anything banana flavored

It’s been far too long since I’ve blogged, but I’d like to think that’s a good thing. In the last month or two, I’ve seen my word count grow exponentially—from somewhere in the 700 words per hour range to the 1,000 words per hour range. My novel has been progressing nicely, now that I’ve plotted out Part One more thoroughly, and I’ve fixed a few hiccups along the way. I’m at approximately 50,000 words. Many of which need to be torn up, shredded, blown to tiny bits, lit on fire, and flushed down the toilet. And more words than I’d honestly hoped to have at this point.

But I feel the most important thing is to… Just. Keep. Writing. Nevermind the slaying of my babies to come. Just. Keep. Writing.

Still.

There’s something not quite right. For as much time as I’ve spent fixing the boo-boos in the plot by taking mile-long walks on my lunch break, something has been nagging at me. I think it’s my characters. I’ve been taking walks lately, and thinking about their histories, and I’ll be honest, in hind sight, I didn’t spend as much time getting to know them as I should’ve. They’re a little flat. While that’s hard to fix 7/8ths of the way through Part One, I see it as an opportunity for Part Two, which casts a whole new set of characters. I’ll have to go back and add in the nuances I’ve discovered about my main character and her friends and enemies and family, but at least I’ve unearthed this learning for the second half of the book.

In the meantime, one of the things I’ve decided to do to fix this problem is to generate lists of pet peeves and general quirks that I can reference and pick from anytime I build a new character. What makes a human more human, after all, than the things that irritate them about the rest of humanity? I’ll share my compilations at some point in the (hopefully near) future. It’s funny how something like a workplace irritation of a colleague’s “phone voice” or a disdain for “anything banana flavored” can make a character seem more real, isn’t it?