Post History

>*How can a creation of your mind (a character) do something that you don't imagine?*

Implications. I will explain! What I imagine when designing my characters is *scenes*, things they have done in the past, traumatic things that have happened to them, Successes, Failures, and how they have responded to those things.

I think our lives are shaped by events, big and small, and what we experienced and how we responded to those experiences is what defines our character. So that is what I do for fictional characters. How did she get **here,** to the point where she is an adult female in this job at this time? What happened in her life up until now? If she was in love at some point, how did that happen? What was her first love like? How did they meet? 

Later, when my character is in actual scenes of the story, then those events from her past bubble up, and sometimes those have **Implications**. 

I did not imagine all the implications of all that history, but underlying that history is a single character that has to fit together. And then my character can do things unexpectedly because that is who she is. *Of course* she would do X, that fits with so many things she has done in the past.

By Analogy, if you read the Harry Potter series, a lot of incidents (just incidents) are described that you watch Harry live through, make decisions, and take actions. You **know** Harry, within the first book. 

And then there could be scenes Rowling could write that you'd say "That's not like Harry, he wouldn't do that." Because underlying those scenes is a Harry that is brave, and loyal to his friends, and doesn't treat people like shit. Rowling never has to TELL you that, you gather those underlying traits from his actions, and then can apply them to NEW actions and say Yes, that is something Harry would do, or No, Harry wouldn't do that.

Our own fictional characters are the same way. We come to know them, through stories we tell ourselves, and fix those underlying traits without ever actually naming them. Then later, while inventing yet more scenes that will be a continuation of the life we have imagined, implications of those underlying traits can feel like they force us to write her doing what she most certainly would do, given her background.