I've had a problem surface for me in my latest WIP which I can't seem to squish. My WIP is SF set on our present-day Earth. An advanced race has made contact with us and wishes to enlist our help (basically manpower and resources) in a, well, let's just say it's a galactic feud. All's not as it appears though. To get to the point, they have another alien race with them that act as laborers, etc. These laborers help a group of humans (the MC and friends) see the feuding aliens for what they are. A few of the laborers become central supporting characters.

A little more detail before I get to the problem at hand. The feuding aliens are basically humanoid; there are large differences, but the basics are the same. The laborers are a different matter. They are nearest to being insectiod, they are quadrupedal and have a chitinous skin. They have an advanced intelligence on par with humans and all that entails (language, etc).

Here's the problem. As they work together, my MC and friends begin to treat these quadrupedal aliens as pets, rather than comrades. I've tried a few different things, and I believe it's coming down to the appearance of the laborers.

Now, I know that I can change the appearance of the laborers, but it's important to me that they appear as different from humans as possible. I've tried a redesign, making them more human-like, but I fear it makes them grotesque to the reader.

So, with the limited info I've provided, does anyone have any thoughts. Or, has anyone had any similar experiences of characters acting contrary to what you want?

Instead of making the laborers more human-like or comparing them to another type of animal, how about making them energy-based (compared to organic) creatures that move objects through magnetic manipulation or telepathy or something? Though they aren't the dominant being, they would evoke images of powerful superbeings (like the angelic Vorlons in Babylon 5). Would your humans still treat them like pets?

(*Edited for punctuation.)

I especially don't want this to happen because this is how they are treated by the feuding aliens, and also by the humans who are "in" with the feuding aliens.

Making them an energy-based lifeform is an interesting idea, but I'd have to work it around to create a less ethereal creature. I'd never watched Babylon 5, so I googled Vorlons. They aren't substantial enough for my tastes, but I think they could be a good foundation to building an interesting creature that would fit my needs. Thanks for that idea.

I'm sorry if I'm vague here. I tend to ramble if I don't check myself, but then I err on the side of vagueness. In starting this thread, I'm hoping to elicit a discussion about out of control characters and ways to control them. Or, with aspirit's post in mind, if absolute control is better than going with the flow.

Possible solutions:

Is it really a huge problem if your characters treat them like pets? Maybe just go with the flow.

If you don't want to change the aliens' looks how about changing their behavior? Giving them one or two decidedly un-petlike characteristics.

The subservient species being in a subservient role, the human species inadvertently perceives them as low in the pecking order, and thus subconsciously assumes a superior role in the relationship. While attempting to maintain an equal footing with the feuding species, or establish a superior one.

It seems to me that natural order as far as story is concerned all but demands the human species unintended patronizing attitude toward the subservient species.

The relationship dynamic can change, though, perhaps ought to change as befits story's dramatic movement, in a way that conveys a meaningful message about preconceived notions, natural assumptions, taking for granted a status quo, or a conscious awareness of the evils of social stratification.

I don't think there's a dilemma so much as there's an opportunity for a layer of complexity that could meaningfully enrich the story.

I think others have basically already said it above, but it's pretty much human nature to create pecking orders and hierarchies. It's even more important for people who have little to nothing, that they feel superior to someone.

I'd take this change and roll with it - how do these subservient aliens feel about their attempts to ally with fellow "slaves" who are now treating them as subservient? How does that complicate things, keep them from attaining their mutual goals, etc? How do the characters (rather than the author) overcome this problem?

quote:

---

The subservient species being in a subservient role, the human species inadvertantly perceives them as low in the pecking order, and thus subconsciously assumes a superior role in the relationship. While attempting to maintain an equal footing with the feuding species, or establish a superior one.

It seems to me that natural order as far as story is concerned all but demands the human species unintended patronizing attitude toward the subservient species.

---

Wow, extrinsic, you just helped me break down a wall in this project. I understand now that my problem with my human characters treating the laborers like pets is because I'd come to think I'd "raised" my MC better. I've been focused on absolute control and haven't let things take their course.

quote:

---

The relationship dynamic can change, though, perhaps ought to change as befits story's dramatic movement, in a way that conveys a meaningful message about preconceived notions, natural assumptions, taking for granted a status quo, or a conscious awareness of the evils of social stratification.

---

It is, in fact, this very message, among others, that I'd like to bring to bear with this story. I see now that I'd just expected my MC to be above human nature. Without the conflict of him overcoming these issues, the story would become very stale. Which, I have to admit, after this point I've felt my progress begin to slog.

So, with that, I'd like to keep this discussion going. Is there ever a time when an author absolutely has to dig his/her heels in and control an aspect of their story? Now, I'm not talking about when things start to meander far far away. I'm talking about situations when a character strays or an event goes differently than you planned it when you began typing.

Before I began writing, I had heard other authors say that good characters come alive and begin making their own decisions. I was amazed to find it happen to me after I'd been writing for a while.

I'm now fascinated by the subject. In fact, I filed one horror short away when one of my characters decided to stick a knife in his temple. He wasn't my MC, but he was a likable character, and it was so unexpected that it literally jarred me enough to stop writing the story. It sits there now, without a word written past that event.

Thanks all for the help. I look forward to reading some more on this.

{*Edit: Trimmed a little redundancy that needed to be trimmed. }

I've been studying up in depth on theme of late. Not that there's a whole lot meaningful on the topic. I did locate one in-depth treatment of theme. Ayn Rand's Lexicon online.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/theme_(literary).html

and plot-theme

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/plot-theme.html

From studying theme, I had an access point to the questions posed by the thread topic. Theme's where I found that control of characters means focus on their meaning to a story in the little picture and the big picture. Theme unifies a story in all its parts and particulars.

As Kitti pointed out, the subconscious of a writer acts up when it wants conscious attention. Getting inside characters motivations means understanding their effect on theme for unity's sake. For me of late, noticing, listening, and responding to my intuitions means reexamining a theme for it's unifying potentials when a character or a story goes awry.

Of course, he was writing about playwriting as much as he was about fiction, and I'm sure there are times when playwrights would like to fire the actor who is not portraying the playwright's characters "correctly" and hire one that will, so it may have been wishful thinking on Egri's part.

extrinsic hit the nail on the head, so I won't belabor the point. Much. In order for people/creatures of different makeup to think/treat each other as equals and with respect, they have to build positive relationships thru positive experiences (usually). We don't often trust what--or who--we don't understand. It's very hard for many people to put aside what is different in order to see what is the same, but that is key in building any kind of meaningful relationship. People do it at different rates and in different ways, too. And some never get to that point and never will. Some of those humans in your world may always treat the aliens as pets.

One of the things I love about writing is that I am constantly surprised. In my current project, I just had a character turn up I had no idea existed until I started writing about him. I have two choices: I can get rid of him right now and stick to my original plotline, or I can keep writing and see where he takes me. I think I will do the latter. I can always get rid of him later, if he doesn't work out.

I think a first (and sometimes a second) draft is the time to let things unfold in whatever way they want to, even if they don't always seem to make sense. This is the time to be creative and free and explore. Editing in the next and subsequent drafts is when things have to make sense.

The only time I get really concerned about how characters are unfolding is when a main character gets whiney, wishy-washy, weak or stupid or goes off on a tangent that is self distructive to the story as a whole. Even in first drafts I will stop and correct it when I catch it because I've found it is very hard to fix later. Whenever I get stalled, it's the first thing I look for.

quote:

---

There's just no working with some characters.

---

Two concepts in the dramatic arts at least as old as Aristotle might hold answers that could resolve the stumbling blocks, discovery and reversal, or anagnorisis and peripetia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagnorisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripetia

In my personal experience, self-destructive behavior is a desperate cry for attention, say, as far as story is concerned. What's the underlying unfulfilled cause of the self-destructive behavior? When the character acting out comes to a recognition of why, that's discovery, anagnorisis. A profound self-discovery often causes reversal, abrupt, unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation, peripety in modern English or peripetia in translations from the Greek.

At the extreme of self-destructive behavior, suicide, again, in my personal experience, a person who genuinely wants to check out will succeed no matter how attentive preventive measures are.

But there's the challenge, a character who knows he wants to check out and succeeds isn't so dramatically interesting, a foregone conclusion, and it's rather pathetic actually. Barring a noble sacrifice.

If the self-destructive behavior leads to a discovery, a consequent reversal would logically lead to or cause an end to the self-destructive behavior. In itself that's not a high magnitude reversal though. However, once the desire to change behavior has presented--oh tragedy!--and circumstances force the noble sacrifice, that's peripety.