Building Character

So amongst other things today, I was working on the characters of the book (now tentatively called The Legacy of the Thorn), most especially the protagonist and antagonist. Both now have names, storylines and motivations, some of which have been quite surprising.

I had originally intended for the antagonist to be someone with a family link to the female hero - I have now decided to make him into an aelfin with very clear motivations for doing what he is doing. Thanks to the character work, I've also been able to come up with the basic beginning and ending of the story.

I have tried quite a few plotting and character building tools over the years, including the Snowflake Method which I still use at times. One I have come across in the past few months is not so much a method as a few pointers from an urban fantasy author named Jim Butcher, writer of the Dresden Files.

Over on his blog, he delves into quite a lot of pointers about building characters (assigning them tags and traits), building your story through the Story Question (such and such needs to do something, but will he succeed when faced with these problems or antagonists), and using Scenes and Sequels to keep the tension up or allow your reader to breath. A lot of what he says makes a hell of a lot of sense, and is a good place to start for any newbie writer.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some more of the story and some character work done tomorrow.