Does what your characters do often change your plot
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40192)
Canada
October 14, 2007 12:51pm CST
I was revising my novel yesterday, and was fixing up a part where the hero and his friend are going someplace. Now in my novel, I got them going someplace and in the previous draft, it was that they just happened to go there and spend the night and the wife asked if they would look into a friend of her's.
Now in this revision, I had the man who sent them on their journey tell them to look up this man and his wife because of the background of both of them. So now this means, that their plans may be altered, and they may have to meet some new people.
So in writing, have you had to change the plot based on what the character does?
2 people like this
4 responses
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
14 Oct 07
I am not a writer but it makes sense that if you change the plot, the characters reactions will change.Just follow this new plot and see where it takes you.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Oct 07
Sounds good to me, but it is a bother sometimes. I wish he had stuck with the plot.
1 person likes this
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
18 Oct 07
If you are the one writing the story, you can always go back to the original plot, but if you are reading the story, you are stuck with the author's journey.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
5 Nov 07
The trouble is sometimes the original plot does not work. I start finding answers or rather reasons for something that happens later in the plot. Then I have to revise the first two chapters to correspond with what is happening next.
1 person likes this
@billy_shears (144)
• United States
22 Oct 07
I think when your characters start telling you what they want to do, you're really writing. Good job!
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
5 Nov 07
Yes, I have this character in my novel who wants to be king, this other character who is a megomaniac, his son who is not that bright but gabs all the time, the hero who wants to teach but gets asked to do dangerous things, and this sweet young thing who eats jam and bread in bed and gets crumbs over everything.
@healwell (1268)
• Ahmedabad, India
15 Oct 07
Well Suspenseful! We know that some time character leads the plot! And some time, if the writer is firm in plot, what ever changes come in character/s the writer goes with the original plot and do the related things with characters!
After all the writer is the main decission-factor: If you want to change the plot considering little change occurred in the charactor/s, otherwise lead the character/s considering the main plot.
But the best is to guess about the story, which could be the best for that? The story should not be suffer
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Oct 07
This is mainly a character driven story and this one is a strong character who had some heart break in his life and he lands someplace different. I am not that good with plots, because I was always trying to change the chapters around depending on what the character does, so I decided if I see what the character would do, and write it, then it will show what will happen next.
@mipen2006 (5528)
• Australia
15 Oct 07
I have read and edited my novel more times than I can remember, and each time there is something I needed to change, but never the plot because of what the characters do. However I can relate to this depending on the genre of the noval. Because my novel is set from 1988 through 2002, my main problem was to ensure I did not include any technical advances that were not available at the time. This was a headache. Good luck with your novel suspensful.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Oct 07
My novel starts in the 1970s and I had to go and find not only what songs were popular in the 1970s but what songs were popular at the time my character left the country. I do have the basic plot, but when I started on my novel, it was about him first having trouble with his ex-wife who had his son, then he was going somewhere where he would have nothing to do with her, but now I have to change why he was going to that place because his character would not run away and that will now impact the end of the novel.
The middle part is very basic, but had the character been more of a coward, I would not have this problem.
