Well, in one book, a joint work with Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey, P.A. adds in totally unneeded characters for fun. He really is an egomaniac. He didn't even write the book, M.L. did. (But of course, on the cover his name comes first.)

> Have you ever read a book, and one of the characters has done something so amazingly stupid that it poisoned the whole book for you?
>
> Do you want to tell us about it?
>
> (This is, of course, by way of giving me an excuse to post my own story on this subject, for your possible entertainment, but mainly in hope that I can now stop obsessing about it.)
>
> My "really dumb character" story:
> (names withheld to protect the author)
>
> =====
>
> There is a wizard, whose power is contingent on him regularly visiting a certain part of the city and feeding the pigeons. For this purpose, he has a small bag of popcorn; the bag itself is not magical, but as long as it is used to feed the pigeons, it will never run out.
>
> During the course of the story, the wizard allows the bag to be emptied, is unable to keep feeding the pigeons, and loses his powers. Wandering the streets alone and hungry, he encounters a pedlar, who - by one of those coincidences you get in worlds where magic is real - is selling small bags of popcorn for a very low price which just happens to match the small amount of money the wizard still owns.
>
> The wizard, of course, buys a bag of popcorn.
>
> Which he then eats.
>
> =====