Hello Everyone,
Thanks again for reading and since I know some of you enjoyed the insight into my character development I thought I would share a little more.
The Tics and Peeves:
I hope I spelled that right but what I mean by this is the finer toned parts of characters when I develop their attitude or their personalities. What makes them Tic? What are their peeves? Really all those little things are what I find interesting in character development. They are the same things that make us stand out in the real world from other people. I know many of us fit into social niches of some extent but we are still separated by those things that make us, us.
When did I Start noticing this?
When I was writing Desert Shadows there were several characters that were developed more than the others. Sometimes in my random thoughts and scrapbook writings I would add a brief note or a character idea that I noticed during the day or thought of. This could be anything from something that annoyed me or something that I found interesting that someone did. When I write my novels or stories I will grab these Tids & Bits, (hope someone catches that saying there) and put them together to see if I want to use them on any of the characters. Sometimes I do and sometimes it helps me figure out what direction I want to push a character in. I found this out during editing when one of my editors suggested to me that some of the characters need “voice.” I people watched for a week just to figure out these subtle things that some people do. Those things that I noticed and liked, I would pay extra attention too and recorded down in my notes later.
The Characters Tell the Story:
I had the general stories in mind during the writing process of Desert Shadows. What I didn’t realize as much is that I needed the first-person point of view to be telling the story not just the words. This was hard in the character development but when I figured out how to place the words so people would start feeling the main characters outlook I felt that the rest of the book carried that approach. Another important person in my publishing process told me about how the characters actions dictate their reactions. So to say if a character was not likely to do something during the whole book you wouldn’t want them to all of sudden change just to suit the books outcome. It wouldn’t feel as believable. That’s why I tried to make the characters grow into their new feelings and approaches to the situations in the book and hopefully over time I will eventually master this to the point where it isn’t just the obvious but it is something you could see the character doing. Like knowing a good friend of yours would probably do something.
Well that’s it for now.
Thanks for Reading,
Joshua Crane Dowidat
