Recently, I posted my character development piece under the patreon exclusives category. You can gain access to it by selecting my Exclusive Access Tier on my patreon!
I wanted to talk more about character development and why I chose to write pieces in my character’s POV, even when they’re not going to be included in the actual story.
When I was writing my novella I wrote about an event that triggered how one of my character’s life changed. It was talked about briefly, but I didn’t really go into much detail because I didn’t want it to take away from the story itself.
I still wanted to write out that specific event just so I could develop a better sense of my characters and hone in on their unique voices. So, that’s what I did. In writing out this event in full detail, it allowed me to have more room to play with their voices. It also led me to discover what their reactions would be like to the same event. I had a lot of fun writing this out that I almost wanted to find a way to shove this in the story, but I knew that it would only be dragging it down.
Sometimes when writing different characters it’s hard to distinguish their voices from each other, especially when you’re just starting out. It really sucks when you read back what you wrote on the first draft and everyone sounds the same! I find that writing a scene in different perspectives gives you that many chances to get each character’s voice right. It might not happen right away, but you’ll eventually find what makes them unique. And sometimes you might end up changing or adding the POV of the story (this is what happened to me when I was writing my novella).
I tend to talk about my characters like they’re real people. For instance, the other day I was talking to my husband about a character in one of my shorts and I was explaining to him who he is and what situation he’s going through.
My husband laughed at me and was like, “Why do you talk about them like they’re real?”
It made me really think for a few moments before responding. I talk about them like they’re real because if they feel real to me, then they will feel real to the readers. And I like to think a lot of authors feel the same way about their characters. I mean, there’s a reason why when you read a book you feel for or relate to the main character the moment you start reading.
As I’m approaching November, (which is National Novel Writing Month) I am starting to delve deep into my character developments for my new novel. I haven’t started actually writing out pieces like I did with my novella, but I am going to start doing that soon. I’ve never actually written out 50K+ words for any story and I really want to be able to do it with the idea I have planned. I think writing out my character pieces will help me achieve this goal and I can’t wait to see if it works.
If it does, I will definitely let you know! Maybe this could help you on your writing journey as well.
I will be posting up more character pieces as I go along. These will only be available through patreon as I will be self-publishing these works and don’t want them to be made public… because spoilers. I hope you all understand!
Anyway, if you get the chance to read my character development scene let me know! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading!
-Emi