When Writing Gets Its Own Way

Hello! And Happy Spring!

Ruth over at Amongst Spring Blossoms has initiated a "write about your writing" week, which looks like supreme fun! Even though I'm posting very late on the last day of the writing week. (sorrryyyyy!!!) And so I have decided to write this post about...The Writing. More specifically, about what happens when I sit down to write but then the characters and the story take over from me and write themselves.*CAUTION: This post is bound to be disjointed and rambly!*

To begin, have you ever been writing something, intending it to end a certain way, and then looked back later and realized that it turned out completely unlike how you intended? For example, I've been working on my last prequel, chronologically right before the trilogy (the six book series ended up like Star Wars and no I didn't plan that), and I finished the very first handwritten draft not long ago. As I've been reading through it and making (mostly mental) notes about what to change, I suddenly realized that a very great portion of the story is a love story.

How did that happen? I didn't intend this! But all of a sudden, there it is, and there's no way I can change it. I mean, it's a Very Necessary element of the plot, we all must admit. I didn't mean for that to be such a central element of the story, and of course I try to keep any amount of romance as un-sappy and as respectable as possible (ahem, I don't do lines like "I'd die for you" or "I don't like sand"). However, the story took a turn in a direction that I had not expected. 

Sometimes I find that certain characters have more of a propensity to dictate their own actions than others. There are a few I can control. A Few. But many of them just pop up and tell me "this is what I'm doing next, get your pen ready." *glares at a certain character* 

Has this ever happened to you? Have you been writing, intending a certain character to do a certain thing, and then it somehow ends up differently? The funny thing is that when my characters take over the book for me, it occasionally turns out to be much better than I could have managed on my own.

I think the reason that authors (maybe it's just me...I am remotely crazy) say "my characters took over the story for me" is that they tend to think in the minds of their characters. For example, my Sherlock Holmes Story. I was trying to keep it so much in the spirit of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories - keeping characters and the "feel" authentic, and the only way I could really do that was to try thinking the way that my characters would think. Now, right now I'm trying to write what Mycroft Holmes would say...let's see...he's grumpy, lazy, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about really anything...Sherlock as a young boy? He would be unfazed at his own oddness when he is around other children, act very mature for his age, and always be figuring things out in the background. 

When I start to talk to myself like this in my head is when some of (arguably) my most realistic writing takes place. Who knows why? Maybe I get more "into" the story that way. Maybe it's easier to write realistic dialogue if you realistically think about your characters' personalities and what they would say. Maybe I'm just crazy. That's probably it. 

In any case, I used to think it was ridiculous when authors in movies and such would say that the characters took over and the story wrote itself. When they talked about their characters being very real to them, I was skeptical. But now, after writing six books (writing being a relative term including things that are just hand-drafted), I think I begin to understand. 

Hmm...this is a rather short post. But there isn't much else to say. I just happened to be thinking about the ways that stories change when you least expect them to, the way that characters can get a bit out of hand. What are your thoughts? Have you ever had characters seem to dictate your story? 

(because there has to be a Princess Bride quote in here somewhere)