Misbehaving Characters

The other day I was writing when my roommate asked me to help her move something. I did, and my mind drifted to the scene I was working on. As we finished, I let out a GAH and said, "My characters are trying to skip school and they're not supposed to! I don't know what they're doing!"

To which, understandably, my roommate responded, "Well, can't you just make them not skip?"

"But... but they want to! They're about to leave and they weren't supposed to. They're just supposed to eat lunch. I don't know if I can get them to stay. I probably sound crazy."

To which, understandably, my roommate responded, "Yeah, you really do." Note: she also smiled and laughed and is thankfully supportive of the crazy writer mind.


But when I sat back down at my computer, just as I was about to go along with my characters' little scheme to cut class on me, I realized they couldn't. Really couldn't.

A. It wasn't in line with their characters, though the circumstances would have still made the blip in their character understandable and allowable.

So, most importantly, B. Cutting class was an act in complete contrast to one of the character's main motivations. He'd never do it, even if he wanted to. Even if he could.

I was then able to scold my characters for trying such a sneaky thing and they behaved by eating their lunches and going back to class.

I share this story for two reasons. First, it's hard to explain to the non-writerly types in my life how there are so many decisions in my writing I don't actively make (in the first draft, anyway), and I think that's one of the coolest parts about it. I have this map for my characters in my mind, and there are specific stops I know they are going to make, but I don't necessarily know which routes they are going to choose along the way.

I've discovered that when I get most excited about my work in progress and really start cranking out pages is when I have enough of the plot figured out that I can't wait to figure out how the characters are going to reach each turn and how it will affect them in ways I haven't considered yet. When I start seeing how all the pieces will fall together, that's when I go on a writing frenzy because I want to see the finished product.

Second, as easy as it sometimes is to let our characters start doing crazy things without our permission and take control of their own story, as the master of their lives, it's our job to second guess them. We have to always be aware of their overriding motivation and drive so that we can keep them in line.

Do you ever have wayward characters? Do you also find that you aren't actively making all of your first draft decisions?

Falling In Love...With a Character

More than once in my life,  I've finished a book and felt like one of the characters was out there somewhere still, if only I could find them. But I never can. And eventually I have to accept that when the book is over, my time with that character is up.

When I read The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, I sat still, alone, for thirty minutes. I was hoping that if I didn't move Susie Salmon didn't cease to exist. And since she didn't exist anymore - since what was in those pages was all I was ever going to know about her and her family - I had to figure out how to go on with my life. It sounds melodramatic, I know, but it's truly what happened. Perhaps, then, it isn't hard to believe that even though I find it nearly impossible to choose a favorite book, that one is definitely high on the list.

Actually, here's something I wrote shortly after reading that book...

A weird feeling usually comes over me when I finish a book. The characters within it are forever frozen in time, and I am left only with reality. My first instinct is to go read another book, become lost in new characters, and travel to a new world. But then I feel somewhat guilty for leaving the last characters behind so quickly. I think, though, that just as there are moments and people in my life I will never forget, there are characters, chapters, and novels that not only changed me but will always remain a part of me, as though they existed beyond mere words placed on a page.

It's obviously happened with other books, too. I kid you not, one night I was praying and thinking through everyone I needed to pray for, and nearly prayed for a character in a book I was reading who was really struggling. Nearly, but just in time I remembered she was fake. 


As an aspiring author, that feeling I've had about characters is one I certainly want to give a reader. And as always, I think the best way to learn how to write that is to look at the books that accomplish it. So how do authors create characters that we can't forget? How do they become so real?


I've thought about it a lot, and I think one of the most important requirements for me is that the character must be relatable. I clearly don't want their life to be just like mine, because half the joy of reading is exploring the unknown I might otherwise never get to see, or perhaps doesn't even exist anywhere (cough cough, Hogwarts). But for me it's important that some aspect of their thoughts, actions, motivations, or personality makes sense to me so that I feel like I am experiencing every thing that doesn't make sense along with them.


Take Susie Salmon, for example. I clearly have not had all my body parts cut up and thrown away. And, believe it or not, I'm not writing this from the afterlife (Shocking, I know!). So how did I become so attached to her? First of all, her voice. She's young and innocent. She's upset. And she's watching her family deal with life in her absence. I couldn't relate to her circumstances, but I was right beside her as she watched life progress on earth. I understood why she had to watch, and that was enough.


So what makes you love a character so much you never want the book to end? And how do we, as writers, go about accomplishing that in our own works?