This is a passage I read today:
Most people read fiction not so much for plot as for company. In a good piece of fiction, you can meet someone and get to know her in-depth, or you can meet yourself, in disguise, and imaginatively live out and understand your passions. –Josip Novakovich
So, for a reader, characters are important. What about their importance for writers?
I’m struggling with a character in one of my stories. The plot needs to go one way, and he is going the other. How far would you let your character dictate your plot, and when would you rein him/her in?
Darc, I’m letting the character have its way. But this will change if during revision I find that the story does not work.
Kym, it is a bit of both I guess 🙂
Ovidia, seeding for another story makes a lot of sense. This might help me out of my current character predicament.
I ‘follow’ characters too. But sometimes they branch off into another potential book/story & I ‘seed’ that for next & carry on with what I’m trying to write…
I try really hard to follow my characters where they go. I can’t decide if that is good writing or failure of leadership;>
I’ve heard this before from writers, though I’ve never experienced it myself. I suppose it depends on the writer. My stories go the way I say they’ll go, period, but for writers who let the story “write itself”, I think they tend to follow the story rather than force themselves over it.
I’ll be interested to see what you decide.