Jennifer McKenzie
Romance--Boy meets girl. Romantic Suspense--Boy meets girl with dead bodies.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Character Conundrum
PERFECT
| |
14,223 / 7,800 (182.3%) |
ROUGH SEAS
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29,241 / 55,000 (53.2%) |
GARDEN OF SIN
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As you can see, "Perfect" has almost doubled in size. I'm running into some interesting problems with my characters. In Part II of "Perfect", the characters I've written are not characters I relate to personally. I've connected with people like Kenny and Shannon, but I'm nothing like them. Kenny does humor to keep distance between himself and other people, which I do, but he's very indirect, passive aggressive and casual. Those are traits I don't relate to at all. Shannon is a perfectionist. Neat, clean and intense, she holds herself to VERY high standards and keeps her feelings under control. Nope that's not me.
In Part III of "Perfect", I can relate to Holly, the woman who thinks about everyone else and needs someone to care for, but Jeff is a knothead. Good thing Holly loves him. He's oblivious to what's going on most of the time. Now, I KNOW people like Kenny, Shannon and Jeff, but getting inside their heads is a little difficult for me.
I found myself thinking yesterday "What does Kenny do all day long?". I think it was Lisa Pullum who was talking about journaling her character. What is he thinking? What is he doing? Great idea, except I think Kenny wouldn't write anything. He's too busy being the clown. Jeff wouldn't because he just doesn't want to think about anything. He just wants everything to be comfortable. When it gets tough, he pulls through....but barely. Shannon would find journaling messy. Of course, she finds feelings in general messy.
Have I conveyed that in my work? I don't know. I struggle with too much backstory, so I try and keep it subtle and indirect. *Sigh*. We'll see.
I've sent another revised version off to Dayna. I don't know if this is any better, but I hope so.
"Rough Seas" got interesting too, since I've added another villian to the story. This one is close to home and the confrontation between the heroine and the added villian is intense. I had a tough time getting it on paper.
Question of the Day? Do you find your characters that are three dimensional in your head end up two dimensional as you write? Or, do you find yourself wondering if there's more to people who seem shallow?
UPDATE: It wasn't Lisa Pullum, but Stacy Holmes that had the journal reference. Sorry Stacy.
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Name:: Jennifer McKenzie Location:: California
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