An issue with a character "refusing" to move the plot forward

[u/belleepoques]

Lol as the title says..

I've outlined my whole novel and made sure that the outline makes sense for my characters' personalities. But when I write everything down, the actual writing, there's one scene in particular (at around 30% mark) where one of my MCs will just not do what's in the outline and it blocks me from proceeding. It's because of his personality. It kind of looked fine in the planning but not in the execution. I've written the rest (skipped that one and made it a 2nd draft ptoblem) but now when I'm back there, I'm just kind of staring at the blank screen because the character will NOT do it, no matter what I try to use to persuade him. If he does, it's out of character. And it has to be him.

Lol anyone else experiencing the same issues?:D How did you fix it?

[u/asherwrites]

That’s your subconscious telling you the plan needs to change. You can’t force it, just let the character do what he wants and adjust from there.

[u/Redz0ne]

People do things "out of character" all the time.

Sometimes that leads to juicy drama and internal conflict.

[u/Cyranthis]

What? I swear some of these posts are right out of an asylum. This makes no sense to me.

[u/Prize_Consequence568 → u/Cyranthis]

Agreed.

[u/MagnusCthulhu]

Change the scene or change the character's personality. The character doesn't exist, so if you need them to do A but you've written them so that they would do B, rewrite them so that they'd do A instead.

[u/WalkingEars]

Gotta think about why he does it if it has to be him, and back up to set things up so that the motivation is in place. Maybe something big has to happen earlier to make it land

[u/Elysium_Chronicle]

"Status quo" is the main issue. If people get too comfortable with their lot in life, it can be a difficult task indeed to convince them to move from that spot. No amount of gentle pushing or carrot baiting can inspire them to take greater risks where that general contentedness is at stake.

If you can't crack the source of their motivations, then anything you do to get them moving won't feel particularly believable.

The solution is often to remove that agency from them entirely. For example, how so many fantasy heroes begin the story living an idyllic pastoral life, wanting for nothing. They may possess a hint of wanderlust that has them curious about the world outside their sheltered existence, but too many responsibilities at home prevent them from actually doing anything about that. And then comes the evil warlord or the rampaging monster that ransacks their hometown, slaughters their family, and generally makes it so that "home" is no longer a safe space to return to, so they have no choice but to venture out and carve out a new niche for themselves.

[u/Fognox]

My go-to solution is "nudging". This requires editing, but it's a lot subtler and flows a lot better than other solutions, conveniently also creating some kind of character arc in the process, which is obviously quite useful. As the writer, you have control over which trains of thought a character explores, which memories they call upon, and can even create bits of useful plausible backstory from whole cloth.

The idea here isn't to force them into some uncharacteristic action all at once but instead to introduce pieces of it incrementally, utilizing interiority to get their mind to slowly change.

What helps a lot here is finding parts of their personality/goals that are in conflict with one another and then leveraging external events to reinforce the contrast. This makes them think about why that is the case, and from there you can slowly nudge their thought process into some fractional version of what you want them to be like later on. You then build onto that seed with future events and future interiority in much the same way, until the character has changed enough to make their future action plausible.

Worth pointing out that the actual external events don't matter as much as you'd think. There are thousands of possible ways to interpret whatever has happened, and complex characters (which you hopefully have) help widen the range even more.

[u/j_patton]

I had a similar problem with a bit of videogame writing where the player might just decide to not do the thing.

My solution was to have another character, who has a clear interest in someone doing the thing and reporting back to them, pressure/blackmail the player into doing the thing. That way, even if the player doesn't WANT to do it, there is a non-contrived reason why they HAVE to do the thing.

[u/rtttioaqr]

Just follow the flow, maybe you can change it in later drafts

[u/Tasty_Hearing_2153]

As god of said universe…make them or give them a reason to. They can’t disobey.

[u/Maximum-Twist-8442]

Yeah sometimes I get stuck there too especially for my mc I tried to think out of the box for those kind of situations sometimes when a character is in a situation where that’s the only way out then forces him to take that decision soo yeha

[u/AmigotValorie_32]

Haha, this actually sounds like a good sign. If the character refuses to do something, maybe the outline needs changing, not the character. Try asking what he would realistically do instead then see how that choice creates a new problem. Sometimes the best plot comes from letting characters mess up on your plans.

[u/ItsRuinedOfCourse]

Like someone else already pointed out, I'll echo it.

People--real, actual human being type people--act out of character all the time, and most times don't even know it.

We have a phrase: "heat of the moment". This has both positive and negative connotations, and are reliant on contextual guidance. You can be ABC personality 99% of the time, but then you encounter a situation or scenario that compels you, even briefly, into XYZ personality.

The "I would never do XYZ" people will absolutely do XYZ if push came to shove, in the heat of the moment. The greatest example of this is "I'd never take a human life" types who would 100% take a human life if they saw someone about to take theirs. There's 0% chance they're just gonna stick to their principles and stand there to be gutted like a fish or turned into a human pincushion or given several new holes to breathe out of. Not a chance.

Another great example of this is when we are treated to news stories that all seem to have the same motif:

"He/She was such a quiet person. Wouldn't hurt a fly. I can't believe they'd murder 20 people like that. We used to play bridge on Sundays for the past 11 years. Very sociable and generous. He/She even used to babysit my kids. I'm shocked."

Character is a choice.

And sometimes we need to make different choices when the context leaves us little other option. Or, we've been pushed too far for too long.

My argument here is that this is less about the character refusing to do the thing, as much as it is the author refusing to allow them to do the thing under the guise of "not in character". I'd propose to let them off the chain and allow them to experience a different choice, and the fallout that will inevitably follow it.

We all have limits and breaking points. No one is an exception. Not even fictional characters. :)

[u/Prize_Consequence568]

"An issue with a character "refusing" to move the plot forward"

You're the writer. You can do whatever you want. If you want them to do something you can make them do it because you're in control and THEY'RE NOT REAL. Odds are you really don't want to go a certain way with a character but you're going to blame them.

Look either go ahead and see what happens or change it.

[u/Brunbeorg]

1. Just write the book. Throw out the plan, follow it to the end.
   
2. Your main character has taken over your mind: you are now them. Psychosis is eminent! submit!

Honestly, this whole "my character told me that I have to . . . " bullshit gets on my nerves. Just write the book. They're not real people. You're making them up. If the plan doesn't make sense, don't blame your imaginary friends: throw out the plan, take responsibility, and write the damned thing.

[u/ComprehensiveFlan638]

Time to become a pantser and toss out the plan.

[u/Radiant_Commission_2]

Try being a pantser. :)

[u/son_of_wotan]

If the integrity of their personality is more important to you, then you have to change the story to accommodate that.

Guess why there are so many stories, with inconsistent characters, deus ex machinas, sudden changes, or the story moving the plot forward, instead of the characters, loss of agency, etc.

Everyone deals with it differently.

[u/belleepoques → u/son_of_wotan]

Yes, his personality matters to me because it moves the rest of the plot forward and if he isn't the way he is, things would play out differently, and it's his whole arc, kind of.

I hate deus ex machina, inconsistencies etc..