I am currently working on my character dossiers for Hell has its Demons. These documents are really everything I need to know as a writer about the major character of my novel. I use a template from Nancy Kress‘s Creating Dynamic Characters, and find it very useful for considering all angles of my most important characters.
In Hell has its Demons I have seven major characters, and I have 2 and a bit left to do. Jake, Isabel, Bifrons and John of Gaunt are complete, while I have nearly finished the dossier for the main baddie, Edmund Hope. Then I need to move onto Jake’s father John Haukwake.
I wasn’t initially sure whether to do a whole dossier for him as he isn’t in the story all the way through. But he is quite significant, as Jake has major issues with him and he is also the husband of my main female character Isabel.
Lastly there is Roger, my Oxford academic and astrologer. Roger is one of the main viewpoint characters along with Jake, so he’ll need quite a bit of work.
Once I have finished these off I am planning to work on my scene summaries, which will detail what happens in each scene, how the characters’ arcs are developed, and also make note of any settings and minor characters that I need to flesh out. By way of variation I did one of these today. It was harder than I thought it would be. Partly I think because I had already started writing the first part of it – so perhaps too many preconceived ideas!
Related articles by Zemanta
- Bifrons – Roman God and Renaissance Demon (marklord.info)
