They’re Real To Me

Although Blindsided is my first published work, I’ve written stories off and on for years now.  And in each of them, I’ve always felt the characters were actual people, fully fleshed out and replete with emotions, thoughts and motivations that I might not always understand.  The tricky part as an author is to display that depth on the printed page, or at least, just enough of it that the reader feels like they know them well enough to recognize them in their local Starbucks.

Have I mastered that art?  I think I’m still growing in that area, getting better with each paragraph I write, whether one of my novels or a spur of the moment short story that just needs to be crafted.  I do think that when characters start acting on their own, despite your best efforts, you’re on to something and need to let it run; about a third of the way into Blindsided, I realized my MC seemed addicted to coffee, and in my third, I shifted to an alternate MC who had always displayed a wry sense of humor, something that became far more pronounced when the story was viewed from his eyes.  Those attributes were kind of there, but never anything specifically listed on a character sheet.

Like all of us, I suppose, they sort of evolved as I “discovered” more of their life experiences.  Which is sort of odd, since I’m the one in charge of those in the first place.  Yet more evidence, I guess, that I’m just transcribing what they dictate to me…