In a separate post I talked about how I am beginning to plan my next novel, A Child of Great Promise. Here I will talk about character.
Once I had that title, the obvious question was, what sort of child? I moved pretty quickly through this. Any child who is identified by adults as showing promise is going to suffer pressure. I had my own share of childhood reports that I was not performing up to my potential, so I had some sympathy with this character.
I made a decision at the start that the child would be female and would be roughly at the age of puberty or a year or so later. The choice of gender was purely arbitrary--I had not yet written a female lead. The choice of age was fairly easy. Teenage years are ones of natural rebellion, but also I needed to have a character with enough years on her to have learned some things and to have had some experiences that shaped her. So, fourteen or so. I've kicked around with names, but for now she is Falaise.
Closely tied to her character is the other part of that title. I also had to figure out what is the promise. It was not to be a prophecy--I have another story on the stove that deals with prophecies. No, this is simply, the child shows potential. Great things are expected of her. Those had to be magical things. I'm still not sure how specific to be about that.
The one thing I'm sure of is, she disappoints. She is lazy, truculent, haphazard. She has become increasingly troublesome and rebellious. But Falaise is hardest on herself. She expects far greater things of herself than she has demonstrated. Outwardly she blames pretty much everyone and everything around her, but inwardly she fears it is herself who falls short. So she keeps everyone at arm's length, lest they discover the horrible truth about her.
The other part of character is backstory. That part is still sliding around. Maybe she is well-born and is doing the medieval equivalent of bouncing from one private school to another. Or, maybe she was given to wizards (or elves) as an infant, under mysterious circumstances. So far, it doesn't matter, though I'm sure it will.
And that's just the main character! I need secondary characters, including the villain, each of which needs the usual: backstory, goals, motives, relationship to Falaise, relationship to villain, role in the plot. But I really felt I needed to understand the essence of Falaise first. She's the Child. She is the one with Promise.
Planners, do you have a particular approach to developing characters? How many characters do you need to have in place before you write Chapter One?
Once I had that title, the obvious question was, what sort of child? I moved pretty quickly through this. Any child who is identified by adults as showing promise is going to suffer pressure. I had my own share of childhood reports that I was not performing up to my potential, so I had some sympathy with this character.
I made a decision at the start that the child would be female and would be roughly at the age of puberty or a year or so later. The choice of gender was purely arbitrary--I had not yet written a female lead. The choice of age was fairly easy. Teenage years are ones of natural rebellion, but also I needed to have a character with enough years on her to have learned some things and to have had some experiences that shaped her. So, fourteen or so. I've kicked around with names, but for now she is Falaise.
Closely tied to her character is the other part of that title. I also had to figure out what is the promise. It was not to be a prophecy--I have another story on the stove that deals with prophecies. No, this is simply, the child shows potential. Great things are expected of her. Those had to be magical things. I'm still not sure how specific to be about that.
The one thing I'm sure of is, she disappoints. She is lazy, truculent, haphazard. She has become increasingly troublesome and rebellious. But Falaise is hardest on herself. She expects far greater things of herself than she has demonstrated. Outwardly she blames pretty much everyone and everything around her, but inwardly she fears it is herself who falls short. So she keeps everyone at arm's length, lest they discover the horrible truth about her.
The other part of character is backstory. That part is still sliding around. Maybe she is well-born and is doing the medieval equivalent of bouncing from one private school to another. Or, maybe she was given to wizards (or elves) as an infant, under mysterious circumstances. So far, it doesn't matter, though I'm sure it will.
And that's just the main character! I need secondary characters, including the villain, each of which needs the usual: backstory, goals, motives, relationship to Falaise, relationship to villain, role in the plot. But I really felt I needed to understand the essence of Falaise first. She's the Child. She is the one with Promise.
Planners, do you have a particular approach to developing characters? How many characters do you need to have in place before you write Chapter One?