I am going to kill him!

[Tariel]

Why can my characters never just behave? When they're not spawning family members, they're decide to develop new and "interesting" aspects of their personalities. I know it's probably good for the story, but it's going to make me crazy.

Just needed to rant

 

[sunstruckdream]

I understand completely. I'm working on a new story these days, and 13k in a new character strolled on set, pulled out a chair and plopped himself down in the middle of everything. I'd very much like to kick him. I tried, actually. He just won't budge.

Can this be an official 'rant-about-your-characters' thread?

 

[Tariel]

Sure - we could use an official rant-about-your-characters thread.

I have a character who showed up out of nowhere and decided that he was important to the plot. He was around for 5 months before I finally gave in and told him he could stay. He gave me an arrogant smile and said, "Yeah. I know."

 

[sunstruckdream]

Yeah, they talk back sometimes. I was editing a scene with a not-very-nice character the other day. I told her, "You know what? You're a terrible person. You have no excuses or rights to justify any of what you're saying right now."

I heard her reply quite clearly in my head: "Your point?"

 

[Tariel]

I once had a character who murdered another and when I asked her why she did it, she shrugged innocently and blamed it on another character.

 

[NeoScribe]

"I am the author! You are the character! I outrank you!"

I have often thought this at several of my characters, to which the reply tend to be:
"Did you say something?"

"All I ask is that you be a strong, independent character you buck at her society's view of women. Whoa, wait! Thats a little overboard! Where did you get that gun from? Don't shoot him, he's not an enemy! Enough with the rousing (and xenophobic) speeches! This isn't bucking cultural traditions, this is ignoring everything that shaped you in society to become a temper-tantrum chick with homicidal tendencies!"

It was at this point she stopped to listen and then continued on what she was doing, but not before warping her homeland to make it more like her. Great, a country of racist, prideful, gun-nuts. Thanks to her own doing the character is no longer a pedestal for equality but a product of her society.

 

[Tariel]

Disturbingly enough, my characters have been behaving this week. I'm starting to get concerned.

 

[abbiestract]

my characters never behave! i allways want them to get into trouble but they never do!!! it makes me so mad!!!i dont understand! they dont wanto have fun! they just want to fall in love! i have a couple, and all they do is kiss and babysit!!! and then theres the little kid that is allways fishing and letting the fish go! why!? agh! then sombody goes swimming! its so boring! i cant take it!!!

 

[Tariel]

my characters never behave! i allways want them to get into trouble but they never do!!! it makes me so mad!!!i dont understand! they dont wanto have fun! they just want to fall in love! i have a couple, and all they do is kiss and babysit!!! and then theres the little kid that is allways fishing and letting the fish go! why!? agh! then sombody goes swimming! its so boring! i cant take it!!!

Give them something to deal with - introduce some conflict into their complacent lives. Shake things up a bit. Give them motivation.

 

[avatarblade2000]

Since we're talking about characters MISBEHAVING:

I usually flesh out a character in one sitting. I write up their quirks, drives, pasts, etc., all in a notebook completely dedicated to them, till I can't think of anything else to write.

Somehow, inexplicably, I was writing out a character - and another one kind of budded off the other. So I had two different characters now spawned from the same idea.

So I tried again. And again. AND AGAIN. And now I have twice the amount of characters than I had before when I wrote out my original cast. So I'm either going to have to pad things down, or write even more stories.

Or, follow Tariel's example and just start killing them off. ;p