as i've been writing a novel, i've found that the characters came to dictate
the story/plot more than i had a great story and just wrote some people
to illustrate it/propel it. this is of course just my thoughts, but it
helped immensely to outline the actual characters first before anything.
i treated them like actual people, i know how tall they are, weight,
hobbies, eating habits, family members/history, vocal idiosyncracies,
linguistic touchstones...the more i developed them, i imagined their
interactions and arrived upon an ideal story for them. then i could
concentrate on developing the story. which has been the real maddening
process...took a year to write out a narrative progression i was happy
with.
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