MISC: Do what extent do NON writer characters have free will?

[Lalo Martins]

quoth Martin Phipps as of Sun, 03 Jun 2012 02:07:36 +0000:

> Rob Rogers brought up an interesting point on the writers group.  How
> does a character in a fictional reality not go insane?
> 
> I think a lot of it has to do with the writer.  Say for example the
> writer has plotted the story out already.  I mean, if the story is
> called The Death of Bad Timing Boy Part 1 then nothing Bad Timing Boy
> does in the story is going to make a difference.  He might as well blow
> his brains out at the end of Part 1 and save himself the torment that is
> sure to come.
> 
> On the other hand, if the author himself doesn't know where the story is
> going then the characters have a semblance of free will: any action by a
> character or even a line of dialogue could affect the course of the
> story.  This is especially true in multi-writer cascades because the
> plans of any one writer don't mean much if another writer comes along
> and changes things.

Then there's the old claim some writers make sometimes that things 
occasionally go in directions they didn't plan or expect. I know 
certainly 58.5 “wrote itself” in a few ways that surprised me, and of 
course the aborted “real world” plot in Minority Miss wrote itself into a 
corner that I didn't know how to get out of.

I wonder if it could be interesting to explore that in-story.

-- Lalo “actually just a puppet of Paraddox” Martins