Side-swiped by lying characters

Richard Wasserfall: "As I writer, I find that these ideas do suddenly come out of the blue. Sometimes it is your characters revealing more of themselves to you; it is as if you the writer are beginning to see their world more clearly.  But sometimes, these ideas can be red herrings - desperate stunts by the characters to stave off major structural change.  Characters, I have noticed, dislike change as much as real people do.  Your job as a writer is decide where this idea is coming from."