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Characters sometimes contribute to their own creation.
This essay is the ninth in my new Inside the Story series, where I share the creative decisions, real-life influences, and writing philosophy behind my novels.
When Characters Ignore the Outline
Novelists control everything about the stories they write, right? After all, we invent the characters, create the plot, and decide what happens. Surely all our fictional people should cooperate with our intended design!
Well, apparently nobody told them.
Fictional characters don’t literally have minds of their own. But once their personalities, histories, and motivations become clear, certain choices no longer feel believable for them. The plot suddenly must change to make sense. Sometimes the writer must choose between following the original outline and following what the character has become.
Every novelist eventually meets one of these characters. But in my novel, What Remains After, I met at least three of them: Beth, Frank, and Otto.
Beth: Courage I Hadn’t Fully Anticipated
When I first created Beth Clark, I understood her largely through her fear, vulnerability, trauma, endurance, and determination to protect Otto. But as the story developed, she revealed to me a courageous side I hadn’t anticipated. Importantly, her courage didn’t eliminate her fear. There were times when she was terrified, exhausted, confused, and uncertain, yet she still made decisions and took actions that required incredible bravery and thought. She made courageous choices that I’m not sure I could have made under the circumstances she faced.
When I speak of her courage, I’m not just talking about the traditional acts of bravery we expect of superheroes. I’m referring to the courage it takes to tell the truth when you don’t know whether you’ll be believed, or to protect someone even more vulnerable than you are. She showed courage in her ability to trust people again after tremendous trauma and in her refusal to give up when doing so would have been so much easier.
I didn’t want Beth to become either a helpless victim or an invincible heroine. Her strength needed to remain believable. Her courage couldn’t replace her fear; it had to move alongside it. In a previous essay, I discussed what it means to be an ordinary hero, and that’s the kind of courage I wanted Beth to exemplify. She didn’t become someone else when she showed courage. She became more fully herself.
Frank Jones: The Supporting Character Who Became Essential
Frank Jones began as a tertiary character in my early drafts of What Remains After. He was meant to serve a practical purpose in Beth’s and Otto’s story. But he gradually became so much more important. His steadiness, compassion, persistence, moral clarity, and willingness to act made him increasingly central to the novel. He was supposed to support the secondary character, Marg Jones, but in truth, he became perhaps even more essential to the story than she was.
Frank provided an important contrast to the adults who failed Beth and Otto. Where others overlooked or dismissed warning signs, Frank paid attention. Where others remained silent, he acted. He became more than someone who helped move the plot forward. He represented the profound difference an ordinary, trustworthy adult can make. He entered the story as a supporting beam and quietly became part of its foundation.
Frank’s unexpected growth taught me that secondary and tertiary characters can become the spine of a story. Sometimes a character becomes more important not because the plot demands it, but because the story’s meaning does.
Otto: Discovering His Own Journey
Initially, Otto’s role was closely tied to Beth’s, and he was meant to be much less significant than he turned out to be. He was her younger brother, someone she loved and wanted to protect. He was also somewhat of a foil to her in his mannerisms, how he endured trauma and deprivation, and how he found healing. But as I wrote, I realized he couldn’t remain simply an extension of Beth’s story. Although the siblings experienced related events, they had different personalities, memories, fears, and ways of coping.
Otto needed his own interior life and his own path toward healing.
I hadn’t planned for a detailed conversion arc for Otto. But as I came to understand his pain, his need for belonging, and his search for healing, faith became a meaningful part of his journey. I didn’t insert a conversion simply because I’m a Christian writer. His faith needed a purpose. It needed to belong to Otto, not serve as a platform for the author’s beliefs. Nor did turning to Christ for grace and healing instantly erase his wounds. I followed Otto’s need for healing until faith became part of the answer he was willing to receive.
That’s a concept behind my philosophy of Redemptive Realism: Grace can enter a person’s life without erasing the consequences of what happened before. And God can use those consequences for His glory.
The Difference Between Planning and Discovery
When I outline a story, I give it structure, direction, and a sense of where it’s going. But after outlining comes drafting, and that process happens in several stages, during which things are revealed that I couldn’t anticipate. A relationship becomes more significant than planned. A character reacts unexpectedly. A theme emerges more strongly than I intended.
The outline tells me where the road should go. The first draft introduces the potholes, detours, and the occasional character grabbing the steering wheel.
Not every unexpected development deserves to remain in the final draft. As the writer, I must ask myself whether it fits the character, strengthens the story, creates meaningful consequences, and feels believable.
If not, then it’s out. Edited. Deleted. Kaput.
That’s the process of revision. Once I recognize a character’s larger role, earlier scenes may need adjustment so that the development feels natural rather than suddenly invented. The best character surprises feel unexpected at first and inevitable afterward.
What These Characters Taught Me About My Own Novel
At first, I understood What Remains After as primarily Beth’s story of survival and how the institutions and people around her failed her. But Beth’s growth, along with Frank Jones’s and Otto’s, helped reveal other important dimensions.
The novel became a story about the difference ordinary people can make and their responsibility to notice and protect vulnerable people. It also became about how two siblings can experience and respond to trauma differently, and how that impacts their paths toward healing. The story grew to show how healing can be encouraged through the grace of trustworthy relationships. Most importantly, though, the story expanded to include faith, grace, and the possibility of hope.
What Remains After once had a bitter edge. As it matured, hope and forgiveness tempered that bitterness without diminishing the injustice at the story's heart. These characters didn’t simply expand their roles. They deepened the novel’s meaning. Readers may experience something similar when a fictional character turns out to be braver, more compassionate, or more complicated than expected.
People, whether real or fictional, are rarely only what they first appear to be.
Letting Characters Become Themselves
I came to three discoveries while writing What Remains After. Beth taught me that courage and fear can, and usually do, coexist. Frank showed me how an ordinary person can become central to an extraordinary story. Otto reminded me that each person’s journey toward healing and faith is uniquely their own.
None of these characters literally wrote themselves. But as I understood them more deeply, I realized they needed more room than my original outline allowed. Sometimes writing a novel means making decisions. Other times, it means recognizing the decision the story has already made.
Perhaps that’s why fictional characters can begin to feel so real. We create them, but if we’ve done our work well, they eventually become more than their assigned roles.
They become themselves.
Continue the Story
If you've enjoyed getting to know Beth, Frank, and Otto through these behind-the-scenes reflections, I invite you to meet them in the pages of What Remains After. Their journeys of courage, compassion, faith, and healing are at the heart of a story about what happens when the past refuses to stay buried, and how hope can emerge even from painful circumstances.
You can learn more about What Remains After and find links to purchase your copy on my Books page. If you'd like to keep exploring the stories behind my fiction, I'd love to welcome you into my Stories of Consequence newsletter community, where I share new essays, writing updates, and reflections on faith, life, and storytelling.
FAQs:
1. Can fictional characters really surprise their authors?
Yes, although fictional characters don't literally have minds of their own. As writers develop their characters' personalities, histories, and motivations, they sometimes discover that their original plans no longer fit. A character may respond differently than expected or take on a more important role in the story.
2. How did Beth Clark surprise you in What Remains After?
Beth surprised me with the courage she demonstrated despite her fear and trauma. I originally understood her largely through her vulnerability, endurance, and determination to protect her younger brother. As the story developed, I discovered a deeper courage in her willingness to tell the truth, protect others, and learn to trust again.
3. Why did Frank Jones become more important to the story?
Frank began as a tertiary character with a practical supporting role. But his compassion, persistence, moral clarity, and willingness to act made him increasingly important. He became an example of how one ordinary, trustworthy adult can make a profound difference in the lives of vulnerable people.
4. How did Otto's character develop unexpectedly?
Otto was initially intended to play a smaller role as Beth's younger brother. As I wrote, I realized he needed his own journey because he experienced and responded to trauma differently from Beth. His search for belonging and healing eventually led to a meaningful faith journey that I hadn't originally planned.
5. What did these characters teach you about writing What Remains After?
Beth taught me that courage and fear can coexist. Frank showed me the importance of ordinary people who notice suffering and choose to act. Otto reminded me that healing and faith are deeply personal journeys. Together, they helped transform the novel into a story that emphasizes grace, forgiveness, and hope.
Related Posts:
Novelists control everything about the stories they write, right? After all, we invent the characters, create the plot, and decide what happens. Surely all our fictional people should cooperate with our intended design!
Well, apparently nobody told them.