I am part of several writer’s groups. I find that associating with writers and discussing things that are on their minds is beneficial. Recently, I had an evening discussing with writer friends about character development in stories. Many methods exist and are flaunted as the only correct way to plan your characters. Frankly, I find most to be woefully inadequate. One of the problems in over-planning your novel is that you lose the organic creativity of the moment in a scene. That can apply to many things including character trait development. I’ve seen authors who created pages and pages of description of what their characters are like down to the finest details of their looks, history, values, relationships, etc.
I think there is value in knowing something about your character before you write, don’t get me wrong. Still, I think you only need enough to give the reader a basic sense of what they look like, their relationships, and the basic values they have. Everything else about the character should proceed out of the scene and the interactions the character has. Each scene will drive you to offer more detail about the character as the book progresses. Remember that the scene and the interactions drive the details.
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Greg
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