Oh, Now I Know You Ms. Main Character…

Too bad I’m on page 107…

I’m pretty sure I’m rightfully at the point in the first draft of the novel where I’m to ask myself  if I’ve effectively created a strong character, whom I’ve come to know by how she lives, acts and reacts?  Now floating in this headspace at the moment, my mind is returning to the beginning of the story and I’m asking myself how different is she on page 107 than she was on page, let’s say, 5? And how have I showed that transformation? And, have I actually shown it???

And do you want to know my answers?

Okay–here’s the long of it…that’s not so long but more than a simple “yes” or “no.”

So today I watched No Strings Attached and I was not surprisingly disappointed. I mean the movie made me long for the old days when Charlie Kaufman used to supply our local theaters with its content…. which made me log onto Amazon.com and buy “Endless Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”  It’ll arrive next week–yay.  Okay–I know what you’re saying–how unfair–I mean Kaufman vs. that writer (whose name wasn’t even worth the maintain–but there were two of them and even the dreaded “story by” and “screenplay by,” which I’m sensing is source of the films weakness). So how about comparing it to…. 13 going on 30 or The Proposal or (starring the same star) Definitely, Maybe, which I’ve seen a gazillion times. And Remember, Someone Like You, starring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman? Oh and though the guy fell out of popularity for being a  PIG–there’s What Women Want, which I’ve watched a triple gazillion times. All excellent, well and carefully crafted stories with strong characterization… And I can’t even use books as examples of what’s good and what’s bad because it’s TOO easy to put down a bad book– a lot harder to turn off a bad movie.  If a book is bad, I don’t even try to finish it.

So I asked myself, is my novel on it’s way to being a No Strings Attached (probably great idea, presented to the producers by a friend’s, friend son or daughter–who’s quite the amateur with no idea of how to build characters along with action in one line of strong plot–and all the action being so cliche, I’m burping it out of my brain with my lip smacking, eye rolling and three word criticisms.) or is my story like one the films mentioned above watched a bazillion, gazillion, zazillion times by me?

Answer–I have the first. Just without the cliches…

Yes! I need to go back and strengthen my character(s)–especially now since I know more about her/them.

Here’s what it takes to get a tight concise story with strong character who arcs as the action carries her–PATIENCE + REWRITES.

Thus, I’m writing forward from this point and I absolutely can’t WAIT to get to the second draft of the complete novel to go back to the beginning and make this/these characters I know now more lucid.

And now onward I go!