Breathe life into a character and watch it run amuck

   

    Have you ever lost control of a character? You know, you're going along, following your outline, setting up a certain scene, when all of a sudden, your antagonist demands empathy and, in fact, weakens the protagonist's holier-than-thou claim to virtue and morality, turning your story on its head, and leaving you grasping for answers to right the ship. 

    It's times like these that leave me shaking my head, wondering if I'm in the least bit of control over what I'm writing. It makes me wonder if I'm only a conduit for a story foretold long before I put fingers to keyboard. Something with a life all its own, just waiting to take wing and fly far, far away from its intended perch. Try as you might; it can be nearly impossible to rein in these rogue characters once they've gotten a taste of freedom. They sense a bigger world out there, with endless possibilities, and long to shake free the one-dimensional chains that bind them. Oh, I'm just the lead character's love interest? Well, think again, bucko. As long as ink flows through these veins, I'll prove my worth and steal every scene you place me in–bit part, my ass. The character who started out so meek and mild suddenly erupts into an absolute firebrand, and now you don't know what to do. 

    So you find yourself building in new scenes, adjusting the story to meet their needs, damn the outline. A pleasant evening at a restaurant turns into overturned tables and thrown wine. Idyllic drives in the country end in overturned cars and flames. Everyone in the story is in turmoil, not knowing up from down. Your lead character pleads with you to get it back on the rails, but it's all turned into something you don't even recognize and has, in fact, morphed into something you didn't know you had in you to write. It's good, maybe even great. The characters drive the story, not the other way around.