by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Here I am again, doing the thing I hate so much — fucking preening about who might play a character in my “WIP.” And, yet, not only does no one read this blog but in the context of what I’m writing about it’s not THAT much annoying preening.
You see, I have no idea what I’m doing with this novel. I work almost entirely in a vacuum. I just have my gut to tell me what works and what doesn’t work. In fact, that’s probably been the biggest issue when it comes to development — I sometimes have to issues of equal value in my mind and I can’t figure out which is more important.
But one thing they tell you is in the second half of the novel, after the midpoint, you need one of two things: a death or the introduction of a new character. So, for me it’s a new character.
I really like the vibe Jessica Chastain puts out in her roles. So, I’ve modeled an important character that comes into the plot in the second half after her. Or, actually, she’s actually inspired by a woman I knew once who was Perfect. In fact, she was so perfect that she was completely unrelatable to anyone else. She was simply so close to The Ideal Woman that it was off putting to everyone else around her.
What’s worse, she was completely oblivious to this and was STILL unhappy with her life.
Anyway. She was beautiful, smart and funny. And very married.
I just decided to mix her up with Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty and ta-da! Character!
I haven’t gotten to her part of the story, yet. But I am looking forward to writing that character. She’s going to give my Hero hell.
