How to deal with unruly characters

The first thing I learnt when I started writing, is that characters have very strong opinions. You start writing a character, thinking 'This guy should be easy, he just makes software and a lot of money in the stock market'. Big mistake. Because, suddenly, said guy will look up to you from the page and say: 'Hey! I think I want to write poetry'

We've mentioned before that our characters usually win the arguments, so after a bit of discussion I just sigh and start making up haikus about money dancing in the summer breeze. 

Or, say, you're trying to write a Finnish god. He seems a serious guy, strong, god of creation, good with metal. So you're totally unprepared when he decides to disappear from the story for fifteen years. You counter by sending a pack of wolves to find him and he suddenly starts relentlessly mocking your main character or playing matchmaker in a very twisted way. Once again, you sigh and hope you can write a decent love story with a god hunched over your shoulder pocking fun at two young people. 

Then, there's the issue of what times the characters choose to make their opinions known. To them, it doesn't matter if you're in the toilet, if you have to get up from a cozy bed where you were trying to sleep to write down a scene or if you are in the middle of a bar surrounded by people. Characters are selfish creatures, so they don't mind ruining your social life, as long as they manage to get their points across, so you end up being the crazy chick with a notebook ignoring everyone in the bar for half an hour while you mutter curses under your breath. 

The important thing to remember, though, is that you can't control your characters. There is a lot of sighing involved, curses that would make a sailor blush and inkblots that would make Rorschach proud, but there is absolutely no control. So just lean back and enjoy the ride, because characters get you to places where you'd never go on your own.