Monday, October 25, 2010

Progress...I guess

So I am happy to report that my post on procrastination spurred me to some small amount of progress at the end of last week. I am positive that Julienne and her amour were quite happy to get off the sidewalk and to the charity ball.

Interestingly enough, I am still discovering facets of Julienne's personality. I think by re-writing this section of the novel, I am making her easier to relate to in that even though she's a bad ass super spy (OK, that is a slight exaggeration), she's still completely vulnerable. Of course she tries so desperately to hide this facet of her personality (behind smirks and acting generally disaffected). The internal war that ensues as she falls in love is at times heartbreaking and yet very funny. One minute she is determined to ignore the guy, and the next she's inexplicably attracted to him, which annoys her to no end. At the end of the day, she is just a very sad individual who is adrift. She was not raised to be a simpering miss, but the two anchors in her life (her father and twin brother) are both gone. She has suffered so much loss that she is a bit gun shy when it comes to investing herself in other people. And being that she is considered a eccentric in her society, Julienne is very suspicious of any man who would pursue her--alas, for our poor hero! Fortunately, he likes a challenge.

So, character progression... Did you know every facet of your character's personality before you began writing the story, or did they leap off the page as you went along?

1 comment:

  1. So true, that sometimes you have to keep writing a character to flesh him or her out. I feel like some characters are really reclusive and reticent--I had to write them and think about them for a while to get them to come into full color. But others are just there--it's like they jump onto the page fully formed.

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