Character Development

"Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again." --Louisa May Alcott

It works for writing, too.

Sometimes, if you've worked on a story long enough, the characters become your family, easily transported and accessed. The brain can be quite wondrous, right? Your characters gain qualities that are specific to them, some that drive you crazy and some that are endearing to the point where they can light up a smile. Characters are home, even if our ideal home turns out to be further away than usual.

Moving will eventually be the death of someone--"cough", "cough"--me, since you've got the whirlwind of stuffing things haphazardly wherever's convenient, fretting over forgetting what's impossible to mail, and making the treacherous ten-hour dash to your new destination (by car, in a monsoon, in the abominable death-trap known as Atlanta). You have the maddening task of dodging the first-time mover flurry, learning the basic ropes, unpacking the crap you probably won't ever use, and remembering how to breathe. Only after the busy stuff can you breathe...and/or sleep. It's your choice. Choose wisely.

All of this occurred on three hours of sleep, mind you.
   
Needless to say, it takes a lot to move from North Carolina to Alabama and to leave family in order to readjust, undergo a new lifestyle. When the mover blues have you suffocating in the dumps, a little taste of home becomes a necessity.
 
Here's where the cast of your characters comes into play.
   
I know that to be a good writer one has to be a superb researcher. I also know that I've done a lot of research on character development. Like, a lot a lot. All of our wise friends in the cyberworld advise that you make your character unique, give them realistic qualities and flaws. Try some people-watching--what better way to humanize a person than to observe an actual human being?
 
But if you've got a short attention span and a lack of personal discipline like me, these things may not work out. When it comes to building top-notch characters, when it comes to their relationships and their interests and their flaws, there's only one way to get to the heart of those genuine qualities, in my opinion.
   
Understand patience and understand time.
   
I mentioned a book I've been working on in a previous post and how that book's been on the shelves in my head for about five years now. One of my characters, Meredith, doesn't understand how to reason with people politely. She can force you to learn just about anything, but she can't entirely empathize, so much so that her idea of tough love is doing things and learning things her way or else you've got a bad case of stupidity. She's rough, she's fast-paced, and her words are sharper than a gusty-galed sleet storm.
   
Backtrack four years. In the first draft, Meredith had a knack for encouraging smiles and blinding optimism--nothing could stop that girl from finding the positives in a haystack of negatives. Oh, how things have changed twenty billion drafts later, am I right? Over the span of her long development, Meredith gained the strength to form her own voice and her own characteristics so I wouldn't have to hunt for them. All characters tend to do that for me once I find the patience and the time for them; when they gain that powerful nature that good characters should have, they're characters we look forward to seeing and living with whether we're in Alabama or North Carolina or freaking Antarctica.
   
Characters grow and when they do, they form a vibrant dwelling in your mind you can always go to when you need them.
   
Your characters are your family and they always, always welcome you home with open arms.