Character Morphing!

My current WIP is also my first fiction project. Well, my first full length fiction project. It is a mystery with a strong female lead, and three supporting female characters. So far, all of the males in this story, while strong in their own right, are basically supporting characters. I started a Bible early on, so that my characters (and the story they are weaving) didn't waffle around too much. At this point I am doing a combination of editing and finishing what I hope will be the first in a series of mystery novels.Think updated, urban versions of Miss Marple, or Tuppence Beresford (both Agatha Christie characters).

My characters are taking over my laptop, indeed they are! I wrote the first version while they sat there and sipped coffee. The edited version is one in which they are gently (and sometimes not so gently!) shoving me over and taking the reigns! They are not just evolving like nice little people, they are morphing into ... well, hopefully into solid characters. They all are refusing to be stereotyped (not that I ever intended that they would be, but really!), and the secondary characters are ... well, they are refusing to remain secondary!

I gave my characters their physical selves, the environment they live in, belief systems and, evolving from this, motivations for doing whatever it is they are going to be doing. So in a manner of speaking, I am responsible for this morphing. I am also comfortable with it, as they are becoming solid people, and developing solid relationships with each other.

As the intermediary, so to speak, I need to make sure that the issues the face, the life situations that they involve themselves in, are consistent with who they are as individuals, with their character and belief systems. In other words, I need to keep them authentic.

Check in next week, and see what they have been up to!

(c) April 2011 Bonnie Cehovet