The week my main character turned on me

I was three days into a draft when my hero, a guy I'd built to be a quiet librarian, decided he wanted to rob a bank instead. It completely wrecked my outline, but the story got way more interesting. Has a prompt ever sent your own writing in a wild direction you didn't plan?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellis.victor2mo agoMost Upvoted

You said "prompt," but it sounds like your character just took over. That's not really a prompt, that's just good writing.

jake_walker2mo ago

Good writing" is a pretty high bar for a forum post.

simonl861mo ago

ellis.victor makes a good point about characters taking over, but I think the real wild card here is when a prompt from somewhere else accidentally unlocks a new side of your character. I had a friend who was stuck on a scene until she used a random writing prompt generator and her hero quit his job to become a beekeeper. That one change completely shifted the whole plot and made the story ten times better. Sometimes the best twists come from mixing your own characters with outside ideas you'd never think to try on your own.