So I’m 1500 words into the second novel and it’s proving tricky. Just like that difficult second album. (Although maybe that only applies to bands who’ve had a mega-successful first album? Currently, I have a very long Word document and not a lot else).
I’ve (kind of) decided on a plot, created a few characters, made up some suitable names, but the trouble is I don’t KNOW these people. I don’t know what they look like, what they have for breakfast, or how they’d act in any given situation. They are cardboard cut-outs.
I miss my characters from The First Novel (TFN). I spent three years with them, and I think I got to know them pretty well. They were real people (please forgive me for sounding crazy here). These new folk are strangers.
There’s only one thing for it: I’m just going to have to spend some time getting to know them. I hope hope hope they have something interesting to say for themselves.
Song of the day: Gives you hell by The All-American Rejects
A good exercise I like to do every now and again is take one of the trickiest characters and write a passage about them doing something totally unconnected to the story, just to hang out with them a bit and learn more about them. It works!
ReplyDeleteGood idea! But it does mean writing something that's not going to add to my word count... eek!
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