The Voice

Discovering your Characters

I recently posted a WIP Update on instagram where I admitted to struggling a bit with my first chapter. 

I kept comparing it to scenes that I had written for further along in the story and became frustrated when I realized that the scenes didn’t sound like they had the same voice. The scenes in question and the first chapter are both from the POV of my FMC, so I didn’t quite understand how they could sound so different. 

I thought about it a bit more and it hit me - while I was writing the other scenes, I was only focused on what was going on in the moment. What my FMC was doing, what she was thinking, what was going on around her. I got so into the zone, almost as if I had hallucinated myself into the scene, that there was nothing else in my way. All I had to do was write what was going on around me. 

It was glorious.

Those are the moments that I live for when writing. When I feel like I, myself, am dissolving away into nothingness only to reawaken as an unknowable entity, completely assimilated into my fantasy world. 

The first chapter, however, did not follow that same pattern. I have to be able to write what is going on in the moment in addition to giving the appropriate amount of backstory, introducing the characters and setting in a way that draws the audience in, and hint at the central conflict without giving too much away. 

I started to feel disjointed - going back and forth from my fantasy world to the real world where I plan things out, develop my plot, expand on my characters. Not that I don’t love the real world aspects of writing - because I do! I love making charts and lists and utilizing many different organizational tools in order to fine tune aspects of my story. It’s the process of doing both simultaneously during that very first chapter that I’m having a bit of a hard time with. 

Don’t worry, I love a challenge. 

It’s time to do a deeper study into my FMC. Get into her head more than I already have. Use what I know (personality, background, motivations, emotional state, etc.) to figure out how she’d write her own story. What information she would find pertinent. What may slip her mind in order to focus on what she deems too important to leave out. No matter how much you know about your character, you can always dig deeper. 

Challenge accepted :)