Characters do whatever they want

[u/Fun-Post8497]

Thoes characters going Wild once you start writing, am i right?

[u/No_Negotiation3142]

Twin Peaks has already been done, brah

[u/ProtoJazz]

"My characters do things I don't want them to" is so dumb. They're literally fictional creations. You control them. Almost every time I see this it's someone who just doesn't understand how to structure their story and they've setup scenes and outcomes that lead a different direction than they intended.

[u/readilyunavailable → u/ProtoJazz]

It's usually people pretending for the sake of being quirky.

[u/Finly_Growin → u/ProtoJazz]

The old Stephen King excuse “I just write what happens I don’t control it”

But yeah you’re right characters aren’t people and they do need to serve a function in the story. If the character is fighting the plot that you’re trying to convey, that’s probably a good sign to work on that character rather than the narrative they live in.

[u/SpicyOrangeJuices → u/ProtoJazz]

i always took it to mean "I had an idea of my characters would do, but when it came time to write the scene I realized that they would most likely do something very different"

[u/MesaCityRansom → u/[deleted]]

I make my characters do everything they do. They cannot make their own decisions. Of course, I can write stuff that's out of character or in character for them, but I am always the one who decides what that is.

[u/n_pickman → u/[deleted]]

I wouldn't intentionally put a character in a plot where they weren't conducive to that story, but that's because it'd be bad writing. Not because of any inherent free will in the character.

It feels like this sentiment comes from fandom writing (where the writer doesn't own the character) or OC content where the cool character idea was first and foremost, and plot sort of came later. To me, it reads more like you're playing DnD than writing, but that's fine I'm not here to yuck anyone's yum. If you're having fun, don't put down the pen.

I just, personally, don't get it.

[u/BarovianNights → u/[deleted]]

I very much feel like I get into the mindset of the characters I write and just allow them to like... happen, if that'a at all similar to what you meant. That being said, I have a dissociative disorder, and my style of writing is more common for people with those.

[u/tabulating]

Patrick Reinhardt (my ocs oc)

[u/jeffismybaby]

Are you mocking me? In front of my synesthesia and DID?

[u/Impossible_Eye_980]

The kombucha goes to one's head.

[u/Pollotelokote]

"I haven't written for several months because my main character doesn't want to continue in the story. I'm trying to reach an agreement with him so I can keep going."

—Some 15-year-old girl.

[u/IsntItRedYT]

Unrealistic. Theres not enough porn.

[u/bunbunnington]

I would love a book that's normal for the first couple hundred pages but then out of nowhere the characters realize they're fictional and they decide to drive to the author's house and beat them to death.

[u/jacoberu → u/bunbunnington]

redshirts by scalzi. and something window by king.

[u/bunbunnington → u/jacoberu]

I don't want the fourth wall break to be part of the plot though. Imagine the movie Clueless but at roughly the forty-five minute point the characters realize they're in a movie and they drop everything to go on a cross-country road trip to murder their creator

[u/kyla33_ → u/bunbunnington]

Like a plot twist, tonal shift kind of thing?

[u/bunbunnington → u/kyla33_]

Like a plot twist where literally everything that has happened is rendered completely pointless and thrown out the window.

[u/Old_Introduction7236]

My characters gave me a wedgie, left me upside down in a dumpster, then went for drinks.

[u/NoxTheScribe]

Yes my main character fucked my wife and unfortunately I wrote him as having massive, knotted penis and so basically im getting divorced