Sometimes the Characters Take Overs
Sometimes the Characters in My Novels Take Over the Story
Now this doesn’t happen to me all of the time. I don’t think I noticed it while writing the “Dark Lady Series.” Those characters pretty well followed the script. Probably just as well for my first published medieval fantasy trilogy.
Then I wrote “The Queen’s Pawn.” I decided to lighten things up from the goings on in Dark Lady and created a protagonist who was innocent and way out of his depth and threw him deep into life and death situations coming at him from all directions. He had to reluctantly rescue a queen and her daughter and get them to safety. In her opening scenes the queen came across as a bit flighty, and her daughter was downright nasty. I thought this was funny. I guess the queen didn’t. She quickly revealed her true character and took over her part in the story. Even her daughter changed and forced me to uncover her backstory. I let them run with it for three volumes.
I notice these things happen from time to time. You create a character, set them on what you think is their path, and they don’t always behave.
When I decided to write my sci fi epic about a giant spaceship hovering over Ottawa I knew two of the main characters would be Paul, a bored civil servant, and his sister Lucile, an ex-military type at loose ends. I hadn’t decided when I started who would play the lead. Lucile and her friends soon took over, hence the book’s title: “Of Destiny’s Daughters.” At least Paul makes a return appearance in the later books.
“The Perils of Paul” (no relation to the above Paul) is the novel I’m currently serializing on my author Facebook page. I created the main characters in the first chapter and turned them loose. Some of the characters surprised me early on with what they got up to, or who they turned out to be.
It helps me in my writing to get to know the characters early in the tale so when I get into difficult scenes I can rely on what they would do in a given situation. That’s just the way I write. Makes things more interesting and makes me want to discover how it will all turn out in the end.
Now this doesn’t happen to me all of the time. I don’t think I noticed it while writing the “Dark Lady Series.” Those characters pretty well followed the script. Probably just as well for my first published medieval fantasy trilogy.
Then I wrote “The Queen’s Pawn.” I decided to lighten things up from the goings on in Dark Lady and created a protagonist who was innocent and way out of his depth and threw him deep into life and death situations coming at him from all directions. He had to reluctantly rescue a queen and her daughter and get them to safety. In her opening scenes the queen came across as a bit flighty, and her daughter was downright nasty. I thought this was funny. I guess the queen didn’t. She quickly revealed her true character and took over her part in the story. Even her daughter changed and forced me to uncover her backstory. I let them run with it for three volumes.
I notice these things happen from time to time. You create a character, set them on what you think is their path, and they don’t always behave.
When I decided to write my sci fi epic about a giant spaceship hovering over Ottawa I knew two of the main characters would be Paul, a bored civil servant, and his sister Lucile, an ex-military type at loose ends. I hadn’t decided when I started who would play the lead. Lucile and her friends soon took over, hence the book’s title: “Of Destiny’s Daughters.” At least Paul makes a return appearance in the later books.
“The Perils of Paul” (no relation to the above Paul) is the novel I’m currently serializing on my author Facebook page. I created the main characters in the first chapter and turned them loose. Some of the characters surprised me early on with what they got up to, or who they turned out to be.
It helps me in my writing to get to know the characters early in the tale so when I get into difficult scenes I can rely on what they would do in a given situation. That’s just the way I write. Makes things more interesting and makes me want to discover how it will all turn out in the end.
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