What to do when your characters stop listening to you

OK... I fully realize that the title of this blog makes me sound a little like Johnny Depp a la "Secret Window", which is never a good thing except for the attractiveness. (As a brief side note, Josh hates that most movies about writers depict them as being crazy murderous weirdos... so I try to steer clear of those so that he doesn't take my computer away).

Now back to what I was talking about... which I actually forgot what that was until I read the title again. So. What do I do when June is whining so much that even I don't like her? I'm the one who wrote her! If I don't like her no one else will.

Ready for me to be all over the map with my train of thought?

So I just finished writing my first June book about a month ago and I was going to fine tune my YA Fantasy book to start sending out... but then I just couldn't stop thinking about everything I wanted to write about June. So I started a sequel (which has actually turned into a trilogy) and I had all of these great ideas and I couldn't wait to finish it and then it happened.

June started whining... and then she whined some more... and now I can't get her to stop! It's terrible! So what should I do about it? I guess the obvious answer would be to tell her to get over it and just see how things play out. You know... go sit in the corner and all that?

And then I guess there's the EVEN more obvious little detail I've been ignoring. I WROTE HER. I should be able to control my own character... but for those of you out there who write you know it's easier said than done... or maybe you don't know that and I really am just a crazy person.... which would be bad...

But I digress.

I'm attempting to make June less whiny and more likable so she doesn't end up like a certain popular fiction character who whines endlessly and yet is still loved by every single person in her school. This may be fiction but lets be realistic here.

So I'll stop being Rainy and start being Shooter... wait... that's actually a really bad example of what I'm trying to say. What I mean is... I'll stop letting my characters run rampant until they ruin my story and actually sit them down (in my head of course) and say "Hey I wrote you, so stop whining because I made you more likeable than that!"

Wish me luck

Shannen