Meeting your characters

I have to say that if nothing else, the editing and rewriting of parts of The Paladin have allowed me one great pleasure. I'm getting to know my characters better. See, at chapter one, I didn't really know who Jonathan or Reagan were. By chapter twenty, I had a good idea. By chapter fifty, I knew for sure.

Now I'm getting the chance to do some rewrites of the early chapters and all the things I've learned about my characters through writing them are coming in very handy. I'm seeing that I didn't expound on characteristics of certain characters early on when I should have. It's giving me a chance to go back and add in personality quirks that I only decided on halfway through the novel.

Better yet, since I'm adding a few new scenes, I'm getting to play with them in new settings. A few characters are even swapping around, which allows me to let the scene play out completely different.

I think it's important to pay attention to your characters as you go. Keep an eye on how they're acting, how you're writing them. You won't really know them until you've completed that adventure with them. And, if you're like me, the character you imagined will be completely different from the character you've written.

​Don't Forget to be Awesome.