Gratuitous pear tart photo. Mmm, that was delish!
I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, in November, for you newbies) for many, many years. In fact, all but two of my novel ideas were born in November. That means eight out of ten. *good grief!*
I’ve learned that during NaNo, you don’t want to write quality. You don’t want to think. You just want to get 50,000 words down in thirty days. That means getting the bare bones of your idea down as fast as you can. In my case, sometimes I write scenes, sometimes just dialogue, sometimes a whole chapter. It doesn’t matter during November, as the goal is to cross the finish line. Verbal diarrhea and some stream of consciousness wandering is to be expected. There’s always time to ponder and correct and more clearly flesh out your ideas on December 1.
My current edit, from a NaNo completion in 2017, is really a doozy. The story is solid, but now I’m into developing the characters, all of whom on December 1, 2017 were pretty wooden and one dimensional.
Character development takes some introspection on the part of the writer. The more layered and nuanced the character, the more he/she will seem real to the reader.
These particular characters (four main ones) are adult siblings. Their father has just died. The relationships are all strained for one reason or another. While they shared the same parents, each one reacted to their upbringing differently. As with all siblings in the real world, they are not the same.
I’m not ashamed to say that during my long life, I have been in therapy a few times. Largely successful therapy, since now I look at myself and others differently. I can see where hurts, both real and perceived, can cause someone to act/react in a specific way. I understand crazy, from the temporary illogical nuttiness to the lingering and truly batshit. I try to incorporate some of what I learned in counseling with regard to developing my characters. This is done in layers, like that old saw says, peeling away at an onion.
In cases like this, I find that answering questions for each character (regarding personality traits, motivations, etc.) to be most helpful. I’ve used these same set of questions for other novels. And yes, I use a separate notebook (yes, a physical paper notebook, with a pencil) for the novel and answer the questions for each character.
This exercise takes time to complete. Luckily for me, when I write using the computer during NaNo, I also have a notebook at my side, so a lot of my research is done while writing like a fiend.
Now, before I really get into the bones of editing, I take this information and my questionnaires and get into the heads of these people. This does take some time, especially if the characters are damaged. And these are.
I’m not going to complain how the rest of my life has taken over my time. Time is something I delegate, so it’s all my choice. But rest assured, I’m working on it.
