He's horrible

I have a character who I thought was going to be an OK guy, a little too political, but basically his heart was in the right place. But, he's horrible! He just 'borrowed' a laptop that was hidden in the woman's underwear drawer. While avoiding dealing with his own life, he decided to 'help' her out by answering an email request for her phone number, figuring if she'd slept with the guy once, she must want him to have her number. Which will complicate her life.

I do love discovery-writing my characters.

Has anyone surprised you in your novel?

Dr. Lyra Vandenburg, (who started as Emily then changed to Emiline and is now Lyra) is an anthropologist who just appeared out of nowhere but is now featured as a love interest. The love interest wasn't supposed to come up until later, but I guess I just couldn't wait!
I might have written her in as a way to get my grim mc to come out of his shell a little bit, but she definitely spices up the scenery.
A pleasant surprise!

One of my characters, Meriwether Martin, has developed something of an insecurity complex. He starts most of his sentences with "Um" or "Well." Another character of mine may turn into a mamma's boy if I'm not careful... I really don't want him to be like that but it's so hard when he actually loves his ma.

I needed someone to hassle my heroine. It's a quasi medieval society. I came up with the hooligan brothers, Bumby and Crumby. I love naming my characters. They are bullies who are really cowards.+

Actually I've the opposite situation. I'd planned to kill off one of my minor characters - Aster Newell - but I came to like her and how she's developed. I don't want her to die. She's critically injured and I have a way out so she won't die. She could become a support and confidant to my MC.

Should I or shouldn't I?

By the way, I am dealing with a major war and numerous characters, including the MC's father figure, die.

What should I do?

TRRDEDEAN wrote:
What should I do?

Make her death count.

Freaking Sidekick #2. I COULD NOT get a good handle on her at ALL during ANY of my pre-writing brainstorming. She was just a person who hung out with the main character and had a crush on Sidekick #1, and I thought of her as being really girly and yet always had her wearing combat boots, keeping her hair in microbraids, and wearing a necklace of a functional miniature pistol.

And then at the write-in at Caribou last night, she just sort of... HAPPENED. Apparently she's very cheerful, playful, talkative, sarcastic... In the space of about three paragraphs, she offers to bribe the main character for friendship with cookies, claims to bake amazing cookies, and then admits she burns everything she tries to bake. This character I couldn't figure out? I have a feeling she might need to be reigned in a little before she makes everyone forget there's supposed to be some sort of plot involved.

I agree. If you decide to kill her, make it count. That's how I came to decide to kill off one of my MCs, who is everyone's favorite. His death is going to could. It's going to be the turning point. If he doesn't die, my other MC might not actually do what he needs to do.

TogetherAgain wrote:
then admits she burns everything she tries to bake.

I do hope this isn't a hint that Squiddish is setting us up.