Monday, December 5, 2011

The Characters That Stay

Yesterday, a funny thing happened. Stuck wondering what to do with my novel, I thought back to another character I had abandoned years ago. She existed in another story with another set of lives.

But there are some characters that stay with you, that make you fall in love.

So I found a place for her, a small place, because she has always existed in small moments. And I was happy to have her because, my goodness, I needed her. It felt right that she changed everything, that she mended a little of what was broken.

Any abandoned characters you'd like to honor in the comments? Feel free. :)

9 comments:

  1. I think this is so cool. I haven't used any abandoned characters yet, but I do have a huge file that contains discarded lines that I love. And dang it, I will use them someday!

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  2. I'm like Angie, have lots and lots of lines I had to chop, but I want to use them! There is one character that always comes creeping back to me, but I have yet to use him. He's just so perfect in his story, I'm not sure I see him anywhere else.

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  3. I've had to let go of plenty of characters, but hopefully some of them will get to live again someday. I just need to find the right project :)

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  4. I have a character whose name I changed after a few drafts and with the change his personality grew/expanded. So old character is just sorta floating in the universe somewhere...I always like to think of him "sacrificing" himself for the new guy :)

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  5. I'm resurrecting one right now.
    A manuscript that I'd left in the dust almost a year ago.

    She's a bit spoiled, and a bit funny, and just seeking for something DIFFERENT.
    I love her :D

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  6. I have such a hard time abandoning characters. But I did send off one a few years back. She was a prissy steam-punk girl that I love. One day I'll find my way back to her.

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  7. I love this! I'll admit, I've done it before, too. It's just so hard to leave a character behind that you have grown to care about.

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  8. I haven't done this yet, but I've been working on a novel I wrote forever ago that I thought would end up being abandoned. But this character just screams for attention! I can't escape her. :)

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  9. Fun!

    I made a friend in my new draft the sister of a guy in my previous book. It never comes up, I just know it in my head. I thought it was kinda fun.

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