by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I find myself a bit startled by how good Fleabag is now that I’m watching all the way through instead of just watching clips on YouTube. The specific issue is I realize I really need to make my characters more real and sharp as I work on the second draft of the novel.
Remember, I’m doing all of this in a fucking vacuum. I have nearly no one to talk to as I do all of this, so I have to stumble into new ways of looking at things on my way. And that’s exactly what has happened because of Fleabag. The first draft of the novel had an excess of plot while the characters were more just placeholders or moods that were made up of a collection of different traits that I liked or needed.
Now, however, with the second draft — because of Fleabag — I’m really giving my characters some thought. And that, in turn, is really changing the flow of the plot. I have long known, in general terms, the nature of the story, but the specifics have been changing and developing for years now.
And lot of what’s going on is I’m thinking a lot more about not only cause and effect, but also really giving a lot more thought about every possible twist or turn I can squeeze out of each character in a way that helps fuse the plot with character.
Anyway, it’s one of those things where I just won’t really know how successful I’m being until Beta Readers take a gander at it.
