Character Journals

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Ochoa on March 13, 2010 at 5:36pm

@ Linton: Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate everyone's input. I've put the journal on the back burner. Making time for writing the book alone is challenging enough. Right now, getting the story down, I think, is the first step. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that everything else will be worked out as I go.


Linton Robinson said:

If you are talking about a "journal" incorporated in the book you are working on, it's been done and can work.

If you are talking about one of those things that people spend a lot of time on that DOESN'T go into the book, I'd suggest you knock it off and write your book.

There is, to me, no greater mark of an amateur who won't finish their novel than these kinds of "character dossiers" and such sideline material that are continually recommended by people who haven't gotten a novel out there.

If you don't know who your characters are without going to these extremes, you are probably on the wrong track. If you're trying to procrastinate writing your novel, then approach that problem head-on.

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Permalink Reply by Wallace J. Swenson on March 14, 2010 at 1:58pm

Your character will develop as the story does; they go hand-in-hand. To force-fit a preconceived notion of a character is to kill the spontaneity of the work. To 'design' a character outside the piece is, to me, a waste of time because the character you envision will not be the character you end up with, almost guaranteed.

Wally

Sarah Ochoa said:

@ Linton: Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate everyone's input. I've put the journal on the back burner. Making time for writing the book alone is challenging enough. Right now, getting the story down, I think, is the first step. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that everything else will be worked out as I go.


Linton Robinson said:

If you are talking about a "journal" incorporated in the book you are working on, it's been done and can work.

If you are talking about one of those things that people spend a lot of time on that DOESN'T go into the book, I'd suggest you knock it off and write your book.

There is, to me, no greater mark of an amateur who won't finish their novel than these kinds of "character dossiers" and such sideline material that are continually recommended by people who haven't gotten a novel out there.

If you don't know who your characters are without going to these extremes, you are probably on the wrong track. If you're trying to procrastinate writing your novel, then approach that problem head-on.

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Permalink Reply by Linton Robinson on March 14, 2010 at 2:03pm

Well put, Wallace. I know everybody has their own way of doing things, but I have a really hard time envisoning not knowing who my characters are the same way I know my friends, lovers and family. And having the knowledge grow as I get to know them better.

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