Do your characters have minds of their own? Does it make it easier or harder for you to write? Share your experiences here!

Unfortunately, mine do. I was writing a story for Nano last year and the characters told me how the story was going to end. I know it has to end that way, but now I am so hesitant on writing it. It makes it difficult to continue the story at all.

they do and they love to frustrate me

Rob, stop being a diiiiiiiiick

Yes. Definitely. No doubt about it.

For me, it's like my characters exist in the recesses of my mind and occasionally pop into my consciousness for a visit to show me a home video or tell me a story. I try to get as much out of them as I can before they leave again since sometimes they'll come when I call, but they usually just send a different character instead. (Vaako and Sishean are especially troublesome. I haven't seen them in months but I've since "met" Haegan and Montego, Dane and Julius, and the two-for-one-pet characters represented by Hooked and Cause.)

I feel like it does make it easier to write as I am basically just taking notes, but it makes it very difficult to finish a story. (I haven't finished one yet.) Apparently, my characters either don't know how their stories should end or they just like to keep me in the dark. Knowing my characters, it probably the latter. (They are all conspiring against me! I know it! LOL)

Well, they wouldn't be so much fun to torture if they didn't. Then again, most of my characters don't deserve to exist (I'm looking at you Mel) so impaling them with table legs and freezing their blood inside their body should count as some form of community service. In all seriousness, yes. I'm not sure how a character can be fully developed and not have a mind of their own. It doesn't affect my plot though, because every single one would be mortified if they knew what was going to happen anyway. They're my children and are all precious to me, but that doesn't stop me from doing absolutely horrible things to them. Hurting and killing off characters is some of the most fun you can have. In the chapter I just finished, awful stuff happens to pretty much everyone and I'm so very disproportionally happy about it. :3 ...yeah, Character Protective Services is probably going to take away my writing license soon.

I think all well-developed characters have minds of their own.

Last year I was sitting at my laptop writing on my Nanovel when something happened in the story and as I typed my character’s response I just shook my head in disappointment. I would have loved to have gone back and said that my character was a great guy and cooperated fully but he wouldn't have and he didn't. It’s these little things that make the character real and I do think it makes it easier to write. If your characters are real enough to tell you “I would never do that.” Then they’re going to drive the novel and in the end they’re going to be real for the reader as well.

My characters just sort of follow the story along with me, they don't know ahead of time how it's going to end or what's going to happen next. Little things start to happen, the characters react, and this turns into the plot.

It took my characters a while. At first I was really writing them, but after a while I found that I could only write them into certain situations. Also, I found that I really didn't agree with all the decisions they made, but I couldn't "make" them do anything else. At this point, I feel more like they've grown into full humans and I just watch them.

I'm starting to become scared of a few of them - their stories have progressed to the point that they're running into horrible, traumatic situations and the only actions they can take with their personalities range from eerie to downright reprehensible. It's a really powerful feeling at the same time, though. Yet, I find it really interesting to write.

I also love that satisfying feeling when you're trying to come up with a new character, and suddenly, most of their backstory just pops into your head. It's become a sign for me that I'll really love this character.