“You don’t know me at all.”
That’s what my characters have been saying to me anyways. All day, every day.
Yes, I wrote almost 80,000 words of their deepest thoughts and feelings. I spent almost an entire year in their heads, outlining and writing, and outlining again. Then I started editing after completing the most difficult draft of my life, and I realized, I didn’t know these characters at all.
I had so many questions for them. Why did they take the actions that they chose to take? Why didn’t they fight sometimes? On the flip side, why did they choose to fight at other times? What made them the way they were, and what forces influenced their decisions? As I was going through my manuscript, it was clear my characters needed more. No, they deserved more. Their stories are powerful to me, and I want them to one day reach other people with just as much power and impact on their lives.
So, I created a series bible and a character profile worksheet in order to help me better understand my characters and what I needed to do in order to strengthen their story and message.
I am no stranger to outlining. I am a hardcore plotter! So much so that I spent MONTHS outlining before I even began drafting, because I was so determined on figuring everything – every last detail – out before I even began drafting. And yet, even a draft later, I still felt like I had nothing figured out.
So I went back to the drawing board. But that’s not always a bad thing! In fact, sometimes it is the best thing you can do for your story, no matter where you are in the process. Outlining, drafting, editing, or furiously punching at the wall of writer’s block that keeps your creative inspiration at bay. That’s why the templates for both of these resources are FREE to download in my RESOURCES page here on my website.
My current draft is just the beginning for my story! And filling out these worksheets and exercises has not only helped me understand my characters better, it’s also reignited the fire inside me that burns for this story. The passion I thought would die during the long, grueling editing phase. I highly recommend doing character profiling or writing exercises to get to know your characters, even if you don’t use my resources. It can only help you!
Anyways, that’s all I have for you today. I suppose it’s sort of a “writing update” as I don’t have any reviews to share with you. Just a little bit of the behind the scenes of what’s been going on, and to make sure you knew about my new resources if you didn’t already. Thanks so much for reading, if you did, and if you have any editing tips don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments!
Until next time,
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