What is Character Hijacking?
Short answer: The characters rule you, the author.
Long answer: The characters rule you, the author. They demand room & board. Food. Ability to veto a chapter’s direction. And all of your time. All of it. Every last dang second. They’re pesky like that.
In other words, the book’s characters have turned into a petulant child screaming louder than Willy Wonka’s Veruca Salt.
And it ain’t pretty.
Authors are usually considered one of two things: A Plotter or a Pantser. To date, I’ve been a Plotter. Each chapter carefully outlined prior to my fingers hitting the keyboard, typing out Chapter One…
Until now.
Now I’m a Pantser, and this is where Character Hijacking gets you. Because pantsing in the literary world means flying by the seat of your pants. You don’t have each chapter outlined so detailed that the book is basically written prior to typing out the first sentence.
No, no, no… there’s lots and lots of gaping holes in this story to fill during your writing journey, and your characters have already discovered (what they see as) their freedom. By now you should be hearing the evacuation alarm. The red bold text popping up on your computer screen saying ABORT! ABORT! should be noticed. But you don’t. Either see or hear, that is.
Excitement is all you feel as you start the new book. Hopeful it will be as well-received as the last — or better received than the last. Whichever direction is in the positive.
So there you are… starting out with an idea in your head. Knowing what pivotal plot points need to be hit in this book. What suspenseful questions will be answered at this point of the series, and what still unanswered questions will make your beloved readers stop and scream Aargh!!! What happened to so-and-so in their long awaited suffering for prior events, from earlier in the series, to meet its conclusion.
At this point in writing, the chapters have begun to flow into each other, and you’ve suddenly visualized a scene inside your head. A moment that will expound on a relationship or a situation you plan to build between two characters. But you can’t…
Because one of the characters decided to write herself out of this book.
That, my friend, is Character Hijacking.
Never did I see it coming. Happily writing along and then BAM! Unexpected twist in the plot and it no longer makes sense for the Main Character to have this scene with her … or any scene, actually. Neither would any other character still meandering their way through my hole-gaping plot that I’m seeking to fill.
So now there is only one thing left to do…
I’m off to begin negotiations. Hopefully the character will decide to write herself back into the book before I reach The End.
If not, the memorial service will be Tuesday at 8:00.