Overlooked Characters, Lack Of Emotion In The Final Book, And Whatever Other Random Thoughts Were On My Mind.

In the last week, I’ve been “editing” AMEND and TRANSCEND for the first time.

I use the term “editing” rather loosely, seeing as what I’ve been doing is putting “(elaborate)” anywhere that doesn’t seem quite…done.

With AMEND, it wasn’t too hard. The main problem was my sadistic masochistic horrible main character. I want people to care what happens to her, but half the time I wanted to kill her cos she annoyed me so much.

Because of the character’s…personality, there weren’t a lot of really emotional scenes involving her. The emotion was saved for my lesser main characters.

But TRANSCEND was another matter entirely.

There were so many storylines which should make people feel something. But they didn’t.

When I wrote TRANSCEND, I just wanted to get it finished and done and complete. I wanted the Three Stages trilogy to be over, so I could write something new.

FYI, karma always has the last laugh. I have failed all book attempts since then. Except (so far) the book that I am currently attempting; which is a spin-off of the Three Stages trilogy. I now have this fear that I can’t write anything unless it’s set in the world of CONSEQUENCE. Yay.

Anyway, back to rushing TRANSCEND…

In CONSEQUENCE, there are two equal main characters. In AMEND, there’s one main character, but several lesser main characters.

And in TRANSCEND? Oh boy, it feels like there are at least fifty main characters. Well, it’s more like 7 or 8.

Because of the amount of main characters, they are all more of “lesser” main characters. The book isn’t exactly divided up equally between them, but in order to tell the story I was telling, I had to use a lot of different people.

When I was about half way through the first draft of TRANSCEND, I felt a little lost with it. I couldn’t solve it, I couldn’t end it, I couldn’t figure out what came next. I had too many characters, with too many dramas, and they were all getting rather annoying.

Somehow, I did manage to finish it, but in order for that to happen, I needed someone to take on the role of the main character ~ or something similar to a main character. I still had my other lesser mains, but I brought one of them a little more into the spotlight.

This character was one of my mains from CONSEQUENCE. When I was writing CONSEQUENCE, I kind of overlooked her. My other main was the one who got things done, who knew things, who was smart and brilliant and intense. I didn’t realise the full potential of the first character I created.

She was stubborn and feisty and she was as equally brilliant as my other main.

But when I wrote CONSEQUENCE, I didn’t see her shine, I just saw her boringness. She wasn’t boring, but the other main character was like me, so it was easier to get into her head. And it was easier to give her all the dramatic storylines.

Also, for several reasons, my first main character didn’t have much of a past, or a family, so she had less stuff to affect her. She had less baggage. She was a clean slate, and that’s not quite so interesting to write about.

This character isn’t in AMEND, but (for reasons that I can not say) she will make a reappearance in TRANSCEND. And I’m glad that she does, because it was only when writing TRANSCEND that I realized the full potential of this character, that I realized who she truly was.

I realized that this character was just as affected by her decisions and by her life and upbringing as all the other characters were. And I’m so glad that I gave her a second chance in TRANSCEND.

But with TRANSCEND, I honestly don’t know what was going through my head when I wrote it. Not only are the storylines completely insane, it’s like it was written by a robot. (Okay, not the right choice of metaphor).

In the second draft, there is so little emotion in scenes which should be emotional. Every few pages I was like “how did I write this? What’s wrong with me? Why didn’t I think of that?” And I just couldn’t get my head around it.

And that is why I should never hurry to finish books.

Thoughts on judgement and criticism. And a random Aristotle quote.

“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”
― Aristotle

 

And that is what people fail to do. Everybody says things and does things, and they all are things, and people judge them for it.

I once read that in the first twelve seconds of meeting someone, you make assumptions about them, and you almost always stick to those assumptions.

I come across as a judgemental person. I tell myself that I don’t judge, I merely criticize to improve. Or that I “notice” people’s imperfections, but don’t actually judge them for it.

The truth is: that is a lie.

I will assume somebody’s lacking in intellect if they wear too much make-up, or if they have an unbearable accent. And don’t get me started on people who text when they’re being spoken to!

But I never really know the people I judge. How could I?

And in the act of judging, we all forget the basic fact that everyone has a story.

Strangely enough, it was a lesson that my characters tried to teach me. A lot of minor characters kept invading my mind and telling me to give them a back story, to give them something more than they were.

There were two characters in The Three Stages trilogy who were minor characters until part way through TRANSCEND. For a lot of time I’d thought there was something more to those characters, but I couldn’t figure it out. Then, one day, the most random storyline idea popped into my mind, and it connected them.

But in real life, you can’t get new storyline ideas to prove people’s worth. You have to get to know them, ask them questions. You have to discover their stories, rather than creating them.

But maybe the most…thought provoking thing is when you’re proven wrong. When you think somebody’s a certain way cos of how they look or act, or how they speak or sound, then it turns out they’re not that way at all.

And when all you see is the imperfect, you never see the good in people.

The person with an accent you don’t like could have the world’s nicest smile. The initials tattooed on someone’s arm could be those of someone they love who died. The truth is: you never know a person until you actually know them. And then you still only know as much as they let you know.

And then silly little Eliza comes along and instantly assumes that she’s is a good judge of character because she can create characters. Then Eliza realizes that reading books doesn’t make her an expert on human beings, it just makes her think she is.

Eliza has suddenly started referring to herself in the third person.

But maybe people need to try to think of themselves in the third person. If you see something from afar, it looks different. If for one day every single person saw themselves how others saw them, wouldn’t the whole world be completely different?