A to Z Challenge: L is for Listening to your Characters

If you are a Pantser like I am (see blog post Plotter vs. Pantser), then you are perhaps more familiar with the idea of listening to your characters. In other words, letting your characters guide the direction the story you are writing will go.We may create the characters themselves, but as our stories progress, they can grow a mind of their own.There have been many times when I planned for a scene to go in one direction, but as I approached the destination, my characters had something else in mind. Perhaps I was taking them somewhere that wouldn't have worked in the long run.A side character may decide they don't want to be as much in the background, but want to play a larger part in the overall story instead. Maybe you planned to kill off a character but that character's protests helped you decide, at the very last moment, they would live to see another chapter.This is writing organically, or letting your story and characters help guide you to the end. Allowing yourself to listen to your characters and the direction they want you to take them, makes your story that much more exciting to read and to write. They will help your writing be less predictable. If you didn't even know the direction your story would go, how could your readers?There have been scenes in my stories, that I've discussed with my husband, where he wasn't so sure I should include them. It's not that they were bad scenes, he just didn't know how I would tie them in. Sitting down at my computer, I looked at the words and scenes, and thought about them. Ultimately, my main character would push me toward keeping them in, and I would have to listen. Sorry hubby!I've had main characters who were dancing around a budding relationship. Their best friend (a side character), who didn't want to be left out of the dating game, would decide for me that they too should have the prospect of a man. Why not?Let the story play out how it will. Allow your characters the freedom to change the direction you had thought your story would go. Who knows? They may have a better idea you just haven't thought of yet.Have you ever had your own characters take you in a different direction than you had planned? Did you listen?Enter to win a crocheted amigurumi dog (giveaway prize) here.