Activity

oh my word, @kr-lalonde! I know that feeling!

@dragongeek gave some really good advice, there… I am totally going to take those pointers for me!

*laughs , then tries to look serious*

not to steal the benefits or anything, just to learn with everybody else!

something else I usually end up doing is meeting my characters in the story (and I especially do this with my support roles, not so much with my leads) and then just letting them go where they will until I have a huge prolem with how they are developing. Honestly, even though it helps, you don’t have to know all of your characters – I mean, think about it. I don’t know the lady in the grocery store who has a toddler and looks really overwhelmed but still has made a mark on my life because of her patience with her child – all I know is how she relates to me. So even though you are the “author omniscient” (I often am not, but still), the reader doesn’t have to know everything about all the characters they come in contact with; just the ones that make a difference, and even then all they really have to know is enough to get them through the scene. Often, that isn’t very much, but if you do have the backstory, you could drop hints as to the history of the character we don’t know yet.

Overall, I guess that im trying to say don’t stress over it too much. There are lots of ways to meet your characters and to learn who they are, even if you change that later. As much as I like to let the story tell itself to me, don’t be afraid to step in, take charge, and say “listen up everybody. I’M the AUTHOR, which means I tell YOU what to do, AND YOU LISTEN. GOT IT?”

*snickers into sleeve*

I don’t usually have enough umph to do that, since its all in my own head, but hey, the effort is what counts. (=