Bossy Characters

I love my characters, so even when the evil ones want to do their own thing, I can't do anything but shrug and sigh and rant about it to my other characters. The thing about characters, I've found, is that they tend to stick together. When they're doing what they want, they may hate each other, but let me try to control the story and BAM! You've got the prejudiced girl and muggleborn bound together in their resistance. It's rather cute, sometimes.

Maybe that's why Lily stopped hating James! Jo tried to change the story, and they decided to band together to keep the story the way they wanted, and Lily fell for James!

But seriously, I think you just have to let go of your characters for a bit. After all, they tend to know themselves better than you do.

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After all, they tend to know themselves better than you do.

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*nods head* I completely agree, Tink! Jill, my OC, she has taken over every aspect of my life. She has left fanfiction and had friends learn about my HP love, she has popped into RL school assignments, and she even got my parents to read about her!

So, really, Jill is love. Your OC knows more about themselves than you, but they also know more about you than you do. When Jill started stretching into all parts of my life, it was sort of like having a friend. She was someone always in my head and she helped me with my life. Whenever I wrote Jill she was well developed because, to me, she was no longer just a character but a new part of me. *tear tear* How touching.

My advice to anyone, and I think we've agreed on this, do not force your character to do something they don't want to. Even if you plan for your OC to march into death and destruction, if it is the right thing for them, they will do it.

Ohh, I know all about those bossy characters! *attempts to sound like some old lady but fails* My newest OC, Leeandra, was going to be the loud, raucious, prankster best friend of Liz Potter. This letter came into my head once I started writing about her in my note book:

Dear Alanna,
I know you wanted a loud, raucious, pranking friend for Liz, but that soo isn't my thing. You should get Lela for that. I'll introduce you later. Oh, yeah, you've gotten my discription totally wrong. I'm in the minority of the minority. Let me be one of the few black girls on that lovely site! I can't help it that I had a birth defect so I can't walk and that I use a wheelchair! So stop trying to change me!

I hope that cleared that up,
Leeandra
P.S.-I'm a Ravenclaw, and if you make me be some theatric, I will hex you.

She introduced me to Lela later. She's from Australia. :D

I know exactly what you mean! I was trying to make a quiet, kind, gentle roommate for my main charecter. What happens but the second I try to introduce her into the story she takes on a whole new personality. For example:

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“Ugh, I am sooo annoyed!” [Beth] groaned. “I told my mom yesterday that all the clothes she wanted to put in my trunk were, like, sooo much to small! But she’s just gone ahead and put them in! I mean, look at me. Aren’t I like soo fat? But my mom is just like, ‘don’t be silly, dear. You’re just fine as you are.’ I am like, totally, NOT fine. I mean, those clothes are like, soo too big for me, ya’know? And now I have to wear them until I can get her to buy me like, totally new clothes. I mean, like, if we were like, in third year, I’d be, like, totally fine, because I’d like, just go to Hogsmeade, but as it is, I mean, I’m like, totally screwed, ya’know?”

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She said 'like' six times in the last sentence alone. It's very, very different from how I first envisioned her.

I think the difference came about because I wanted to make her jealous. At first it was going to be a quiet jealeousy, but then I started to make her more emotional, and then more open, and then more annoyed at trivial things. Because I wanted her to be jealous, I wanted to show how she has 'issues' about her weight. My main charecter is slim, so I thought that Beth might jealous of that, as well as my main charecter's popularity. And the sort of girl who would be worried about clothes and weight may be the sort of girl who is concerned about popularity. So, actually, Beth didn't really change. She just expanded.

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Originally Posted by DogLover4Life

My advice to anyone, and I think we've agreed on this, do not force your character to do something they don't want to. Even if you plan for your OC to march into death and destruction, if it is the right thing for them, they will do it.

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I agree and disagree here. It really depends on what story you want to write. I think there are limitless possibilities for stories. And if you're writing a multi-point of view story, you have two different characters who might try to take the reins.

You have to let them be who they are, but you do have some say in what happens to them. In other words, if you know them well enough, you will know exactly what to do to them that would cause them to do the thing you want them to do... all on their own.

A good example is Prisoner of Azkaban. If Harry had learned who Sirius was *first* and *then* had people telling him not to go after him, I think he might have reacted differently. But by the time he *does* learn about the betrayal, he probably feels slightly betrayed by the people telling him not to go after him because they didn't tell him and he could reasonably think that this is something he has a right to know.

There's also something to be said for getting influenced by what you've written before or what is frequently written. One of my stories is a Snape/Hermione *friendship*... They keep making eyes at each other and want to turn it into a romance... but I *don't* think they're necessarily destined to be together and I do think it's possible for them to never come to an understanding and also possible for them to become friends without it turning into a romance. But because I've written romances with them and *read* a lot, I think it's a sort of "default" that my mind moves to. In other words, it's hard to say when a *character* is speaking up and saying, "No, you've got me wrong. I'd definitely do this" and when part of your mind is thinking "Well that worked before, so it must be the only choice."

So, on the one hand, I agree that "if you plan for your OC to march into death and destruction, if it is the right thing for them, they will do it", but on the other hand, if they don't want to, I think the author is perfectly capable of coming up with a set of circumstances that will make them decide to do it. I agree that you can't just send them into battle if they don't want to go. But you can make them want to go by making all their other choices less desirable to them.

I have always had the same problem and when think about it its like parenting for me. You want them to be one way and they just don't really want to be that way. So like I would give advice to a parent don't force your OC or any character unless its OOC to be something they are not.


Usaully I intend for my Charctrers to be comething like myself, just like a parent wants there child to be like a mini me of themselves. In the end my characters run of with the wrong character and fall in love or end up murdering the wrong character! Of course if you are writing a mystery and then they give away more information then you wanted to. Sometimes your unrully canon characters will become to OOC for most tastes. There really isn't much you can do except for giving your character a time- out so you can collect your thoughts.


So my adivce to you is give your character a break for a bit, it may be a little stressed bbecause of all the pressure you are putting on it! If your character is born to be wild then let it be the story may end up different, but who knows it could be better.

Paige

I've never had the problem with characters-gone-crazy, but I have had a problem with stubborn characters. You know, the ones that, no matter what you tell them, don't want to do what you say? They don't do anything else...but sometimes that's the problem.

If I get writer's block, that's the way I get it.

Or I'll write up a character, and decide she/he's too perfect, or too rowdy, or something. That's when my character takes on a whole different personality. Sometimes it's fun to see what *they* come up with...sometimes it's not.

:)

*jumps into thread* Hi! *waves to everyone*

I completely get what everyone is saying! But I found that it isn't directed only at OC's. I currently have two fics published about Helga Hufflepuff, whom I adore, and in each she was somehow harmed by Rowena Ravenclaw. I never in a million years saw Rowena as the sort of person she morphed into in my humble fics. But now, the way my mind has characterized her, her now horrible personality sticks like glue. Has anyone had this happen with cannon characters? :)

-Ashley

Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about! Can I start my rant? Great! Last December I began writing my first fanfic ever! It was a time-travel fic, though it was, well, different than the others. Well, at least it was supposed to! The main character, Eklair Malfoy, was supposed to be shy, quiet and sweet, very bookish, always lost in her own world, and fighting for her beliefs.

Of course, a few chapters later, I re read my whole fic and what do I see? Eklair was not like I wanted her to be! She was always smirking, plotting, she's very outgoing, etc. Seriously. I had not intended to have another OC in the fic besides her, but did I get my wish? No! On chapter 5 (or six, if you count the prologue), Elliot Roseltot makes an appearance. Elliot was supposed to be arrogant, kind of like a bad boy, etc. But no! He became almost like I had wanted Eklair to originally be.

Like on chapter 17 (that I finished writing yesterday)! I finished writing the chapter and then I looked at it and at Eklair and Elliot's behaviour and... Wow. That was not supposed to be like that. I always write 12 pages on MS Word. I ended up writing 16 and I didn't even add a scene I wanted and that I had already envisioned so well!

Anyway... You get my point. However, I love Eklair and Elliot. They are so sweet! Then yesterday, I joined this forums and decided to create a topic in the characterization forum, Original Character's. So I put Eklair. With the questions some people asked, I began answering as if I was Eklair and I couldn't believe it! There it was again! Eklair's free will!

*shakes head while sighing* Well... The fic's been doing great, so I can't really complain, can I? And the reviewers love Eklair *nods enthusiastically*

But I think that it's better to give the characters free reign on what they want to do, most of the times. The fic sometimes even ends up being better! Yep.

Okay, I've stopped my rant now :o

Yes! Lately I've been writing this Romeo/Juliet appropriation, and my dear Romeo, (who even now is in the Hospital Wing recovering from a bout of Gary-Stu-ness) was supposed to be a show-off who was great with the girls. But he ended up outwardly assured, inwardly insecure, terrified of girls, and with an Australian accent and way of speech! That last surprised me the most, because I've never had that type of RL/FF crossover! I guess it's because he acts so much like any given guys in my class, or one of my mates. In the end I surrendered and gave him an Australian mother by way of explanation.

Oh, and Juliet was supposed to be really popular and flirtatious and she turned out very quiet and bookish. Before I'd started writing this fic I had always thought everyone in this thread was nuts- you create the characters, right? But now I have been indoctrined into the ways of bossy characters. Actually, mine aren't so much bossy as just quietly persuasive. But oh well, you get the idea.

Phia