After having written out, a very neat and cohesive plot design for this book, as I approach the writing of the final third, which is quite tight as it's a thriller, I find my characters are not really behaving as I wanted them to.

I know this is thought often to be a good thing, in that maybe its my subconscious putting in it 10 pence worth, and it might well turn out in ways I couldn't possibly have predicted and which are better. But when I look at my plot plan and my ms and it seems the two are getting further away from each other - though I will say the end point remains the same.

What should I do? Should I just be firmer with everyone? Or should I bin the plot plan and have faith in the process, so long as I end up at the right point. (which I am).

Thank you so much if anyone has any experience of this or on dealing with characters. (This comes after two of them just fell in love with each other on a dance floor, which I really wasn't expecting...)

I have been thinking about this book for an awfully long time...

I would go with the flow, personally. You will only know if it works when you get to the end and then you will have the opportunity to redraft if you think it's just gone bonkers.

Yup, I'd go with the flow too. Just be prepared to change the ending if necessary. Sometimes I find a novel where the plot goes down a perfectly logical avenue, but the author didn't seem to know how to end it and stck on the original ending which nolonger fitted.

Totally go with it. I remember the last time it happened to me I actually said "what!" and burst out laughing.

Ben Yezir

I had a character pacing in a field - for no reason whatsoever. I mean, why would anyone have a character that walks up and down a field? However, by the end of the book it became logical (unexpectedly).

Saying that, in my second complete rewrite of the book, there is less emphasis on the pacing - for some reason. I'm sure I'll find out why by the end of the book!

Sharley

I'd say go with it for now - see where it goes. Often, as Sharley says, it turns out fine.

You may find, as a friend of mine put it, that you have to retro-fit some stuff about the character, or the plot, or both, in the early part of the book, but that's not the end of the world.

Emma

Thank you very much for this, chaps, going with it is what I had in mind as it just seemed to produce the better stuff, really. Thank you again. Have good writing days!

"I mean, why would anyone have a character that walks up and down a field?"

Sharley, I immediately thought of this:- Cary Grant and the crop-spraying scene from North By North West, one of my all time favourite films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5D1aeNB2Bc&NR=1

Please tell me... why was the plane trying to shoot him? Why didn't he get on the bus with his 'friend'? Why was the music so loud (lol!)?

Now I want to watch the film to find out - but I prefer the easy route (being given the answers!).




<Added>

Actually, that was badly phrased... I should have said 'why was someone IN the plane trying to shoot him', but maybe it was an alien plane...

Oh dear - really not showing my literary credentials here - but there is a whole scene in one of the Chalet School books about this, where the teenage Joey Bettany is writing her first children's novel and complains that "I can't make the characters do what I want them to" because they seem to have minds of their own and want to go their own way.

IIRC Madge or someone pats her on the head and tells her that this is a sign that she is becoming a "real writer".

So there you go FunnyValentine. Consider yourself duly patted.

Sorry - I would love to quote from James Wood or something more highbrow but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

You're doing better than me... I could just about manage a quote from Enid Blyton, if I could think of one

Thanks, guys. You are all up very late...

I know there's one quote "The book's the boss." But couldn't tell you for the life of me who said it!

This is a Good Thing

I suspect that, when you sat down and worked out your neat plot, you didn't know your characters as well as you do now, which is why you thought they would act in ways that weren't natural to them. Now that you know them better, you can let them lead the plot.

Dee

Why was the music so loud (lol!)?

Because it's a completely brilliant piece of music!

Jan

Because it's a completely brilliant piece of music!

Well thank God for a bit of intelligence!