Characters getting a mind of their own

[SensibleRin]

Has anyone had a character change their nature independent of your own designs?
All my villains seem to become heroes.
One of the characters important to my world's mythology, Kamiarn Malakarn, began as a very flat villain. He existed entirely for my hero Thereo to oppose and thwart. Halfway through a fight scene it got sexual. Kamiarn decided he was in love with the hero. They were friends once. He was throwing their fights, he was infinitely more powerful than Thereo, but couldn't bring himself to kill him because of his love for the hero. Thereo on his part couldn't understand why his best friend has suddenly become so evil, why Kamiarn now appears to hate him.
Why are doing this? I asked Kamiarn.
I was a loser, the way you were writing me, Kamiarn replied.
Fair enough, I admitted.
And all was fine for a few years, until Kamiarn realized he was really a woman in a man's body.

 

[Ireth]

I live for those kinds of moments! A minor villain in one of my roleplays decided one day he wanted to be a hero, and that changed the plot entirely and drove me to adapt his story into my WIP "Tenth Realm". And the mentor character in another WIP, whom I'd intended to pair with the MC's sister, revealed in the middle of the final battle that he was actually in love with the MC himself. That led to some awkward conversations later. XD

 

[Yellow]

I have something relatively similar that happened, but it was in a free form roleplay I did with some friends for about two years. We just make up a setting and a character each, and have a go, though we can introduce more characters if we want, the only rule being you can't use a character someone else introduces. What happened was that we had this awesome dimension-traveling villain who had reached the world of the Creator Gods (being my buddies and I, making up the story and the world as we went on) and found out that his universe was just a story. So this villain decided he would grow powerfull enough to fuel his reality with his magic and, literally, steal the world from the gods. The guy was trying to take over our story! We used to joke that if he won he would become real and kill us or something.

 

[Daeldalus]

I haven't really written much but I create full stories for myself. In one of them I had a character I wanted to befriend the MC and he does but he wasn't part of the group of characters that knew what was happening and he ends getting hired by my "villains" because of his skills. He was supposed to be told the truth and switch to the MC's side but he decided that he agreed with my villain's ideals and joined them for real. He ended up being more interesting than the main villain was.

 

[Malik]

Absolutely. I've mentioned this before, but in my original draft many years ago, my villain and my hero were switched.

This is not an RPG. This is fiction writing. You don't drive the characters. You develop them until they're at the point where they do their own thing and you just take notes. If they're not occasionally doing things that surprise you, you haven't developed them enough, yet.

 

[Rinzei]

I had two brothers in a story end up switching roles - one was meant to be kind of a jerk and the other was quite charming and approachable. The Jerk turned out to be very affectionate and loyal, whereas Charming turned out to be self-indulgent and two-faced. Completely unintentional.

 

[Feo Takahari]

It's never felt as automatic to me as other writers tend to describe it. One of my characters may display a trait very different from how I was previously writing her, but she may never display that trait again unless I notice it and decide to build on it. However, I've noticed that when I emphasize these unexpected traits, and then have the story proceed logically with alterations based on those traits, it can go in some directions I would never have had the creativity to come up with in my original outline. These little accidental finds have thus become a major part of my writing process.

In some ways, it's actually quite similar to what happens when I hear a song that reminds me of one of my characters. Inevitably, there will be a few parts of the song that are slightly different than how I envisioned the character, and changing the character to match those parts can itself change the story. However, I still have the freedom to ignore the song and write the character as I first planned. (Blue is a song I used to make radical changes, giving a lonely and confused character a hateful and murderous side. Pain is a song I decided not to use, because it was similar to aspects of one of my characters, but made her too one-dimensional and erased what idealism and optimism remained in her.)

 

[Bee]

I hadn't have this happen until the story I am currently writing, my fiancée has said that in her writing she always has this but I hadn't ever experienced it. Then two characters decided more or less on their own to become a couple and they must have spread the word everyone it is at it now, I did recently say out loud that I felt I was reporting on an adventure rather than writing a story.

 

[Malik]

I felt I was reporting on an adventure rather than writing a story.

You're doing it right.

 

[SensibleRin]

More recently, my MC, Kattala, began as my ideal self, way back when I was in JH (2000-2002).
Now she is quite different from me, and has a severe facial disfiguration. She has her own accent, her own opinions, she likes fish where I do not. Somehow she went from a full-blown war mage who fights in the thick of things with a big ol' wooden staff to a crafter mage who likes skirts just as much as trousers and doesn't see the point in owning those bandits when she can convince them to work for her instead, as her political connections provide an actual salary and health insurance...
But I guess that's the difference between a 12-year old writer and a 25-year old one.

 

[Guy]

I've never had this happen. I've had characters develop, I've fine tuned and polished a few traits, but I've never had one change so radically. I get a character that pops into my head, I'll ask myself would my character do this or that, what would my character think about this or that, here's a scenario, how would my character react, that sort of thing. But that's it.

 

[Quillstine]

My characters do this all the time. I wish they didn't!
I see/read about people who plan their worlds so well. They have note books with plot arcs and listings of kingdoms and maps. They have character tree’s and character sheets and even sketches. There are listings with each chapter and a plan for what each should contain. I envy them so much…
For me, if I try to write that way, my ideas sieve through my hands like fine grains of sand. I have to start with nothing but some idea…or an inkling and let it build chapter by chapter. I have no idea who these people are…or what the story is about until I am nearing the end myself. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have an insight into a future event for the story…but there usually so minor that I can’t build a plot around them.
This leaves room for lots of massive changes in a character at the last minute, it’s un-nerving and annoying at times!
When I do get a story I can pre-plan, I feel like a kid in a candy store!

 

[Malik]

My characters do this all the time. I wish they didn't!
I see/read about people who plan their worlds so well. They have note books with plot arcs and listings of kingdoms and maps. They have character tree’s and character sheets and even sketches. There are listings with each chapter and a plan for what each should contain. I envy them so much…
For me, if I try to write that way, my ideas sieve through my hands like fine grains of sand. I have to start with nothing but some idea…or an inkling and let it build chapter by chapter. I have no idea who these people are…or what the story is about until I am nearing the end myself. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have an insight into a future event for the story…but there usually so minor that I can’t build a plot around them.
This leaves room for lots of massive changes in a character at the last minute, it’s un-nerving and annoying at times!
When I do get a story I can pre-plan, I feel like a kid in a candy store!

Mine do that, too. I still have stacks of notes and boxes of ideas on notepads. But mostly it's backstory or larger arc; my characters -- my MC's, anyway -- get plunked down in the middle of it and the story is really about how they react and adapt and change given the circumstances. The plot is already set; the magic lies in what happens inside the grander scheme. I guess I'm a Calvinist at heart.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Our stories are very character driven and our characters never cease to surprise me. I think my biggest shock happened when our FMC, a reserved, compassionate, controlled, over worked and tightly wound wizard physician revealed that she's not only been self-medicating to keep up with her crushing responsibilities, but she's become addicted to magical stimulants and caffeine and it's slowly killing her. But, it's wonderful, enriching surprises that can only happen when you have characters with agency, and then let them rake the reigns.

 

[Helen]

All my villains seem to become heroes.

It's another story. Like if you were writing Casablanca and turned Major Strasser into the hero.