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kasihyaTell us about a time your characters surprised you. Maybe you thought for sure they'd react a certain way to a certain situation, or that a plot would happen in such and such a fashion... and it just didn't. What came out ended up making you go 'huh!' or 'whaa?' or 'Wait no you're making me have to change the entire novel!!' but either way, you weren't prepared for what your characters said or did.
DUDE OKAY so I have a couple big ones here, things that have, or are going to, change the entire structure of my Novel.
The biggest one, by far, is Tanwen, who surprised me by showing up in one scene as a minor character who was mysteriously connected to Andras. And then in all subsequent drafts after that, she was a main character. Sneaky woman.
In the first draft of the novel, a huge part of the driving force was supposed to be about Neirin's devastation over losing Taran. And the reason that that draft petered out ... and the second ... was because it took a long, long time to figure out that Neirin simply refused to be devastated. I'd counted on it, I'd built up his relationship with Taran, and then when they were actually separated, his reaction was less 'brother where art thou I love you' and more 'oh thank the gods that load is off me, now I can go do important shit!' This ended up massively changing the force of the story: I had to rework it because this difference between perception and reality of their relationship is really important, and that is now what fuels their story.
I also had a recent one where Taran, being the xenophobic, angry preteen that he is, I 'd assumed that he would hate everyone in the Sisawain caravan on sight, no exceptions. And then Mairwen comes along, and goads him, and it actually made him respect her, instead of hate her. And Rhian, who is assumed to be mentally handicapped, he sees as someone he needs to protect from her family, because they're all obviously misguided in treating her differently. So his feelings for his owners are a tad more complicated and multi-dimensional than I'd thought they would be. Which is fantastic, because otherwise that whole arc would have been just frustrating to read.
DUDE OKAY so I have a couple big ones here, things that have, or are going to, change the entire structure of my Novel.
The biggest one, by far, is Tanwen, who surprised me by showing up in one scene as a minor character who was mysteriously connected to Andras. And then in all subsequent drafts after that, she was a main character. Sneaky woman.
In the first draft of the novel, a huge part of the driving force was supposed to be about Neirin's devastation over losing Taran. And the reason that that draft petered out ... and the second ... was because it took a long, long time to figure out that Neirin simply refused to be devastated. I'd counted on it, I'd built up his relationship with Taran, and then when they were actually separated, his reaction was less 'brother where art thou I love you' and more 'oh thank the gods that load is off me, now I can go do important shit!' This ended up massively changing the force of the story: I had to rework it because this difference between perception and reality of their relationship is really important, and that is now what fuels their story.
I also had a recent one where Taran, being the xenophobic, angry preteen that he is, I 'd assumed that he would hate everyone in the Sisawain caravan on sight, no exceptions. And then Mairwen comes along, and goads him, and it actually made him respect her, instead of hate her. And Rhian, who is assumed to be mentally handicapped, he sees as someone he needs to protect from her family, because they're all obviously misguided in treating her differently. So his feelings for his owners are a tad more complicated and multi-dimensional than I'd thought they would be. Which is fantastic, because otherwise that whole arc would have been just frustrating to read.
