Wait, Who Just Died?!

Early in my story, I struggled with one of my characters. She only had a minor role, barely any backstory, and zero depth. She was just there to move the plot along, and I was fine with that. Honestly, I didn't like her. I figured she'd die before the halfway mark, so it wasn't much of a problem.

Except… the story didn’t go the way I thought it would, and there was never a good place for her to die.

Seriously. Every time I tried to write her out, it felt forced. The scene wouldn’t work. The pacing got weird. Somehow, this unwanted character kept trudging along with the rest of the group—mildly annoying maybe, but still doing her part.

Then I hit this powerful, story-shifting scene and thought, This is it! Finally, I can get rid of her!

But no. She makes it out just fine—okay, not fine, but she’s still alive.

Instead, one of my other characters dies. Someone I thought would have more of a part in the overall story. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t a favorite, but I never plotted his demise. It just happened.

Totally distraught by this unexpected twist, I ran down to my daughter’s room in a full-blown writer crisis, ranting about what had happened. She blinked at me and said, “Mom... you’re the author. How could you not know what was going to happen?”

And that’s when I realized—I’m not writing the story. The characters are. I’m just trying to keep up.