Plots, plans, and party crashers

Most writers plot out their books to some degree. Some go with a loose sketch, others know exactly what happens from A to Z. I'm glad I'm not the former, I envy the later -- I fall somewhere in the middle.

But sometimes you have to toss it all out the window.

Say you're happily writing along, everything going according to plan. Character A is behaving perfectly. Then Character B -- or even a character you've never met before -- suddenly enters the scene. Everything changes. Dang it! So much for reaching the daily page count, right?

Wrong. It's become my experience that this is a very good thing. It means that your story is taking on even more of a life of its own. It means that your muse is in residence, and she's just vetoed your plan, staged an intervention, whatever you want to call it, to keep you from doing something stupid that you'll regret later.

Whenever this happens to me, I've learned to run, don't walk, after the interfering Character B. That character knows what they're doing and why they're there even if you don't. The key here is to go with the flow. Some of my most fun characters have come into existence by crashing my plot party. In a book, party crashers are always welcome. For me, they're either being pulled into a dark alley, or pushed out of a bar. I've learned to pay attention to these people. They're worth watching -- and listening to.