With a plethora of characters yakking in my head, it can be really hard to hear the characters I'm trying to write. I've been struggling with the heroine of the proposal in progress for a while. I haven't actually sat down to do a character sketch, but it was a near thing because I didn't feel as if I knew her.
This created a huge problem because the scene in her POV was flat, boring. She was like this mannequin moving through the scene, but not feeling anything. It was frustrating and not something I'm used to. Normally, my characters come in like gangbusters, grab me by the throat, and say, this is who I am. Not her and I didn't understand why because if I could show you the picture I'm using for her, you can see she's not a shrinking violet.
Nine scenes and nothing worked. They were all flat, boring, lifeless and I couldn't fix them. Then I got this glimmer of an idea. I cut everything I had for her scene (AGAIN!) and started over. And she came to life. She hates where she is right now and she's not hiding her displeasure. Her emotion is giving the scene the life it needed.
More importantly, though, Liza's personality is coming through loud and clear. I finally feel as if I have a handle on her.
Of course, I'm not done writing this yet, but it feels better than any of the other attempts. Another few pages and the scene will be done and I'll know if it held together to the end. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
