I'm almost finished with my character sketch for Creed. There are a few questions I skipped and I might not go back to them. I created a form with nearly 90 questions on it, but not all of them are pertinent. Some of the items I borrowed from character sketches I've found in writing books and others come from job interview books. Trying to get these things filled out, though, can be interesting because I seldom have cooperative characters and some of their answers... I'd ask what I did to deserve smart ass characters, but I know--like attracts like, as the saying goes.
TBH, I'm not sure how much help the character sketch was/will be, but I have learned some more about my hero and I guess that's the bottom line. Creed's really, really contained. This should be...interesting to write. :-/ How do I get across his personality when he has himself so locked down? I felt so disconnected from him that I had to do the character sketch to figure him out, so I'm struggling with how I get the reader to connect to him.
I've had contained heroes before. Conor for one, but Mika immediately knocked him off balance and kept him reeling during Through a Crimson Veil, so I didn't have to deal with this problem. Even Alex from Ravyn's Flight and Eternal Nights wasn't a problem. He was a hard ass and while his men didn't necessarily appreciate him, I knew him. Alex cared too deeply and had lost too many people in his life, that's why he was the way he was.
Creed, though.... Sigh. He's burnt out. He really doesn't feel all that much anymore and he doesn't particularly want to feel anything. He's cold, arrogant, contained, aloof, mercenary. His motto is: The end justifies the means. Toward the end of In the Midnight Hour he did something vindictive to a friend for no real reason other than he was pissed that Ryne had ruined his plans. Creed is dark and he's not all that sympathetic.
But he's also the hero. He does care about his people and he believes they're approaching the final war with the dark forces. He's a warrior, a troubleshooter and Creed's been fighting for much too long. That's what burnt him out, left him so cold. Plus there's this dark force attachment/connection thing he has. He doesn't realize that it's influencing his actions and reactions, but he's never seen anything like it before. I don't know if any of the Gineal have.
I've always wanted to stretch as a writer on each book and I have. Each story has challenged me in a new and different way, but this one is killing me. :-(
