by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’ve decided to re-read a few books that I read some time ago. Two of these books are about how to understand and develop your characters better. Given the nature of this first novel, I feel I need to bone up again on character. I need to understand how to make these characters not just characters but actual people you believe in, and as necessary, root for.
I still have a few days to do this shit ton of reading.
I’ve also begun to do something akin — again — to character studies so I understand who I’m writing. I’ve done this before repeatedly in the past when working on this project, only to totally ignore everything I’d written. But this time, hopefully, will be different.
I really want to have a handle on these characters when I finally sit down AGAIN to write the first draft. And that’s just the first novel! But I love, love being creatively overwhelmed. That’s my jam. I love having way too much on my plate as opposed to not enough so I start to feel bad about my life.
The strong character development of “Mare of Easttown” is what I’m striving for. I really loved how well thought out and developed the characters in that show were. So, I’m going to do some intense writing and reading before I finally try to write this first draft again.
But I’m really pleased with how things are going, over all. I like how if I grow tired of banging my head against one book, I can simply move to another one and tinker on it’s plot and characters. I get to stay in-universe while I do all that work, too.
Though, I will admit that every once in a while I get frustrated enough to at least entertain the idea of writing a short story. But, I dunno. I would still like to fail in a massive, catastrophic way by writing four novels that no one wants to read than write a little short story and get shot down by some MFA intern at The New Yorker.
