Fifteenth: Blog Of The Navigator

I love characters.

The way they start out as skeletons with a few strips of proverbial literary muscle on them to hold them together, but through the course of the story they exist in - should they spend any time in the spotlight at all - they fill out with the flesh of development and background and become *REAL* characters, so to speak.

On a number of occasions (waaaaaay too many to ignore), I've thought up a quick, one-shot rubbish bin NPC that I make for a scene... and then, as I continue writing, that character pops up again and again. Slowly, they get their own voice within the story itself; it may be a tiny cameo, or it may be plot-changing levels of wow... but those characters are the ones I enjoy the most.

The ones who have made mistakes. The ones who suffer through the events around them... yet keep persisting, for some strange reason. The ones who don't just have hard times in their background, but who have experienced them organically through the storyline. The ones who have flaws that the reader comes to know, predict and love about them. The ones who have tons of heart, and are willing to give it all for the cause they believe in - even if it's only themselves... or even a lie.

And characters can fall on either side of morality; even some bad guys are closet sweethearts, while there are some good guys who aren't exactly as good as they think they are. And that's not even getting into all the shades of grey in between, either...

But sometimes, those massive characters came from nothing more than a simple idea for a temporary cameo in existence.

Never underestimate the power of a character to tell you what they do; there's been a few times I've surprised myself, because it simply made the most sense for them and it felt right. That feeling? THAT is how you know a character is more more than a couple of lines, to me. That's a key to informing you of potential you may never have planned to be there to begin with.

Keep track of little passer-by characters, and maybe try one out once in a while, as if to ask, 'what would they do in blah-blah situation'. Not what YOU want them to do... but realistically, if they existed, what they WOULD do. The answers, upon careful consideration, can be eye-opening.

{ reed mor Siddy. }