Peeking into the rock

If I was guilty of that in my own writing, it would be because it seemed to make sense in the outline, but by the time I got to writing it the characters or background had developed enough for it not to work. I derailed the plot of my November novel by deciding not to blindly follow the outline when I hit one of those, and I'm still struggling with the fallout. I think this may (sometimes) be what people mean when they say their characters refused to co-operate; at some -- possibly subconscious -- level they're recognizing a mismatch between planned plot actions and what the characters would actually do.