Ok fellow writers, you know what I mean when I say, ‘My characters are fighting me!’ It’s the craziest thing. You’ve got the outline, it seems to flow pretty well. The middle and ending are completely figured out in my head, but my characters are not flowing well in the front.
What do I mean? Well, let me explain myself. I’ve worked on the first couple of chapters, but they don’t seem to work. My characters are very familiar to me because this is the 2nd book in a series, so it’s not that. It’s having all the characters together at one time. Which is crazy, right? Every time I start working on it, everything seems off.
So, what do I do? One thing I’ve done is put it out of my mind completely, well not completely but out of sight. I’m taking a little break from it, then will go back fresh and start in the middle where the story is the strongest for me. Let’s just hope the front part comes to me as I write the middle and ending. Thank goodness for Scrivener!
Do your characters give you problems? How do you handle them?
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
But one good thing about this one, the cover is beautiful and completed! Here’s a sneak peak!
Stephanie Hurt - Romance Author 
Don’t know if this will help or not, Stephanie, but…when my characters are fighting me, it’s usually because I’m interfering with “their story.” If I try to manipulate my characters or move them around like chess pieces, they shut up and go away. At that point, I reexamine my vision for the story, review the last several chapters I’ve written, and try to determine where I’ve gone astray.
The problem eventually becomes apparent: I wanted something to happen, but it’s not in the best interests of my characters or the story. So, I back off and allow them to take over again. Since my characters drive the plot, you could say I’ve “veered off course.” I’m sure that once you hand the story back over to your characters, you’ll be able to resolve the issue. Best of luck!
I’ll try that Linda! It’s driving me insane. Hopefully since I’m stepping back and letting them have the reins things will get better. Thanks!
In my case sometimes there seems to be another story that needs to be told first. Recently I had to write a previous story of one of the characters in my series before I was able to go back to the one I was writing to begin with, and then it was all (fairly) smooth sailing! Good luck, Stephanie!
That’s a thought! Thanks!