: Re: Characters that take on a life of their own There are definite advantages to writing comprehensive character maps, but one downside that I've found is that when a character is fully fleshed

@Odierno164

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My personal opinion is, don't make that mistake. I consider that similar to "world building disease". It is one reason I am a discovery writer, I first failed as a plodder.

The error is that it is too difficult to devise the perfect "personality" for a tightly constrained problem (an over-specific plot). You are better of with neither of those, the whole point of writing is to make the plot real and plausible and the characters real and plausible, and that is going to take 300 to 500 pages: No outline can possibly do that justice.

Thus if you feel like you must plot, the outline must necessarily be vague; and the turning points it makes must be applicable even if your character develops their own personality. So, for example, you can devise a good twist, or a surprise ending. If I were writing a romance, I would probably have a good idea when I began what causes the "all is lost" breakup moment, or the major crisis.

If you are going to plot heavily, keep your characters vague so they can do what must be done to accomplish the plot. When they cannot, that can only mean you have a conflict in your plot: Points A and B cannot be accomplished by the same personality. For an extreme example, at A they show mercy to an adult stranger, at B they have to shoot through a child.

If you are going to characterize heavily, set your characters loose to do what they want, they just need a driving trait of not giving up.

Without a plot, you can't get to a point where the characters cannot execute it; they make their own decisions and that's it. The plot will pop out as a result of writing their story (although you might have to backtrack and have them make different decisions that are still within their character, if the first decision you thought of them making leads you down a rabbit hole).

As others have said, you want your characters to take on a life of their own. Don't make the mistake of straight jacketing yourself on both characters and plot. It is a recipe for failure, as you have learned. In the process of writing, you need wiggle room for one or the other, and we can produce good stories with lots of wiggle room for both: Stephen King is 100% discovery and one of the top selling authors of all time.

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