Well, I pretty much never know at the outset what my characters are going to do or the journey they'll take me on - in the past I've likened writing to just letting the characters out of the trap and then dashing after them as they career down the nearest blind alley in the desperate ambition just to keep up with them.
Sometimes I have a vague, nebulous notion of a direction I'd like to go in and an overall plan, minus the details, but I don't think I've ever gotten there on a straight line on the whole. Invariably, I end up taking a sharp right turn somewhere along the way.
Quite often I end up where I was figuring on being all along, after a few unexpected detours - I was quite determined for example that Masques was going to be an in depth exploration of how much darkness and despair you can heap on one person before they have enough and beat the bejesus out of you, while also dealing with the notion that Lois and Clark are made for each other and will find their way to be together, no matter who or what attempts to come between them and that's the story I ended up with. But usually it's by default and not really by design.
Sheer chance that the detours somehow managed to end me up back where I started from instead of taking me miles out of my way.
I'm always awed when I hear an author say something like "Now all I need is to write a scene where X does Y so that later B knows that M is lying". I simply can't write to plan like that. When I begin a story it's a vague idea and a whole jumble of half written scenes, snippets of dialogue and moments that have popped into my head over the span of time and been hastily jotted into a file. When I gather enough of them, I figure I might have the bones of something to work with.
Nope, hang on, I tell a lie. I've only ever been able to write scenes to plan, with something specific in mind like that, once as I recall and that was with Masques. A story which broke a lot of traditions and habits for me. There were a couple of occasions where reader comments sparked something off in me and I hastily jotted down a whole new scene or two I hadn't planned on and slotted them into place in the two days between one post and another. But that was definitely not the normal way of things.
Quite frequently too, I'll experience that moment you mention, CC, when I'm gaily typing away and suddenly find myself in the middle of a conversation I had no idea was coming. Pretty much along for the ride with no control over what these people are coming out with. More often than not such a surprise conversation or action will totally contradict what I've already got on file. Half the time I spend writing a story is spent either trying to marry two completely diverse notions into one coherent whole (because I generally love both options and can't bear to part with either) or trying to decide which one I can bear to lose to make it all work. While, of course, cursing the character who made life so difficult and wondering why the heck they couldn't have kept their big trap shut.
What was the question again?
Not sure if I stayed on topic there, but anyway, that's my experience of bolshy characters who have no consideration for the poor author trying to run their lives.
LabRat
