My characters won’t behave

Anyone else feel like their own book isn’t solely in their control? I swear, sometimes I sit down to write and it’s like I’m actually possessed by the character I’m trying to refine and they never, ever do what I had in mind for them.

When I was reworking the middle of The Bone Fairy, I had a character suddenly involved in a rebellion that had never actually been part of the plot at all prior to this. The character was insistent, if I didn’t follow their path the words simply wouldn’t come, and I’m never quite sure if it’s writerly madness, subconscious genius, or probably a bit of both.

Either way, it’s actually turned out to be hugely beneficial to the main plot line, and has resulted in an intricate web to unpick in the second novel in the series. So thanks, I guess, to the figment of my imagination who then went on to shape the book in a new direction? Reading back, I’m not entirely sure I should be posting this, I do sound completely unhinged.

I also have this issue with character names; they always name themselves. Sometimes I try to get a bit creative with it, but it never sticks, I have to revert back to the original name that first popped into my head along with the character themselves. Needless to say, there have plenty of drafts where the character in question completely changes name halfway through for that precise reason; man, edits are fun.

Is it just me? Am I now going to be exiled from the writing community for my rambled confessions or is there a whole community of us out there, sweating over our fevered prose that’s directed entirely by the character we made up...?

Join me. Please. No, seriously, it would be nice to know I’m not the only one!