Your protagonist, we'll call her Susan, has to do what you (the writer) direct her to do. What you make her do drives the story forward. On top of that, you own her. She's living on the page and in your head. You know her better than anyone.
So when you get comments about Susan saying she wouldn't do what you said she did, it's easy to get a little annoyed. You created Susan. You know Susan *has* to do this or the story won't be the story. Not to mention that yes, in fact, she would do exactly that. That's why you wrote it!
When you're editing, dealing with these comments can be rather frustrating, especially if only one person mentioned it and you're using your personal knowledge/experience/research.
There are two widespread pieces of feedback:
1. Character wouldn't do X.
Ex. Susan wouldn't go near the hive if she's that allergic and terrified of bees.
2. Character would do Y.
Ex. How does Susan, a psychiatrist, not see the warning signs in Andrew, especially after Carlos pulled her aside in Chapter 3 and warned her? I'm pretty sure she would be cautious.
How do we resolve this type of conflict so our story can continue? Is the reviewer wrong or did I miss something?
Let's start with an example:
In Dark Side, Marcy's cat slips out through an open front door. Marcy manages to track her down in the woods behind the bird feeder, and remarks that she'll have to check the cat for ticks.
A reader commented: Cats don't get ticks. Only dogs do.
Now, in this instance the reader is factually incorrect. Cats can and do get ticks. Ticks don't see a warm furry body strolling past, throw out a tiny arm across their BFF, and shout, "Wait, man! It's a cat!"
But then, the common advice is to see if you can make things clearer for future readers. I even recommend this in most cases! You should check, but you don't always have to act. Sometimes readers are being stupid. Other times the one person to tell you is the one person that cares enough to help.
In this case I asked myself, "Should I include more information to make it less likely that another reader will stumble by and go: Psh, no way. Cats don't get ticks. ...?"
The answer is no.
When you might need to clarify:
1. Lots of people mention the issue. You need to pay close attention when even one person mentions an issue like this, but if you're getting boatloads of readers telling you the same thing, there's a good chance you missed your mark. They might all be wrong, but there's a better chance that something in your writing went off course.
Remember, this doesn't always mean that your story is wrong. It just means you need to do a better job of conveying what you mean!
2. There's no (or very little) evidence to back you up. This is the most common reason a writer has to go back and revise a "character won't/will" situation. There isn't quite enough credible evidence to establish your point. Usually, it's just because writers are so close to the story, they forget that the reader doesn't know what they do and they gloss over something that needed to be expanded on.
Someone says:
Susan is Catholic. She wouldn't have sex before marriage. Catholics never have sex before marriage.
You KNOW that those big, sweeping general statements are wrong. So you're safe, right?
Sort of. People and characters are individuals, but you have to look at the information you presented in the story. Is there enough in there to suggest that Susan would be okay with having sex before she's married? If you portrayed her as this pious little dove and hammer home the God references, and two chapters later she's sleeping with a random guy she met at a bar, it's possible you didn't do enough to indicate that she's cool with sex (or hint that she's not a little dove). You may need to go back and set it up a little more/better.
The trick isn't saying: she's a unique individual so I can do what I want and it's OK.
The trick is in convincing your readers that in this situation, this character is acting the way you'd expect her to. You can't always skate by with a "because I said so" or "I was going for a surprise murder of the priest by the nun."
This can require you to get creative. Like if you want that shocking nun murders priest scene. If your readers aren't buying it, go back and look at not only how you conveyed the nun, but how you conveyed the scene. Maybe you made it a little too dovey, and your readers transferred that onto the character. Or maybe you thought it was obvious but you were too subtle. Who knows. The important thing is that you go back and see what evidence you gave the reader, and if there's enough of it.
3. The reader is right. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our stories we miss a detail, think of something as being possible when it isn't, or we run into a reader who's got more experience in an area than us.
If the reader is right, whether it be a fact or something that requires a little more debate, do clarify. The last thing you need is to hear the same comment a dozen more times, especially if it's a quick fix with minor impact on the story.
Say the reader is right about the location of Buckingham Palace. Changing it won't kill you.
4. Clarification would improve the story. Sometimes a little clarification isn't always necessary, but when a reader poses and interesting question all of a sudden we see things from a new light. We add in an extra detail or improve on an old one. If the reader's observations help you, by all means, put in the effort to clarify!
When you don't need to clarify:
1. The reader is factually incorrect and that fact is relatively understood by a general audience.
This is one of the easiest circumstances. In the above example with Dark Side, it's more or less common knowledge that cats get ticks. Maybe some people out there haven't yet experienced the joy of prying a tick off the neck of an angry black cat, but the information is so general it could be answered with a yes/no search on google. You don't have to be an expert to understand the answer. Your general audience doesn't need you to add in two sentences explaining that cats have ticks. Your story doesn't need to waste time on that, either.
2. There's no evidence to back them up.
You spent the first four chapters detailing the romance between Susan and that sexy accountant downstairs. She's mentioned multiple times that she wants to sleep with him, and they had two conversations of flirty, seductive banter, yet the reader is surprised when she does.
Sometimes, the reader just has it wrong. You can safely ignore their request to change it.
IMPORTANT: TO FIND OUT IF THE READER HAS IT WRONG, CHECK YOUR STORY. This is to make sure you didn't miss something or fail to do a good job of convincing the average reader of your intentions (#2 from when you should clarify).
IF YOU AREN'T SURE WHAT THEY MEAN, ASK THEM.
3. The reader is giving you an opinion.
"The protagonist shouldn't hang out with her pregnant, unmarried roommate. She shouldn't be supporting someone like that. It's disgusting."
This is a sample of feedback I got from one beta reader on Run Cold. Needless to say, they refused to read the rest of the story because the protagonist helping her pregnant, unmarried roommate offended them. It wasn't okay for the protag to talk to her anymore.
At the end of the day, there wasn't anything I could insert into the story to make that reader content. I wanted to do something, but there wasn't anything to clarify. The protag is always going to support her friend, and her friend is always going to have this baby (the baby is important to the plot in both the first and second books).
The reader graciously took the time to give me their opinion, and it's a valid opinion. They have every right to it (even if I disagree). I suppose I could have made the roommate married, but then there would be gigantic plot shifts to accommodate that reader's opinions. She wouldn't live with her roommate, an important conversation with the protag would never happen, etc. Not to mention the dozens of other readers that weren't bothered by this.
Deciding what does and doesn't need clarification can be a bit of a bother, especially when you've got someone telling you your character wouldn't do X or Y. Nevertheless, if you stop, give it some thought, and assess each individual situation, it's pretty easy to figure out if you're on the right track or way off base! :)