Thank you for the reblog! A big hug across the water to you, my furry friend!
It often surprises me when a character goes off in his own direction or reacts in an unexpected way to a situation. Kinda cool, though!
It’s one of the best reasons to be a writer–that sense of surprise and awe makes the hard work worth it.
I have a story in my head that has a rough arc: An event happens, the MCs panic and run, they get captured, escape, try to run again, and, due to events that happen outside their purview, end up back where they started–only this time with a plan and a network. Everything that happens between major events is up to the characters. And so far the story has surprised me in places.
Mostly, though, I’m a “pantser” with a character speaking in my ear and no clear direction where she or he is going. I have a vignette I introduced to my online writing group that I need to finish, and if I knew where the characters were going with this start, the story I write could be a LOT of fun.
I have to confess – it has happened twice that the characters themselves have forced me to change the ending of a novel from what I had planned. Once not too much, but yes, it was a change. Another time, it was radically different from how I originally envisioned it, and nearly didn’t get finished.
When I don’t have some sort of plan to go by, my plot just sort of wanders all over the place. So I personally do need an outline of sorts, something to help me “ride herd” on my more wayward characters.