Fic Talk > General Discussion

Do you influence your characters?

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Sakabelle:
That sounds like a dumb question, because obviously you kinda do, since you write them! lol

Anyway, I was just wondering if this happens to you guys too. Despite it being a very angsty story, I usually am in a pretty chipper mood when writing Running Up That Hill. Today I was cranky while writing the second half of a chapter I had started a few weeks ago. I felt it ended up coming out as very bitter, especially the last scene which I had previously planned out but nowhere near as dramatic as it came out. I feel like I have sort of changed the shape of the story and I'm not sure if this would have happened had I been in the normal mood I'm usually in when I write that story.

Has this ever happened to you guys before? Have you ever been in a bad (or good) mood that changed the way you normally write the story? Are you able to separate yourself from the characters enough that it doesn't matter?

Discuss!

Tri:
What a great question!  :)

My mood definitely influences how I write at times.  I typically work with a rough outline when I write and I have an idea of how I want different scenes to go, but my moods can affect my writing in the moment.  If I'm writing an argument and I'm in a good mood, then I tend to have a nicer outcome and a resolution...  If I'm in a bad mood, sometimes my characters have a completely unplanned fight.  That being said, though, sometimes I turn to my writing as an escape - from personal drama or scholarly writing - and I try to use happy scenes to cheer myself up or angsty scenes to vent my feelings or goofy scenes to let loose.

It's really interesting to think about this!  Writing is so personal for me and I think I put so much of myself into my stories, including my emotions.  Thanks for bringing it up.  :)

RokofAges75:
First of all, I love your Titanic avy!  I may have to copy you and put one of mine up too!

As for your question... yeah, I'm sure that's happened to me before.  Sometimes I'm surprised at the dramatic turns my scenes take; characters start arguing when I didn't plan for them to argue and that sort of thing.  Other times I expect a scene to be dramatic, and then the tension never does boil over.  Maybe it does have something to do with the mood I'm in when I write; I'm not sure.

What used to happen to me - hopefully not so much anymore - is that I would influence my characters to do uncharacterist ic things for the sake of the storyline I wanted to happen, even if it didn't make sense anymore.  Like... certain characters might break up with their boyfriends in completely out-of-character ways because I love a certain song, say Siberia, and don't like songfics, so I incorporate it into my current epic even if doesn't fit, thus ruining the integrity of the character I've spent two years developing.  I learned my lesson and try not to let that sort of thing happen anymore.  It can be hard to separate yourself from your characters, though.

Sakabelle:
Thanks! You should definitely put up one of yours! I can't wait to see the movie in 3D :)

You guys both raised interesting points. I definitely do write as an escape at times, but I never truly noticed how much much mood influenced my characters until today. I also tend to have very rough outlines and flesh out the details as I go, but I do usually have a set tone I want for a chapter, and it came out very different than I had planned this time.

Julie, I can definitely relate to having characters do very out of character things. I have shoved things into stories that really don't belong just because I got an idea and decided I wanted to write about it. I also learned from that, and I try to stick to my original outline as much as possible now.

Carter-Orange:
I'm not sure whether my mood influences what I write as I don't tend to suffer from bad moods.  I think I'm weird, lol.

I have written things into a story just because I liked an idea though.

Nice avys too, I love that film :)

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