Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith

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Kate Elliot on Character Development

Tags: how to, reading, science fiction, writing
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The way I write, I plan out the bare bones of the story and let the details write themselves. I am frequently surprised by the directions the stories go when I write this way. My character development uses the same process.
Mine varies. Usually I start with a fair idea of what happens and who the characters are, but I also make some discoveries along the way -- which can be quite startling. Once in a while, I'll have a story or person appear in my head quite whole. Other times it's a cipher where I only get fragments. And I've had characters I thought I knew totally blindside me.
I came close to having a whole story pop in my head once. A character suddenly appeared in my head once and one of them made a comment about the Steampunk clothing fad. The character who appeared was an immortal girl and her comment was something rude about corsets. I made a story about it: http://fayanora.livejournal.com/618303.html