HELLO, WHO ARE YOU?

I got to 25,000 word on my NaNo novel; that's the half way mark. Of course, I started out on the focused idea that I would finish my "worst first draft" by November 30. Of course, I had the plot fleshed out in my mind. Of course, I thought I knew my main characters well enough to write the 50,000. Right? Wrong.

So many articles I've read talk about answering basic questions of your characters, but this year I thought I knew the people in my novel well enough to just jump in.

PROBLEMS
1. The favored pet pooch in the first chapter somehow ceased to have any place in the novel.
2. I kept having to return to chapters to look up what I had said about different character - losing valuable time.
3. The characters, at least some of them, seem stagnant and boring.

SOLUTION
I went back to those articles and websites and created a character development sheet that will work for me. Tomorrow, I start to interview my characters, one by one, to really get to know them.

How do you develop your major characters?

DREAMING A CHARACTER

I've been struggling with the main character for one of my works in progress, Well Wishes. I couldn't get a clear picture of her in my head, nor could I get a clear feel for her personality. All I had was a clear picture of what was causing her inner conflict.

When I awoke the other morning, I had had a dream about a friend of mine from elementary school. Usually most of the people in my dreams still look the same as when I knew them. In essence, time has stood still. In some cases, I am the age I was when I knew them too.

In this dream, the person I knew wasn't what I remembered from elementary school. She was in her 50s or a little older with children and grandchildren of her own. She still possessed the mischievous twinkle in her eye, but her blonde hair had become gray.

I couldn't figure out why I had dreamt about someone from elementary school until I was driving to what a friend of mine calls a "Job-job". It hit me - slapped me in the face.

My dream wasn't necessarily about the elementary school friend, but thinking closely about the person in the dream, I found that she was a composite of that friend and a couple of other people I have known, all rolled together as my protagonist.

The character, once named Marytza, is now Anna. "She" is happy that I have come to terms with who she really is, and now the book seems to be leaping out of my head and onto the page.

Funny how characters can find a life of their own and dig in their heals until you as an author agree with the character.

What are some of the ways that your characters reveal themselves to you?