It's so easy to fall in love with your characters.

You're forced to study their lives. To understand why they like what they like, love what they love, hate what they hate. Spend enough time with them and you will fall in love, even the minor characters.

Why is that a bad thing?

Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it can give your story depth and intrigue.

But sometimes it can cause problems.

How?

(a) it can change your plot, sometimes for the worst - especially if you've written half the book and weren't planning the novel to go a certain way
(b) minor characters can changed to major characters - especially in a love story, the character you meant one character to love might not be the one they end up with

Have you ever fallen in love with a character so much that you changed the plot or made the minor character a major character?
Do you think your characters should be able to change the plot?

Photo credit: minifig / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA