what a character...

The last two pieces of feedback I've received have mentioned my characters. Namely, that they aren't believable, or convincing enough. So I've been doing some thinking about that. I don't want my writing to fall down over something that I should have such control over. And they're probably right, I don't know my characters well enough. So the beautiful notebook has become my character notebook. Last night I started writing about Sparky (my main character). There were lots of things I already knew, but it was still nice to get them down on paper, and there were lots of things I didn't know. Like the fact that he likes cooking and has secret aspirations to be on MasterChef.

Now whether this will make it into the story or not, well, I doubt that. But I don't think it's even something that anyone knows about him (apart from maybe his mam), and that's kind of interesting in itself. So the rest of the day, I'm going to be finding out more about Sparky, and my other main characters. And that character I couldn't name? Well I've taken her out. If I wasn't feeling her enough to name her, she can't be important enough. The role that she was going to play in the opening scene has been filled by a sister. It just feels a lot better.

So I feel quite good about NaNo today. Yesterday I panicked (my friend has all of her main points on cards, so she's going to write 2000 words per card. That's organised. Far more organised than I could ever be. I'm not that person and I'm ok with that). Today, I'm just excited. Let the madness commence...