Being a Better Writer: When Characters Won’t Do What You Want (and Why It’s a Good Thing) · 6:12pm June 9th
Welcome back, writers! Unless you’re brand-new today, you know what this is. It’s this week’s installment of Being a Better Writer! Which is—again, if you’re new—exactly what it sounds like on the tin: A weekly guide to all things writing! Fully searchable, tagged by topics, etc.
Anyway, if you’re a veteran reader of the site, you know this. And you’re just wondering how exactly we’re going to cover today’s topic. I will give a brief, one-sentence aside to promote last week’s news here, but that’s all. We’re diving right in. Starting with how this topic ended up on the topic list.
There’s an old story, one that may be untrue, or may have happened exactly like it’s told. A story about L. Frank Baum, the man who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It’s said that during the writing of one of his books, his wife noticed him being in a funk and not getting any writing done. When she asked him what the matter was, he replied “My characters won’t do what I want.”
His morose attitude persisted for about a week or two, or so goes the story I read, until one day his wife suddenly found him in high spirits typing away. “Oh,” she said, “I thought you were having trouble getting your characters to do what you wanted them to do?”
“Ah, I was,” he said. “But we found a solution. I’m decided to let them do whatever they want!”
Works that way when you're DMing a game, too.