30 Days of Fanfic - Day 5
5 -If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?
Setting the whole muse thing aside, because I don't really have one - yes, I have had characters subtly hijack stories or scenes. Interestingly enough, most times it was actually for the better! When it happened, it took the story in a slightly different direction than what I had intended, but often ended up creating some of what became my favorite parts of the fic. While I maintain a tight outline on the story's plot, when a character comes from nowhere and does something unexpectedly great, it can be a very happy accident. It usually does not change the overall course of the story, but it adds some details that make it richer.
In Legacy, for instance, more of the story turned out to be about Bobby than I had originally intended. He was never my favorite character of the D&DC, but it turned out I really enjoyed writing him as an adult, and I got some of my favorite scenes out of him.
In Balance of Power, my original plan was to do the whole thing from Hank's POV. And while that did happen, the overall story ended up being more about Eric than Hank. We just saw Eric's conflicts, Eric's choices, and Eric's sacrifices from Hank's perspective.
Recently, I wrote a handful of scenes for Rain on the Just that included Bernard. Here was a character that I hadn't even intended to put in the story at all, aside from a brief cameo and a few snarky lines. And he ended up usurping two entire scenes, which turned out to be some of my favorites in the entire story, leaving me to wonder how I ever imagined doing the story without him!
So, no, while I don't have any muses, I do have a few characters who have slipped in and changed the action a bit on me. And I'm almost always glad they did!
Master List of Questions can be found here.