A Pause For Reevaluation at the Dreaded Middle
I have been busily plugging away on my WIP and the further I go into the recesses of it, the better I get to know my characters. Oh, some out there would say that I should get to know my characters before I attempt to write them. I beg to differ.
First of all, I feel the best way to get to know anyone is through what they say. This holds true in real life and it holds true in romance. It isn't until my characters start talking that I really get a feel for their personalities.
I think the second part of getting to know my characters comes out in the way they act. Because just talking is bologne if it isn't backed up by action (again, true in both real life and fiction). After my characters start mouthing off, so to speak, I start to picture what they're doing while they are mouthing off. I feel like it takes about half the book for me to get a good read on how they react in situations.
So, at this halfway point, I paused to evaluate how they were doing. I read through the whole first half and I adjusted a few things. I did this the last time as well. Apparently, I get up to the top of the hill and I need to look back at my climb to make sure that the ride down the other side is smooth sailing. At this pause, I tweaked a few things with my heroine – toughened her up a bit and adjusted her motivation – and adjusted my hero’s reactions to her. I also included a new external conflict that I’d been tiptoeing around but that puts them together in the second half of the book in a more realistic way.
This whole processed required some cutting (10-15K words, ouch) and some additions (about 10K that replaced what was lost).
But now, after I reread the first half again, I believe I like them even better now than I did before.
I know I could have probably finished the book up without this pause, gone back and redid the beginning at the end with the ending clearly in place, but I’m just not that type of writer. I need to make sure my foundation is firm before I can keep building.
How long does it take for you to get to “know” your characters? Do you pause in the “dreaded middle?” Are you more the revise at the end or revise as you go sort?
Books by the Crew
35 comments:
For me, I kinda know my characters when I begin to write. Although, it is a learning process as I go. I am forever finding out things about them I didn't know. Little quirks in their personalities come out.
Oh I always stop in the middle... it's my thinking time for the story.
And I didn't know Rothburn in Hidden Beauty until the very end. It was painful but good at the same time to have to go back and build his character arc.
I started a new book yesterday and I don't know my characters at all, LOL. In fact, my heroine just took a very surprising turn this morning.
I've almost finished revising Paradise, which wound up revealing a whole facet of Eden that I never knew was there. Made the story much more interesting, so I suppose you could re-write books forever and never get it completely right.
I do keep going back and rereading, because with all the stop and go writing, I tend to lose the 'feel' of things sometimes.And being a total pantser,I just never know what's going to happen. :)
Amanda - new facets. That's much nicer than my way of putting it (ie, why the hell did they do that!??) LOL! But you're right; I get a feel and then I sorta wait for them to give me the details. Though I do admit to some plotting. :)
Tiff - A fellow middle stopper. I think in both cases I felt as if something wasn't quite right. And thank you for your feedback on the first half as well. You helped me start kicking ideas around. :)
Maggie - Yay on your new start! :) That's great! You must be excited. I love the start. The middle, eh. But the end is pretty cool too. And I go back and read again and again too. I need to make sure it "feels right" too.
That's cool about Eden's new facet too! I can't wait to see both you and Tiff in print. So exciting.
I have to stop in the middle too. Well, I stop more often then the middle, but that's because I only plot the beginning and end before I start (I can never figure out what to do with those middle pages. I swear I'm going to start writing category just so I can only write a beginning and ending).
But the same goes for me on characters. They can float around in my head forever before I start writing, but I don't really *know* them until I get them down on paper. I think I have a handle on my current characters, but it took me until the end to figure out my last heroine. And even now, while revising, I catch onto new things with her (though I still hate her, but that's a whole other issue *g*)
Hal - you hate Naomi! Why? Email, we'll chat. :)
And the middle stuff is frustrating. I think that's why I try to do the middle "gray" moment. So that there's something bad that happens that they can work on through time between the middle and the black moment. :)
PS, you'd write great category.
Since I really have only one WIP, and haven't gotten to the middle, not sure I can answer these questions. I know now that I didn't know my characters at all when I first started. They were very one dimensional. After two years with them, I know them much better but still learn something new all the time. My hero surprises me when he blurts out something that is great for the plot. If he wasn't plotting this story, I don't know where I'd be. :)
My heroine is a little more reluctant to reveal things. She's more the type to stop her foot and stand her ground and just muck things up until I figure out what her problem is. It's that woman thing where we say we're *fine* and the guy has to become Sherlock Holmes to figure out what's really bothering us. It's most annoying and I do not like being on the guy side of this equation.
The rest I don't know. LOL! I'm kind of looking forward to the middle because of the challenge of keeping it moving. And right now I'm just trying to get the story down before revising anything. Otherwise, I'll never finished. I have learned that much about myself.
Ter, the challenge of keeping it moving. Wow, that's the truth. :) And I think it's totally cool to just write and then go back. I can't do it that way. Revising half for me is easier than revising all. LOL!!
And that's cool that you're really getting to know your characters. It's the first big best step.
Technically, right now I'm getting to know Third World countries and how to forecast production units and manage debt for major companies. BUT, come July, I'll be back to the characters. LOL!
Um, wow, Ter. That sounds like a total party. I prefer the characters, thanks. LOL! But good luck with your last bit of classes here!
Hm, I can't remember the last time I actually made it to the middle.
I'm usually a revise as you go sorta girl. It helps me stay in control and know what's happening as I'm writing. I usually take it chapter to chapter. It's usually a good method, sort of like plotting but not.
I try to know my characters pretty well before I start into something. You're always evolving and learning about them as you write them, but there is something intimate about knowing what's in their head before it comes out on the page something completely different. LOL
Marn - I'm good with Naomi. It was Shae I hated. Well, actually, Naomi's emotions are all kinds of screwy. I'll email you *g*
It's a total party, Marn. One class teaches me how awful humanity can be and the other teaches me how to milk as much money out of people as I can. Makes you want to become a hermit. Which is probably good since I'm sure I'd get lots more writing done if I was a hermit.
Jeez Ter, what a class. I've got a headache just thinking about all that *g*
Actually the class sounds interesting to me. LOL. *biting lip* I'm a nerd.
Which one sounds interesting? LOL! I actually like both of them, but the stuff that has happened in Third World countries all over this planet can really make you want to toss your supper. Amazing people can be so evil. And so much of it in the name of one religion or another. Amazing.
I always find discussions of the writing process interesting. The variations seem infinite. :) I think we all, by trial and error, find what works best for us.
I start with character. Before I write the first full chapter, I write character biographies, finely detailed for the H/H and much briefer ones for other characters. My characters still surprise me though, just as RL people I know well do. Since I write non-linearly, my pause-and-consider stage comes when I start stitching together all the out-of-sequence bits I have. As for revision, it seems to be a neverending part of the process.
I'm a stop-and-go writer, which is a lot like my driving. However, since I can get to work with stop-and-go driving and have been doing so for years, getting to end of the manuscript with stop-and-go writing is much the same. It takes a little longer, but you still get there. And it's much more common. Not everyone has access to the Autoban (sp?).
I think dialogue says a lot about characters--or even what they don't say. *LOL* And yes, you do have to throw them into a few scenes and let them react on their own (with you as the laughing observer) to figure out their personalities.
I think the only real thing you need to start out with writing is a situation. Either the beginning situation or the Black Moment--so you either have something to write from or write to. Ideally you'd have both--like places on a map, but technically you have all sorts of roads you can take to get to point B.
You can find out a lot about a person if you have to road trip with them.
with my sister.
Hellie, we could road trip *g*
Oh, hell no, I'm not riding in a car with your sister again, esp if she's driving!
Sin - I'm glad to hear that you revise as you go too. I do that as well, and I think it's the same need-to-be-in-control thing. I hate not feeling like I know what's going on. :)
And I love being the one who knows exactly how they're going to work out the problems. It does make one feel powerful. ("I AM THE QUEEN!!")
Hal - Hmmm... It's been a while since I spent some time with Shae. I need to reread.... :)
Janga - I am always amazed at folks who write out of order. I'm so linear I would have the worst problem with that. I'd end up with just a big mess, I'd never be able to put it back together.
But people do surprise me, in my stories and in RL.
:)
Hellion - I think that having either the beginning point or the black moment is a great way to write. I need to plot a bit more, but I've changed things on the way before, usually my beginning point and black moment remain the same. :)
And you def can learn a lot about someone on a road trip. In good and bad ways.
Hmmmm. I edit...when do I edit? When do I review? To be honest...at the end. I fly thru, let my characters tell me the story and who they are, what they want...watch them climb all over the obstacles I throw at them...
(I have this vision of me looming over this great big board game, cackling as I shuffly pieces around...)
Then! Then I go back and fix the obvious mistakes, then I go back and fix the not-so-obvious mistakes, then I go back and add, then take away, then add...
I really envy those who have a better idea where they are going as they go. Where can I get a Garmin for writing? ;)
A GPS unit for writing. Ha! This concept is cracking me up.
"Place turning point here."
keep typing
"Place turning point here."
keep typing
"This book is going to suck if you don't put a turning point here."
LOL! And then there's always that "make the next possible U-turn" said in that frustrated voice. I'm always waiting for the GPS voice to yell out "You're going the wrong way! Aren't you listening?"
When we went to Iowa last year during the flood, the GPS wanted us to drive through a corn field. I have no idea where the road was supposed to be, but someone shoudl tell the GPS to lay off the crack pipe.
My writing GPS would say: "Turn here."
Me: "I don't want to turn there. I want to turn here." *So I turn there instead of here*
GPS: "Make next U-Turn and continue going southbound on road to nowhere."
Me *driving*
GPS: "You are going the wrong way."
Me: "NO. You are going the wrong way. *I* know where I'm going."
GPS: "NO. You don't."
Me: "YES I do."
Then it becomes a GPS five year old fight in the car, "No, you don't." "Yes, I do."
LOL! I love that idea too.
Mechanical voice: "If you follow this path you're going to be completely lost."
Chance - I admire your revision fortitude. I looked through my first one three times and I got so sick of it that I had to put it away for a while. Revising as I go seems to fit me better.
I feel like my writing GPS would be more like the gum cracking muse that I have to ignore now.
Muse: *snap snap, examining chipping nailpolish* This is SOOO lame.
Me: Shut it, twit
Muse: When's the last time you saw that successfully done in a story? Like, never, that's when. You totally suck at this.
Me: Bite me, you little brat. Isn't there a mall you can raid somewhere?
I'm thanking my lucky stars I don't have a GPS OR a muse to annoy me. LOL!
A guy I dated a couple years ago insisted on using his GPS to find my apartment instead of letting me give him directions. The thing sent him half a mile past my complex, told him to make a u-turn then drive back to my place. Seriously, those things are totally screwy.
The GPS for Writing is hysterical...and the whole driving in a cornfield. *LOL*
I do both. Some things are so important that I do have to stop where I am and go back and change them. Other things, I'll be like "I am on a ROLL. Make notes and change later!"
I know both of those feelings Jordan! :) There are definitely moments where I write something and think to myself, "eh, that's not quite right" and I'll sit there and fumble through it until it feels better. Other times I'll think, eh, I'll work on the descriptions and fresh writing later. :)
Ah, la! I had no idea the Writing GPS would be such a hit...
You all did such a good job at describing my lark! Sorry I was absent and might be absent some tomorrow... I will be around, just not persistently...
DDS. Oh, joy.
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