Backwards

There was a time when the thought of completely restarting a story would have made me cry and give up. It is kind of sad to know I've written twenty pages and probably won't use any of them. But the story has changed.

So I am choosing to look at it as a rather long character development that I did backwards. By backwards, I mean that I wrote about who my character would be after the events of the story it turns out I am going to write. 

Fascinating, I know. But it can be useful to imagine who you want a character to be years after the story ends because it can tell you how they are in the story and how they need to change. And stories are about the opportunity to change or to take action. Even if they choose not to act, the character can't be the same at the beginning as they are at the end. 

My character (and this is very secret writer thinking) will be calm, collected and in control seven years after the end of the main story. So for her to be able to become that, she stars off as uncertain and a little afraid. 

Some of you are probably wondering why on earth I've named two traits that could bring to mind weakness (and if you hadn't, I just handed it to you on a silver platter). 'Strong female characters' are very popular right now and I think my character is amazing. I have very firm ideas about the nature of strength and characters in general, so I plan on addressing this in a blog all its own.

Okay, enough for now. I am very sure this is only interesting to me and other writers.