One of the things that interests me most about writing is watching the characters change and grow over the course of their story. Some have more growing to do than others, but that's the case in real life, too. What's really different for me is seeing a character years before their story. Let me explain.
This weirdness is happening for me in my Jarved Nine universe. I was approached to write a short story for the Mammoth Book of Time Travel romance, and because of this, I wrote Troll's story out of sequence. His story takes place seven years after Wyatt and Kendall's story (Eternal Nights) and all his other teammates stories were supposed to be written first.
When The Troll Bridge takes place, Troll has already done a great deal of changing and growing before he ever met Lia. But as I think about the stories of the other guys on the team and I see a younger Troll who's still a player, it's just strange for me.
The Troll who meets Lia is tired of superficial relationships. The Troll I'm seeing is dating three women simultaneously and completely unrepentant about it. In fact, when anyone calls him on it, he just grins.
What's really hard for me is seeing this Troll as my Troll. Yeah, I knew about his past, so it's not as if the events are a huge shock, but the dissonance here... For me, it's like two different men.
I've never written out of sequence before or since, so I'm not quite sure how to deal with this. Right now I'm just mulling the other stories. (I have overviews written for six books that happen between Eternal Nights and The Troll Bridge.) I hope that when I get around to writing them this younger Troll won't seem so foreign to me. In the meantime, it's like living with Troll's evil twin. :-)
