Writing Characters

Supposedly when you write, all of your characters become like your babies — people that you are emotionally attached to.  One of the problems I run into as an editor is people being so invested in their character that they have difficulty re-imagining him/her in a way that might work better for the story.

So, imagine my relief when I discovered that I was not the type of person who falls in love with their own characters.  Don't get me wrong, I like Liv and Issy, don't think very highly of Emma, and I have a weakness for Morte, but I have seriously considered every character note I ever received on them and incorporated the ones I felt made sense into my revisions.  (Believe it or not, Emma used to be a lot harsher.)

But even this rather clinical view of my characters doesn't mean I don't have a favorite.  I do, and by far it's Morte.

How Liv sees Morte.

Morte is an interesting character.  Since he is the one who is "missing," he only physically appears in 4 chapters.  However, he permeates the entire novel — both the "real" Morte and Liv's not entirely reliable perception of him.  Morte is witty and personable although Liv not only can't see it, she wouldn't acknowledge it if she could.  And really, the duality of this is what makes him so interesting to write.  It's hard to balance the real with the perceived and make Liv's perceptions not sound completely insane. And that is fun to write.

Of course, I'm not the only one who enjoys writing about her characters.  Check out the other authors in the Indie YA Carnival:

 

Dani Snell's Refracted Light Reviews
Patti Larsen Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, The Hunted Series and the Hayle Coven Novels
Courtney Cole Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles
Nicole Williams Author of Eternal Eden, and Fallen Eden. She is also a contributing author in the Glassheart Chronicles
Fisher Amelie Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles
Laura A. H. Elliott Author of Winnemucca as well as 13 on Halloween, book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series
Amy Maurer Jones Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles
Rachel Coles. Geek Mom. Book Reviewer Author of Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms
T. R. Graves T.R. Graves: Author of Warriors of the Cross
P.J. Hoover Author of Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis
Alicia McCalla Author of the upcoming science-fiction novel Breaking Free
Heather Cashman Author of Perception
Abbi Glines Author of Breathe, and the upcoming Existence and Vincent Boys
Cheri Schmidt Author of Fateful, Fractured, and Fair Maiden
Lexus Luke Author of Manitou, The Sky People Saga
Suzy Turner Author of December Moon and Raven
K. C. Blake Author of Vampire Rules
Gwenn Wright Author of Filter
Kimberly Kinrade Author of Bits of You, Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind
Darby Karchut Author of Griffin Rising and the upcoming Griffin's Fire
Madeline Smoot Author of Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls
M. Leighton Author of the Blood Like Poison Series, Wiccan, Caterpillar, Madly & Wolfhardt & The Reaping
Cidney Swanson Author of Rippler

And some of our Carnies have some really exciting announcements for this week:

 Beyond The Veil: A Ghost Story Anthology by Rachel Coles is out on Kindle and at Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94161
Griffin Rising by Darby Karchut is a nominee for the 2011 Cybils Awards (YA fantasy). (I know I also saw Solstice by PJ Hoover nominated too.)
Laura A.H. Elliot will be in Portland, OR Tonight, Friday Oct 7th 6:30-8:15 pm at the West Linn Library, West Linn, OR 97068. She'll be on tour with The Rain Boots Required Young Adult Authors talking about "The magic of magical realism"!

Also at Wordstock Oct 8-9:)
Dani Snell will be interviewing fellow carnie Kimberly Kinrade on the blog with a giveaway for her first book in the Forbidden series, Forbidden Mind.  http://refractedlightreviews.com/?p=2580