A rant on my own characters and their development.

I should consider cutting down the titles to my posts. But maybe not because I don't actually care.
^ And that is Jenesis rubbing off on me.

Creating characters is the funnest thing about writing books, but it's also one of the hardest. For me, anyway, I can't seem to make them not flat. In my book Lachrymae, the characters had their own personalities and everything, but I don't think I showed them to the reader enough. Too flat. In Adhesions, the characters were real to me, but that's because I basically grew up with those kids; they've been in my head since I was twelve.

But my marauding girls... it's almost like they weren't even created by me. It's like they've always existed and they've just been waiting for somebody to find them and write about them. I didn't have their personalities in mind when I started writing--all I had was the memory of the dream. And all that was in the dream were the two girls riding in the back of a pickup in a dead world. Their appearances were clear enough--one blonde with a pixie cut, the other with long chestnut bangs in her eyes--but I didn't know how they would act.

It's blowing me away as I write about their lives, their characters coming out with such natural ease. And the strangest thing, I think, is that neither of them has anything in common with me. Well, maybe Juno, but not that much. A lot of writers put who they are in their characters. I did that with all of my lead girls--Tess and Kara and Kasey and all the other girls I've made up. But Jenesis... she's like the opposite of me. (Except for her pessimism; we're both pretty negative.)

I remember reading something Veronica Roth wrote, about how she doesn't agree with all the things Tris believes. I thought that was so strange. Why write about a character if you don't agree with what she thinks? But that's my relationship with Jenesis. Some of the things she says, as I'm writing, I'm thinking, "This is not even right--how do you believe that, Jen?"

I think this is proof that my writing does steadily improve. I am able to get into the head of somebody different from me and share their thoughts with the world. For once, I've broken out of the comfort zone of my own mind and have begun exploring new personalities (wow, if that doesn't sound psychotic, I don't know what does).

From here, I can only hope that other people will want to read Jenesis's thoughts, too.