A simple question

Kathy from California asked me who the main characters of my novel were yesterday. A simple enough question, but I don’t know enough about them yet to give her an answer. We're still in the getting to know each other phase of our relationship.

You see you meet the main character, Nancy, when she is about 4 or 5 years old. The story is about her childhood and the impact of the environment in which she is raised on her character and personality. In effect, it shows how she develops the traits that you would normally use to fill in a character bio. You read the story to find out how she has become what she is. At the end, I was expecting the reader would decide who she is.

I tried to write a bio for each character before I started, but it just didn't seem to work. Fragments about the other characters started to emerge from my initial brain dump, but they didn't give me enough information about themselves to complete the detailed template for a character bio that I plan to use.

I have found that characters seem to reveal themselves naturally as I focus on other tasks such as research and developing the plot and theme, and even gardening and housework. Then real task seems to be siezing the moment when a character speaks to me and to capture what they reveal about themselves rather than forcing them into a mould into which they may not fit.

I plan to use this space as a place to record what the characters are telling me about themselves, to untangle the plot lines and to explore Nancy's world.

You are welcome to join me.

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