Instant Character- Just Add Water

When writing a story, characters find their way into the plot in different ways.

For example, you need a character to help your protagonist out of the predicament they got themselves into. So you craft a character, decide their appearance, choose personality traits, and whatever else seems important. Then you decide when you're going to put them into the story.

Then there's the instant characters. You need to have an interesting character, perhaps you should create one—

Someone walks in at that moment. "You needed a character?" she asks. Already their appearance is defined down to their length of their hair, their height, and their face.

"Er, yes." you reply.

"Well, here I am." the character replies. She hands you a few sheets of paper on which many notes are written. "Here's some of my personality traits. Now give me a name, and we can get started."

"Oh, okay. Uh, let's see, how about this?" you say, pointing out a name you found.

 "That's fine." she replies.

"You know, it's rather interesting. You're a human, but you sort of resemble an elf."

"I am part elf. One quarter, to be exact. My mother was half-elf. Oh, and I forgot to give you the description of my history." she says, handing you at least a dozen sheets of paper.

"Oh. Wow, this is..."

"Abominable?" she suggests.

"No, just—long. In-depth. You do you realise you're only a minor character, right?" You continue leafing through the history, then suddenly stop. "Oh no. This isn't going to work. If I were to bring your mother into the story—"

"Don't you dare."

"—at any point, or even explain your full history, well, I don't really want to. This has to change."

"So you're going to sugar-coat it? Anything you don't approve of, or that's unpleasant, you simply cast it aside and write your own version of it?"

"I was just saying, we could make changes to your past."

"As much as I'd like my past to change, it's stuck that way." she says bitterly.

"What do you mean? I'm the writer! Riley, hand me a pen." you say. You begin to think of ideas, and try to revise the story. "Argh! I can't remove any of what's written here. I can't scribble it out, or make changes to it..."

"I told you it was stuck that way." she says.

"Great. Just great." you grumble.

"The main characters are being chased by a law officer." another character interjects as he walks over. "Could we get this scene started, before he ends up in prison?"

"All right, all right." you say, getting up.

"Don't let anyone see that character history." your new character hisses in your ear as you head towards the door.