When Characters Suprise You, but You're the One Writing the Script

 Let me tell you a story. Sometimes the process of writing is simple, not easy, but simple. You plot something out. You develop the characters. You put the two together and you write a scene. Sounds pretty normal. 

Sometimes it doesn't work that way at all.

Earlier this week I was writing and when I finished the scene the character was upstairs trying to work something out. She heard the door downstairs, boots and voices. Someone had arrived at her shop. Her friend was downstairs and had let them in. 

Now here's where it gets weird. I thought I knew who had arrived. There was another character who, in my head, was already on the way. But when I went back to his scene, he changed his mind based on new information and rode off, literally, in a different direction.

So when I went back to the shop... I didn't know who was downstairs. SOMEONE had arrived. Yes, I could edit that bit out and move on with my life, but no. The characters waiting at the shop NEEDED someone new to arrive. It was what happened next.

So I brought my character downstairs to see who was there and the person standing there was someone I DIDN'T EXPECT. I was as surprised as the character I was with. BUT when I thought back through what I had already written, I had foreshadowed that character coming. 

It'll be a better anecdote once you've read the book. But still. It's like the story is real and I'm discovering it sometimes rather than writing it myself. Or at least the part of my brain that is writing the story is just very slightly removed from the main part. It's not all a concious process. It's weird. And glorious.