My characters are getting away from me

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The last while, a couple of my characters decided to go in directions other than what I had planned. I feel like all I can do is hang on, and hope the stories come out okay in the end. Anybody else feel like that?

Why does the Sting song (and

Why does the Sting song (and the comedians classic reply) come to mind.

"If you love someone, set them free"
"and if they don't come back, hunt them down and kill them"

:)

Sorry, the smart ass in me couldn't help it...

I encourage it...

I try to encourage my characters to write the story for me. Always have.

Abigail Drew.

Absolutely.

Sometimes, I can have a whole story planned out from beginning to end. Sometimes, I have an idea and possibly what the last page looks like. Mostly, though, I start writing and let the plot dictate what might happen.

The classic example of this is The State Does Not Make Mistakes. When I started that, I literally had no idea where it was going beyond the next paragraph or two, and sometimes not even that. I'm amazed it worked out as well as it did.

Sometimes, of course, it doesn't work out and you have to either threaten your characters or dump the story. I suspect a number of the unfinished stories that you find on BCTS are like that, someone had an idea and got going, then after a while ran out of steam.

Penny

Of course, that's how the

Of course, that's how the best stories come about.

You create the identity of your characters and their interpersonal relationships dictate how they are going to react.

You can throw situations at them, but they are who you created them to be.

I use a tool created by Emma Smith in Java to help me keep my characters straight, 'Character Toybox'

It used to be available online at somachange, but that site is no longer online.

Maggie Finson and Aardvark both helped in the creation of the tool.

This is the E-mail address listed in the tool.
[email protected]

I know that Emma comes around here from time to time so you might leave her a note. I'd offer to share the program, but it's not mine to share.
(The character generator is awesome.)

If you're reading this Emma, thank you so much!

Wholeman
Yes, the weird author with the boob fetish.

Yes, the weird author with the boob fetish.

huh.

And here I've mostly just kept them in my head. I do WRITE bios for them... and then never look at them again.

Might explain the voices... ;P

Abigail Drew.

Ouch... not good ^^ Your

Ouch... not good ^^ Your discarded character profiles talk to you - "plz write about me" ^^

Well... I haven't written that many stories. Non really finished ;) I just develope a general personality and a background and make up the rest while writing the story or dreaming.

I tend to let my characters do what they want, if they want to write the story I don't complain. Less work for me...

All the time:)

And that's perfectly alright. I've written scenes and things that weren't planned ans as they've happened I'm sitting back and going "Whoa." There are times where it's perfectly alright to be the stenographer for your characters. Them taking over the story is a good thing for the most part it's excellent character development.

If they start using your bank card and getting credit cards...that's when you should get worried.

*Hugs*
Bailey.

Bailey Summers