Collaboration with my frequent co-writer, Ann Miller House from West Texas, proves no protection from demanding characters. So he transferred his attention to her, evenually carving out a role in the gun-smuggling and forcing Ann to create a spellbinding scene where Will recounts the Comanche Moon legend to Destiny. In another novel, we planned a chase scene through the underground tunnels in Houston. Instead our hero and heroine insisted on a shoot-out at sea. The tales go on and on, as I'm sure yours do.
Writers depend upon our characters to fire our imagination.
It can happen in every novel and every short story. Sometimes, characters are content to let us write along, occasionally interrupting to set us straight. Sometimes they pester us. Always they guide our storytelling. Authors expect characters to spark to life, to carry on conversations as if they were real and to display independent actions or startling responses.