There are few things more painful to a writer or his characters than to struggle through a manuscript, pushing and prodding said characters through paces when they clearly don?t feel like cooperating. Writers often talk about meeting their characters and letting the story go where they take it. It sometimes seems like an alomst mystical thing.
As a reader, you can tell when the writer hasn?t met his characters. They come off flat, all similar to each other. Their stories seem contrived.