boring and predictable. But then again, this could just be me lol.

You are not alone :)
Oh yes, can't forget...
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

i

Maggie said...

Alas, you are not alone. My writing stunk until I gave in and just let my characters have their ways. I do still have to reign them in now and again, but for the most part, I just report what they tell me. Which is funny, because I don't write non-fiction that way at all...

Jeannie said...

You are not the boss. You are simply a means for your characters. They will steal all control and make your fingers type whatever they want to happen ... omg that sounds like a nightmare.

I really should not comment late at night. I think I just scared myself.
LOL.
(I got a sneaky suspicion it was a character which made me post this insane comment--because I CERTAINLY would not have been this nuts.)

Cheryl Hart said...

Isn't it fun to have someone to blame our faux pas on? lol Thanks for the entertaining comment. ;)

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