One of the best parts for me is creating and setting
in motion characters. I believe I mentioned
that my novel is a police procedural. Meaning, there is some crime involved.
Meaning, there’s actually some son-of-a-bitch malignant narcissist who’s
responsible for the crime.
& when the time came for me to pin the tail on
that particular donkey I had just the jackass in mind. Someone I was involved with for
about 37 minutes, before I realized that all the freaking warning bells that
had gone off when he first appeared were not just system malfunction, and he
really was the lying scumbag I’d felt him to be from the beginning. But charming—he
was charming.
Which makes him the perfect template for the charming
sociopath my novel requires. Yippee—the bastard does have some redeeming social
value, after all!
I have to admit that I’m having way too much fun
writing this part—and I’m not even making most of it up. For example—I was
filling out some “character questions”, you know, the kinds of things you need
to know about your characters so you can picture them well enough to describe
and manipulate them. Things like…clothes; what kind of clothes does he wear?
·
Sadly, favors double-breasted suits,
which a man of his stocky build & short stature should not
·
Likes to wear his kilt to any
evening event; will tell everyone within listening distance all about his
relationship to the clan; no one cares
Favorite foods?
·
Whatever someone else is buying
Most important thing to know about this character?
·
He never makes a mistake—anything less
than resounding success is due to the (unwarranted) malevolence of others, or
to circumstances unforeseeably changing
Also, an unrelated NaNo pleasure, I get to have my
American protagonist encapsulate all of rural Britain by referring to the nonexistent (to my knowledge) village of West Lesser Chipping Nowherehampton.
Okay, the “Chipping” part is real.
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