When characters hijack your stories

[M_Spencer]

Anyone ever have this problem where you have a story that you want to go a particular way, but you also have characters that you are trying to flesh out with complex and interesting personalities and it then becomes apparent that these people you created aren't going to do the things you had planned for them to do?

I'm dealing with a major issue along these lines. Two characters are supposed to end up together in some fashion - it's a central part to the main series I'm working on, and it also affects a half-dozen or so other stories - but some of the details about them have come together in such a way that makes it so the moment when this is supposed to happen pretty much can't happen. There's no way she's going to go for it; she needs more time. But that throws off the timing of the other spin-off stories, and it all gets messy from there.

It's frustrating, but kind of amusing at the same time.

I'm not looking for advice so much as commiseration from others who've encountered this.

 

[MistressValerie1]

I have experienced the same problem whenever I try to write longer stories. I have not been able to find a satisfactory solution except to put the project aside for a while and work on something else.

 

[sadi]

I've heard that Thomas Harris apparently felt that way every time he was writing Hannibal Lecter. Scared the crap out of everyone (in a good way), but apparently did the sane to him, too, barely able to spill out the words fast enough when 'the Cannibal' took control of his pen.
Characters can take on a life of their own, and it can be scary where they take us.

Now I'm thinking of Inkheart and an Ed Greenwood character (whose name currently escapes me).