by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
How much do you need to know about your characters in order to present them to the reader? I find myself thinking a lot about that these days. First, I think every storyteller’s journey is different. So, lulz, you do you.
If you need to know an absurd amount of information that is never seen on the page to tell your story, have at it — though I would recommend you spend some of your time actually writing the fucking novel.
Anyway, my characterizations have gotten a lot — A LOT — better as I come to understand the relationships between my characters. That was probably the hardest thing to figure out, and the biggest reason why I kept writing and re-writing the beginning so many times.
Not only did I not know my characters very well, but I did not know their relationships very well.
In fact, I was having a real struggle with one relationship and the answer came to me out of the blue. Now, that specific change in relationships is probably one of the biggest differences between Draft Two and Draft Three.
One thing I’ve been a little worried about of late is in my new second chapter, I don’t really show things from my heroine’s POV that much. And, yet, in a number of those scenes, my heroine remains the focus. Having her seen through the eyes of an outsider is, in fact, the entire point of these additional scenes.
This placates my inner critic enough for me to keep moving forward.
But, in general, I’m feeling pretty stoked about the third draft of this novel. I am willing to deluded myself into thinking that there’s a decent change that the third draft will actually be something akin to professional.
