characters

So, I write a lot of fanfiction. Well, not a lot but it is mostly what I write. I just can't seem to get my characters to be three dimensional and I connect with the characters I see on TV. I can find their voices so easily.

During NaNo last year (which I failed miserably at again) I endeavored to create my own characters. My story didn't turn out so well but the characters stuck with me and I'm happy to find that I'm doing the same thing with them that I do with the TV characters I write about--imagining them in various situations to see how they will react.

The story I started for NaNo...well, I still like the basic idea. It's just my writing of it wasn't working out. The voices weren't right. Some of the scenes I liked; I just need to rewrite them, I guess.

But the characters I fell in love with and I'm learning them backwards and forwards. I feel what they feel and know them like I know myself. I'm so proud.

The stories I have been imagining for them are basically the same thing from different views. Or, a lot of the time, I keep imagining the same events but changing how each person reacts until I find a reaction that I like best. It is fun to do and I have been using it with my fanfiction for years. I lie awake in bed at night or in the early morning and think: "if A does this, then B will react like this, but if A does that then B might do this" and it goes on and on like that.

Sometimes I take them completely out of their own story and start a new story, change their ages but not their basic relationship with each other.

I still haven't come to a point where I want to actually write about my characters. I need to figure out their lives and how their story works. It took years of imagining my TV characters before I felt comfortable writing them

I might start just jotting down some of the tidbits I come up with for them, though. Maybe that will blossom into more, maybe not.

I think I will write some individual posts about the characters so each entry isn't 5 pages long.