MICHAEL
I’ll admit it, I love my characters. When I first started writing, I couldn’t understand what other writers meant when they said that their characters spoke to them, creating an incessant buzz of voices competing to tell their stories as they wrote their books. That was then… Now, I know exactly what they mean.
I don’t know if it’s part of a writer’s creative insanity or if our characters actually come alive as another part of us. Either way, to me, each of my characters has a past, a present, and a future. It’s up to them to some degree what they decide to share. Their voice contributes to what makes it onto the page, and sometimes they utterly surprise me.
One of them shared a major revelation with me this week. My critique partner and I are deep inside of the final rewrite of the first book in my series before I turn it over for a final copyedit, and then into production for publication. (Targeting Sprint 2014. Whoo Hoo!)
Like two beta readers before her, my CP mistook the secret of one my central characters. She thought he was hiding his sexual orientation. I was almost as baffled as he was at her reaction. So he happens to be sensitive, good looking with perfectly tousled hair, wears nice clothes, and doesn’t happen to have a girlfriend at the moment? Neither he nor I thought that screamed he preferred men. But he has some secrets which explain some of his self-imposed isolation. He’s also the first to admit he’s broken, but hides it by projecting a ‘perfect’ exterior, hoping most people never look beyond the surface.
My series has a diverse and inclusive cast, more showing up in the second book (first draft almost done!), but this character is secure in his choices and has a pretty hot date with destiny, calling for a very specific preference.
So, how did he deal with it on the page during re-writes? Not only did I have my main character flat out ask him, but he revealed something just to me that we’ll deal with down the road. I understand him and his reactions so much better now. Our relationship is deeper as a result, and I hope that it will be for the reader as well.
When I’m writing, whoever's voice is the loudest that day, gets the scenes and keeps getting them until they take a breather. I was only halfway through the first draft of the second book when one of my characters went so far that I continued by writing 50 pages of his story line into Book 3! Then again, he’s both an attention grabber and incredibly impulsive.
What about you? Do your characters stray from the page and inhabit your life? How do you deal with it? Better question, how does everyone else around you deal with it?
Photo Credit: Getty Images, Zaltko Kostic. All Rights Reserved. Reproductions Prohibited.
