How to create non-predicatable characters

An idea I've had but have not yet had the chance to display publicly and get feedback on is to try to more often have circumstances outside of my characters' control, that way they're not making the same stale decisions. Have the antag try to coerce the protag into doing something they normally wouldn't do, or subject them to a personal change they can't control, or occasionally ask yourself "but what if (the current thing the character is trying to do) doesn't work out?". Realistically, they're all logical reasons for a person to do something out of the ordinary. Would you be willing to bend your personal code of ethics if someone was blackmailing you hard enough, or was threatening someone you love? If you suddenly had ultra-bad breath that won't go away, or were falsely rumored to be able to cure disease with a kiss, or spontaneously set on fire everything you touch with your hands; would that change your social interactions? How about when you're in the middle of a difficult only-get-one-chance task and something goes awry, and you just need to salvage the situation (and plan A, B, and C all failed (and I mean the plans you the writer come up with; foil your own plans until only something undesirable remains)); would you do something out of the ordinary to still save/ruin the day? That's my thinking, but again, nothing I've written since coming up with this idea has yet been displayed and reviewed, so here, have a grain of salt with that.

 

Do you mean as a main character or just characters in general? For side characters, try giving them a variety of motivations and remember that real people are driven by emotion just as much, if not more so depending on the person, as logic. From a writer's perspective when you have all of the events of a story laid out in front of you, it can be easy to see what the characters need to do, but that doesn't always mean they'll necessarily act in that way. Try deciding the one thing that a character wants more than anything else, even if the character themself isn't fully aware of it, and have them go after a different, slightly lesser goal. As an example, a character I play in a roleplaying game was recently offered information on a tragic event that happened in the past in return for doing something terrible. In the end, her morals held out above everything else, but then afterwards she realized that she could have requested information on another, ongoing situation. If she had realized that sooner, it's unclear whether she would have still chosen the moral high ground, or even what the moral high ground in that situation would have been, so now the consequences for not making a choice she didn't know she had are weighing heavily on her mind and will probably cause some dramatic change in behavior.

As a side note, I find doing roleplays helpful, because then you get other people acting as other characters who respond to the way your characters act in ways you might not think of. If you feel really stuck, you can try doing some roleplays and see if you can learn anything from seeing what other people do in situations you create.

 

I guess I would suggest making sure you have detailed back stories for your main character and each of the family members. That way you know what things the family members can help with and your main character can have some motivations outside of their family circle, giving them a reason to go out on their own. Think about how family dynamics usually work. There tends to be some level of conflict or secrets kept by certain family members from other family members for a variety of reasons. So there might even be some situations where your character wouldn't want their family's help.

 

If all else fails, just write down all the possible decisions the character can make, then plug in the ones that make the most sense for the character into Wheel Decide. That way not even you know what your character will do until you spin the wheel.