Characters in novels don't always do what the writer wants them to do. Sometimes they cause trouble, take on lives of their own, or even work against the writer. It's not just a problem for inexperienced authors: famed children's novelist Roald Dahl said he got the main character in his bookMatildaso "wrong"that when he'd finished his first version, he threw it away and started again. Of course it's not the characters' fault. The problem lies with the author. Take Stephen King, who admitted that writing working-class characters is more difficult nowadays because his own circumstances have changed. "It is definitely harder,"King said."When I wroteCarriemany years ago, I was one step away from physical labour." This is also true for characters' ages, added King."When you have small children, it is easy to write young characters because you observe them and you have them in your life all the time. But your kids grow up, it's been harder for me to write about this little 12-year-old girl in my new book because my models are gone." For other authors, such as Karen Fowler, there's one quality that can stop a character in its tracks: boredom."I had particular problems with the main character in my historical novelSister Noon,"she says."She had attitudes about race and religion that seemed appropriate to me for her time and class, but they were not attitudes I liked. Eventually I grew quite bored with her. You can write a book about a character you dislike or a character you disagree with, but I don't think you can write a book about a character who bores you." According to Neel Mukherjee, it was Adinath, a character inThe Lives of Others, who made him work the hardest."I think I struggled because it's difficult to write a character whose most prominent personal feature is weakness, as Adinath's is, without making that feature define him,"Mukherjee says. But a troublesome character is far from an unwelcome guest, he continues, arguing that "when characters work against the author they come alive and become unpredictable". "That is a fantastic thing to happen,"Mukherjee says."I celebrate it. It is one of the great, lucky gifts given to a writer." What does Neel Mukherjee think of his difficult-to-write characters?
They are a sign that the story is not realistic. They are often the most interesting. They should be praised by all authors. They need to be researched more thoroughly.