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Q&A How to get a derailed book back on track?

Always work around your characters. They're what drives the story forward, not your plot. Without interesting characters, you've just got a series of events happening one after the other which wo...

posted 8y ago by Stephen‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:55:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26014
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Stephen‭ · 2019-12-08T05:55:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Always work around your characters. They're what drives the story forward, not your plot. Without interesting characters, you've just got a series of events happening one after the other which wouldn't make for a very good book at all.

I once had a character I wanted to go to a specific location. She didn't want to go. There was no reason I could think of for her to be there other than I wanted her to. Later, I changed it to be that she heard about what happened at that location and it gave her the anger and drive she needed to progress without her ever stepping foot near the place.

Listen to your characters. Don't try to make them do anything they don't want to.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-01-12T14:14:35Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 16