…wait…who are you?

March 5, 2012October 15, 2017 / Rachel

I have a serious problem.

I don’t know my characters. At all. I’m working on some of my very earliest scenes of my novel and the interactions and the dialogue just feels so…wooden. I’ve sketched out their basic personalities but I now realize that I have a lot more still do to. This week, instead of focusing on plot development, I intend to jot down every tiny little thing about them that pops into my head – likes, dislikes, memories, past experiences, regrets, hopes, etc. I have to make them feel more three-dimensional than they do right now in order to write them the way that they deserve.

This “writing a book” thing is exhausting!

2 thoughts on “…wait…who are you?”

Aims

March 5, 2012 at 9:08 pm

I have that problem sometimes. Not really with my fanfics, but definitely with original characters. I have a notebook with this potential original story sitting in my room with all these characters in it and an overview of what happens/scenes, but before I ever really let myself write out the chapters I always have a little bump working out the voices and personalities for the characters… which might be why I haven’t broken past just setting things up yet. I’d write out little things about them too, like which one leans towards sarcasm in situations and which is more straight-forward and to the point or which ones had a fairly easy life and which ones have gone through tragedy (and what that tragedy might be). That and smaller things like distinguishing marks/scars or little tells they might do in certain situations. Having those things really do help when it comes to writing a story, because it definitely makes the characters a little more three-dimensional than they originally were. I’m sure once you get everything written/figured out, you’ll do your characters and your story justice. You can do it! 🙂

Reply
- rlhayden78
  
  March 5, 2012 at 9:10 pm
  
  I was just whining to my mom about how very easy fanfiction is to write compared to original fic. The goal? Learn Jack and Lila as well as I know Puck and Rachel. I have to be that close to them in order to make them real people.
  
  You brought up some suggestions for situations/characteristics I hadn’t considered yet. I’m definitely going to do these, too!!! Thank you, bb!!!!