3 Ways to Take Charge of Your Unruly Characters

I have this problem where I write so many alternate universes for my own stories that I never get round to writing the main storyline. I'm an awful procrastinator when it comes to actually finishing manuscripts.

But writers finish stories. We have to. It's just what we do. You can't sell something half-written (and if you can, I want to meet your agent). Finish your story.  You owe it to yourself to finish your story. Don't short-change your readers. Or yourself. Rant/advice over.

But seriously, what can you do when your characters just have minds of their own-- when they want to do so many things other than what you want them to do?

Sometimes you just have to discipline your wild, unruly children. Especially when they'd rather go to Disney World when they should be fighting dragons.