Adding Character to Your Novel

My new plan of revision (a revised revision plan?) is humming along nicely – it was supposed to, since the early chapters were already pretty solid. I’d say in a few weeks, as hard as I may try, I’ll be slowing down a bit. For now, the prologue and three chapters are locked in, and I’ve only started this last Saturday. So I’m pretty stoked about that. But what was really fun on Wednesday was adding some character to the novel.

How, do you ask? More thematic elements? Some symbolism to spice things up? Maybe a rip-roaring description? No, silly: by adding a character.

“Didn’t you already start doing that months ago, and isn’t that why you still haven’t finished your book?” Well, yes and no. This time, the character is already in there the whole time. What I’m adding are little scenes every so often (less than one per chapter) that cut back to what’s going on with Haydren’s first nemesis, the Earl’s son Guntsen. There’s a lot going on in the background, there, the effects of which are only seen as separate events in Haydren’s journey. So, to add a little complexity to the situation, and some sympathy to otherwise cardstock villains, I’m letting the reader inside a little bit.

The awesome thing is, I wrote the first scene this past Wednesday, and if I can brag just a little, I actually found myself feeling sorry for Guntsen. And I’m the one who knows the end of the novel. But here’s a young kid who thought he knew what he wanted, had the power to do some heinous things to get it, and finds it quite empty. He can’t go back, so what can he do but own it and make it seem like it’s still everything he wants? As Tom Berenger’s character General Longstreet noted in the movie Gettysburg: “We’d rather lose the war than admit to the mistake.”

It’s also drawing out the other villain, Lasserain, a little bit – but he may end up being more enigmatic than Guntsen. It’s all part of the fun of it.

So, at this pace – which I know I won’t maintain – I’d be done with final revisions by mid-June. As it will most likely turn out to be, I’ll still be done by July, which gives me the summer to start querying agents. That’s exciting.

The take-away? Deepening your book is almost always improving it. Know your age-market, sure; but complexity will elevate it beyond the stories you tell your friends on the weekends – or the ones you tell your friends about the weekends. I had taken my central cast and deepened them beyond where they were; now I’m taking two otherwise flat villains and making them deeper. And it’s going to make choosing sides that much more difficult.

Isn’t that like life, sometimes?