Dreaming of new characters
Making things up, again...
I’m in the process of writing the first book in a new series. It’s the best part of writing, that early stage when you have names for characters, maybe even a drawing of how they look, but they’re yet to speak and come alive.
Of course, they don’t always start talking how you might think. Their scenes might change them, or perhaps a little plot point develops that might make them become a bit more complicated - or silly! It happens a lot at the start of a series. You can draw and plan the characters as much as you like, but they always have to change.
For whatever reason, like pesky children, my characters always grow up to become themselves with their own minds, whether I like it or not!
Sometimes, I also find I need more characters than I imagined. As I was writing today, I realised I was a character short, and threw in a random name to the paragraph. Immediately the scene changed for the better, and I was faced with the wonderful task of dealing with someone who hadn’t existed before. Those are exciting moments, and they always lead me to grab my notebook and try to get a rough idea of how they look. I don’t draw very neatly, as you can see above.
So it’s a busy and enjoyable time here, making up stuff.
My Merdogs are coming along well. These are likely to turn up in some shape or form in these new books, and that’s going to make me really happy.
I sat and coloured one in on Saturday using Procreate, and I now feel the need to make many more drawings of Merdogs (and possibly even Mercats) as they make me laugh. I can really imagine them getting on quite well in St Leonards/Hastings, where I live! I bet they sing beautifully.
I wish I could do this!