I was curious whether people have been surprised already by what their main character has done thus far or if they've encountered any deviations from their planned outline (for those who have planned).

The "perfect" analog of my main character (the happy Maya who was thrust into the main character's world) was responsible and optimistic--it was fun writing her responses to the main challenges she faced after showing how miserable the main character Maya was in "perfect" Maya's world.

A little surprise that happened: "perfect" Maya dutifully took notes in Algebra II in spite it being below what she was expecting (AP Calculus).

What discoveries have you encountered?

My MC knows how to sew. I never taught him that.

My MC's dog likes to play with unicorns. Never saw that one coming.

I wasn't expecting to have anywhere near as much worldbuilding in my novel. In the first iteration it was more focused on the crazy stories the two guys came up with, but this time around there's a whole location, new characters, rules for how everything works, characters in the outside world, a mystery to uncover, etc.

I introduced a major flashback in chapter 3...when my planning notebook says it comes in at chapter 7. at least it got me a bingo square!

I've been surprised with just how many questions my MC asks. When I'm writing dialogue fast I find the easiest way to keep the conversation going is to have someone ask a question. I've noticed that the someone is usually always my MC.During editing I'm going to have to find a way totone down the interrogatives.