The Character Bus

When I was reaching the end of writing Kundela, I posted a notice on my blog telling the world (or those few who pass by the blog site anyway) saying I had planned the final chapters and would be finished in a couple of days. This prompted Merlene Frawley to ask if the characters were screaming ‘Are we there yet?’ I responded with something about them being on a school bus. I thought was clever at the time, but it has helped me to gel the characters into progressing the outline of my new novel.

            I see myself as the driver, stopping to pick up each character, introducing some and only giving others a nod as they alight. Over the novel’s progress, all of these identities will reveal a bit more of themselves to the other passengers. Travelling to their place in the story, we will come to know what they do, and how important they are. The lead characters will ride the bus every day and those who are casual, will come and go, maybe only riding for one stop, their worth not really noticed over the journey but they remain important to the narrative.

            Merlene has set the class task a for this week’s session, we are to develop the characters of our stories into a readily assessable chart. This has been a huge task and although the new book has a few characters from Kundela, I am finding a need to write out complete character profiles for these old friends. In the process, I am getting to know who everyone is, how they all relate to each other and what their place is in the story.

            For this book, I have written an outline that has a more detailed and flowing format than the one I used for Kundela. Supported by a time line and a storyboard the whole process will be easier, without the need to search for character and plot details of earlier chapters. As they say when painting a house, preparation is the biggest part of the job. With a full tank of diesel and only a few characters ready for work. I’m about to shift the bus into drive and get these individuals to work.

            This bus won’t stop once the manuscript is finished either, I am in the marketing process at the same time as rewriting the draft. This requires building a profile of publishers and their submission requirements, and if that’s not enough, I have become something of a bother to people who I’ve met over the years. Facebook, Linked In, and other social media, are raked over when I remember a name of someone who may remember me.

            The creativity continues as I write synopsis and applications, all different taking care to eliminate mistakes hoping to pique the interest of the recipient. I have received an incredible amount of help and encouragement from Wordsmiths of Melton and Merlene. If I do find a publisher, it is because they accepted me and made me welcome.