This is a response to who was ruminating on characters that take a life on their own.

Not being much of a writer, I thought it was ridiculous when a writer said that their characters 'surprise' them. I wondered how characters surprise you when you plot their every action.

But Jenever Hibiscus, my character, surprises me. Some of my main characters require scripting and require thought, and their actions and reactions have to be measured and judged and refined, and that's how I thought characters were written.

But Hibiscus is a spitfire and won't take direction, she will burst into a scene half-cocked, guns firing, throwing things, cursing and causing havok. She will thwart my every attempt to control her and, though it may reflect badly on me, it's a lot easier and more interesting to record what she does than to dictate what she does. She has better ideas than I do.

For example, there was a scene where I wanted her to jump from one giant robo-mobile to the other and knock out the driver. It was simple, dynamic, and worked. That's not... how it happened. Instead, she chases it down on horseback. Great idea Hib, verry smart to attack a battle ready robot on a horse. Besides, I suck at drawing horses, thanks again. Well, lets make this work. Jump up there, surprise him, knock him out, let's get going. No... no. Instead, she almost bounces off the side of the robot, clearly alearting the driver, who sees her horse gallop away. She then, nose bloodied, drags herself over the shield and gets into a very close range gun fight with the driver. But since this distraction has caused the driver to veer into rough terrain, neither can hit the other. What the hell are you doing, Jenever! This coulda been a three panel ordeal!

This scene may be pretty frustrating to me as a writer, since I am not in control, but it is still dynamic and eventually works. But it is also funny and a lot more suspenseful, and shows much more guts and ingenuity on her part. It reinforces her character and fits well with the story even if it does add a couple pages.

I empathise with writers with runaway chars, I feel your pain. But at the same time... how cool is that?!?