Unexpected Characteristics

Your hero is in a mood. He's snapping at everyone and storming around like Johnny Raincloud. His
best friend asks him if he's alright, and your hero suddenly screams at the top of his lungs, flings down his plate of food, and runs off before anyone can say "Um...".

You ask yourself (or your character in your head), "Where did that come from?"

He replies with a growl from the corner he's run off to while you wonder blankly how your hero, who's always so happy and go-lucky, actually managed to scream at his BFF.

These are the things I love about characters. When you get to know them enough, they like to surprise you. For instance, one of my characters, Eadën, was so sullen and serious and intense throughout my whole book, I knew at one point he was completely gonna break. He did. And when he did, it was really nasty. There were nightmares, screams of agony, and tears (TEARS! My somber macho elf, CRYING!). When the scene had passed I looked back and went, "Wow, man. You are deep."

I never planned it to go that way. I never planned the intricacies of Eadën's emotional map. I had a vague idea of what made him angry and what made him sad when I started out, but I had no idea he was capable of feeling the way he does.

That's the thing with characters; at some point, they come to life on you. They pull strings and make their own paths after a while. They write their own destinies if you let them.

Maybe it's because I spent eight years with Eadën that he's so complex. He's the longest character I've ever kept—longer, even, than my main character, whom I replaced six times before settling on the Alli-Dirco duo. Either way, Eadën has developed unexpected characteristics. Ones I have not approved of.

[ >:(  ]

[ ;)  ]

He is strong even when weak. He is not the pretty boy he looks like. He is tortured and tormented by his past and wants more than anything to get away from it...so he won't be tempted to go back. His worst fear is himself, because he knows that if he was given the choice to return to his old life, he would not be sure what he would choose.

Those are things you don't just plan out. They develop on their own.

So let your characters be themselves. If a character wants to be meek and quiet instead of bold, don't try to change him. See what becomes of it. You might like it better than what you planned.