Last week, as I mentioned in this blog, I started a new novella, one for a Valentine collection to be published in January. I plunged in and wrote a few scenes but bogged down by Friday. I. Could. Not. Write. Saturday morning I realized why. I hardly know the hero and heroine. When I don’t know characters, really know them, I can’t tell there story with any confidence.
What to do? There are a number of character interviews/questionaires/forms. I’ve pulled them out and begun to dig deeper. I had begun with the idea that the heroine, Emma, found an ancient artifact, a crude statue of a mouse. It grants her wishes, but often with unforeseen consequences. I made her the daughter of a baron, but who is she really? The wishes make for some potentially amusing plot points but I still don’t know enough about her to put any real emotion into a scene. Brave or shy? A daydreamer? Browbeaten by her mother or clever at working around her? What doe she really want in life? Is she a bluestocking? Does she hope for a title or not? If not what does she want?
The hero, Ben Daniels is working for an earl as a librarian, but who is he really? He’s using a false name, but why? Who is he hiding from? What are his goals? What is he really attempting to accomplish? What is his past? How does he think and feel about women? Marriage? How does he act around a lady who invades his domain? I know even less about him than I do Emma.
I will keep working on my character development this week but Real Life is invading and I’ll have relatively little writing time. What time I do have has to go into “Music in the Night.” I have comments back from beta readers. I need to review their observations and findings, clean it up and get it submitted. There’s a cover for Dukes All Night Long (the anthology it is joining) and I should be able to post it soon. I best get working. But first, coffee.
Thanks for this reminder about characters!