Predestination…

 I’m very much about character development. I mean, I rant about it all the time, but it’s true. One of the reasons I’m a punster is that if I were to decide a character is to be a certain way and have a certain relationship with another character, and decide the resolution of all this in advance, I am inevitably frustrated that it either a) turns out completely differently or b) supposedly plays out the way I wanted, but completely dead, with no soul or real chemistry.

It’s part of the reason why my angel project was dropped, or at least shelved. I was trying to force two characters into a particular relationship and it just wasn’t working. It didn’t make sense for their personalities as they evolved.

In my current hedgehog project, I sort of wanted Rat to end up with a crush on the knight, but the way it’s going right now, she would have to be a real masochist for that to work. I mean, he’s been downright nasty to her. Not just the antagonistic “jerk with a heart of gold” or anything, but almost genuinely abusive. She brought a lot of it on herself (y’know, scaring him half to death, hurting the only thing that’s giving him meaning in life, “stealing” said creature and disappearing) but for her to end up with a crush on him, there is either something really wrong with her (which, the more I write her, the more I am suspecting) or there is going to have to be some serious character development for both of them.

Which is going to happen in either case, but whether it will turn out the way I initially wanted is up in the air. Yay?

Have you guys ever had a character relationship not turn out the way you planned it, or emerge out of nowhere? Do you know how your characters are going to respond to each other or is it just “wait and see” for you?