If you’re not a writer, then it probably sounds bizarre when a writer talks about their characters doing things that were not planned.  If you talk to a writer when this happens, you’re convinced that they must be clinically insane – do they really let people like us out into the community?

A writer will say something like “John surprised me today.  I wanted him to climb the mountain path and fight the bear, but he went into the valley to fight the tiger.”  Or, “I’d been planning for John to commit the murder for the last 20 chapters, and now Jane did it instead.  Where did that come from?”

It sounds daft.  Characters are our creation, they can only do what we tell them to do — can’t they?  It’s not that simple.

A properly formed character resides in a place in your mind, in their own little bubble of mannerisms, background, character traits, flaws, motives, ideals, experiences, and all the rest.  Decisions these characters make should be, and are, based on what has gone into making the character in the first place.  That’s the purpose of character creation.  If they did what we told them to do, they wouldn’t be characters – they’d be ciphers for our own personal messages, and who wants to read about that?

When characters do something unexpected, or surprising, it’s no different to when a real life friend does this.  We may imagine the reaction our friend might have when faced with something, but their actual reaction may be something completely different.  Based on what you know, your friend Mike might laugh at that bug you’ve got in a matchbox – but, if they scream and turn into a gibbering wreck because he had a traumatic experience that you’re unaware of, is that unfathomable?  That’s no different to our characters.  We expect them to take that mountain path – that’s why we put the bear in the way, but the character may later reveal that they have an aversion to heights – that’s why they went down into the valley instead.

If characters did as they were told, writing stories would be a lot less fun.