[Willit1016]

Has this happen to you? you are writing your most fantanstic work(all our works are greater than shakespeare you know!) and you create a a cpatian come quick or filler guy so as not to have your original hero all like superman and stuff but that captain come quick somehow winds up more well rounded and interstign than you original hero. This happen to me and this guy is now my hero and will appear in book two when originally he was not suppsoe to make it out of chapter two book one.

I was in a dilema what do I do with my first hero kill him off, make him trusty side kick, turn him into the villian?

Well what i did I turn him into the tragic hero all manners of crap happens to him and now it looks like he will wind up being pure evil by book four I think or there is alway the redemption route.


So has this happen to you!

p.s. this is post five now!

[Expendable]

I've seen series where each book is told from a different character's viewpoint. And generational stories where the first book is told by a parent, then by the child, then by the child's child, etc.

And it's not hard for you to find yourself liking a filler character more than your protagonist. How you work it out is up to you.

[Willit1016]

I've seen series where each book is told from a different character's viewpoint. And generational stories where the first book is told by a parent, then by the child, then by the child's child, etc.

And it's not hard for you to find yourself liking a filler character more than your protagonist. How you work it out is up to you.


I still like my guy it just funny how it worked out. i just see the filler as a true blue hero type you know the LAWFUL good type that never wavers for truth and justice my Pro bends the rules alot lol.

[Tristis]

I see your dilemma and sympathize.

I have had several minor characters blossom on the page to the point that they need stories of their own told. Children of my main characters, etc.

I have never felt the need to convert a main character into another role per se, but I have allowed them to become antagonists (even villians) in the eyes of the others. Case in point:

For many much-loved tales, I had this very strong, vibrant, woman soldier walking around solving crises with her sword and being a hero to the weaker-thans. She meets up with an old lover, gets pregnant and keeps the love child, even though breeding is a no-no for her according to the goddess she follows. When the baby is born, she realizes it was a mistake to carry it: the little girl is blind, and obviously evil in the eyes of the goddess.

The stories that followed were all about how she dealt with that, but fairly soon the POV switched to this poor kid growing up in an abusive home where her parent was trained in all manner of hurting people. My hero warrior is not a hero to her.

Next thing you know I have enough material for books and books where this kid (all grow'd up and pretty nimble for a blind chick) is the hero, and her mother is an obstacle to growth she is real slow to get over. Get my first hero alone and she walks through stories just like in the old days, put her with family and she's a painful failure.

[Rocket Sheep]

Hey, Shakespeare was a funny dude, I'm not going for that all modern work is better stuff. Some modern stuff looks dry as dingo poop compared to Shakespeare.

I hate writing stories that evolve differently to your original plan. They always take so much rewriting to get them right. Every story I write seems to evolve under its own steam tho, leaving me mountains of stuff to rewrite.

[KatG]

Don't worry about the originality thing. This sort of character development happens all the time to many writers. It's normal and it sounds like you are having a lot of fun with it. It may not have been the story you set out to write, but it's better, eh?

I will once again, and my apologies to those who are sick of it, relate Patricia Wrede's description of her outlining process, because it's relevant to the question:

Step 1: Write an outline.

Step 2: Write Chapter 1.

Step 3: Throw out the outline which is now irrelevant. Make new, second outline.

Step 4: Write Chapter 2.

Step 5: Throw out the second outline which is now irrelevant. Make new, third outline.

And so on. So see, you're right on track.

[Holbrook]

What Kat G said.;)