Thursday, January 22, 2009

Characters or Real People?

I'm working on my new LDS novel. I outlined it some time ago and recently went back to reread my notes. I'd listed the ages of all the characters and as I looked at their ages I thought, "Oh, but they're older now." I then tried to figure out how old they are now that some time has passed. I had to stop and remind myself that characters don't age like real people do because they aren't actually real people. For a moment, I forgot they weren't real and thought they'd aged just like I have. Either I'm a writer, or I'm nuts. Hopefully, it's the former and not the latter.

I love the process of writing and delving into the minds and hearts of my characters. I love seeing the story take shape, even if it veers away from my outline. It's exciting to write a story and get to know my characters so well. I guess now I just have to keep reminding myself that they are characters, not real people (at least not to anyone else but me).

2 comments:

Patty B. said...

Funny! I think I'd confuse the whole thing and put real people in the book and not realize it till it was published!

Karlene said...

That's funny. I have a character who pops up and talks to me sometimes. I know she wants me to finish her story but there are issues with it and I'm stuck.

Bookstore is doing well. It's lots of fun. When it's slow I read the books. (Shh, don't tell.) :)