When Your Characters Take Over

A common question I get asked in podcast interviews is “do your characters ever take over?” or something similar. I’ve had many writers tell me this happens to them all the time, but not for me. I create in depth profiles for my characters, so I know how they’re going to behave as I write my story.

But just last month this did happen, much to my surprise and delight. As I write this post, I realize that the characters who insisted things go differently were supporting characters. I hadn’t done as an extensive profile on them as I do on my protagonists and antagonists.

How It Came About

One of my characters, Liz, is a suspect in the novel I’m working on. The more scenes I wrote with her, the more antagonistic she got. Not that I intended her to be that way when I started the novel, it just happened. My main character, Gabby, didn’t know Liz anymore, she had changed so much in recent weeks.

Then as I wrote another scene, a mother made the same comment about her son having changed so much she didn’t recognize him anymore. The next line that hit the page was “Sounds like he’s been hanging out with Liz.”

The thoughts cascaded through my mind at that point.

• Do I make them accomplices in the major crime that occurs? My initial response was no, I already have that planned.
• Do I have them hanging around together? Again an initial no.
• Were they having an affair? Ooo, that would be a twist.

And then that voice in my head said, “We’re not having an affair because neither of us is married, but we are lovers.”

I couldn’t leave it alone. Lovers was a great twist because there’s a large age gap between them. No one in town would ever suspect them as a couple. And as accomplices it would work well.

I laughed as I reread that last line of the scene, Sounds like he’s been hanging out with Liz. This line is a thought from Gabby and serves as what is called foreshadowing, giving an indication of what’s to come. Will the reader recognize it as such when they read it? Maybe, maybe not, but certainly once the police discover Liz and her accomplice, they’ll remember that line.

A line born out of my character Liz who just had to have the limelight.

What’s Next

Now I have to rethink several scenes to create this change in direction. I don’t have it all figured out yet, but maybe my characters will help me along the way.

Such is the fun of writing fiction. No matter how much we might plan, we have to be open to detours and better ideas along the way.

I won’t promise but I hope to have book 1 of the Ferguson and Maisie Mystery Series published by late fall. I’m 42,000 words in and still don’t even have a working title for the book.

Ferguson and Maisie are the 2 dogs in the book. Should I include their names in the title? Leave your yes or no in the comments below.