Book Writing Process Part 14
Character Deep Dives and Listening to Feedback
After editing the first few drafts, I mentioned in my last post that I took a few months off from looking or even thinking too much about it. I really needed this time to gain some perspective and think deeper about my book while working on other types of writing and learning more about book writing in general.
I went to a few seminars, read some books and blog posts and listened to podcasts that others shared about their own writing journeys. This learning process really opened my mind to my book, and how I could make it better. Not just the story, but the structure, themes, etc. I took that time to really think in depth about my characters and where I wanted the story to end up and how I wanted to go about it.
This is when I took a deep look at my manuscript, and realized I needed to develop my characters more, and really think about my world from a different perspective. I focused on my main characters by creating personality charts for them and researching different personality traits and even taking a few quizzes from their perspectives. I even wrote the first 5 or 6 chapters from the male main characters point of view so that I could really get in his head.
I asked myself about each character (my main characters and their inner court – and the antagonists): who are you? What are your motivations/what drives you? What are your hopes and dreams for the future? Your biggest fears and regrets? What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses (this is VERY important!!) What are you like socially or view other people? What is your dynamic with other characters? Your internal struggles and conflicts (again – very important!)? What’s your worldview/philosophy and spiritual beliefs? I also listed their physical traits and their character arc throughout the book/series.
Truthfully, I have only done this for my two main characters so far. However, it is something I plan to do with all of my inner court before I start the next book of the series. Part of writing a book or series is that you get better at writing, while you write.
After I explored more about my two main characters, I went back over my manuscript and added more context about them throughout. Most of it was simple things – the way they look at something, the way they get annoyed, or some of their inner thoughts. It added more dimension to my characters, and thus, to my book in general.
I also added a slew of more details in one of my drafts. I had some friends and family read a copy (maybe draft 7 or so?) and they gave me some great feedback. However, I think I took the feedback too literally and added a massive amount of descriptions from food, to architecture and clothing. After I added everything, I went over the manuscript again to take out anything superfluous. Again, these are all things I’ve learned from the first book, so hopefully, I don’t have to do with the next one.
Figuring out how to write about food, clothing and architecture were actually quite a bit more difficult than I imagined – it was a part of my imagination/writing that I haven’t used before, so took a bit of time to figure out. When I researched the food, clothing and architecture, I added to my ever handy document: “Book 1 Outline” but also created a new document for clothes.
I searched on Pinterest for inspiration, and then researched descriptions of clothing styles to teach myself so that I could learn how to write them (e.g. empire waste, different types of fabrics, belts, etc.). For the food, I initially went a little overboard with my descriptions, but realized that simple is better. I imagined food I like to eat, and then found simple ways to describe them (e.g. instead of saying “curry soup”, I would say, “a spicy yet creamy broth with noodles and various vegetables”).
These drafts really shaped my book and story, and it was really starting to feel like something. Join me in two weeks time when I will discuss the final few drafts, and what that looked/looks like (spoiler alert! I’m still working on it!).