Fleshy Part of the Thigh

I've been working on my new novel lately, though not as often as I'd like. Everytime I put pen to paper I get ambushed by a most annoying nagging feeling. Something wasn't right. It was like cooking and tasting what you've created only to find that something was off and it didnt quite taste as you were expecting. I absolutely abhor that feeling when I'm writing. I've already tossed out 2 of my previous drafts. This time around I like the idea and didnt really wanna resort to another chucking so I decided that until I figured out what was wrong, there was no point in moving forward. The idea of going over my previous works presented itself in such a way that I felt I could actually put aside my fear of reading POA-post publishing. I mean after all, I usually do go over my pieces after they are written but only with proofreading for grammar/spelling mistakes in mind. I never go and re-read them with objectivity on my agenda. Lol, so I'm going over my things and some of them it's like "What the hell was I thinking when I wrote this??" but I did realize what it is that I may be missing... Character development. Sometimes referred to as 'fleshing out the character'. Yeah I know that sounds like one of the most basic things that every writer thinks of first. The thing is when I first started making up stories to tell my little brother they were usually in the form of a play with his action figures (spider man, batman, ninja turtles etc.) or like when he got older and I'd borrow characters from shows that we watched and create a sort of fanfic version of them. In both cases we knew the characters already and all that remained was to add scenerios or a bit of character twisting to them.

I came across this site yesterday that suggested a pretty interesting way to go about character development. It suggested that each character be fully described on a page or two and set aside. From physical appearances to personality and preferences. Jot it all down like you'd do with the general or chapter outlines. Doing this would make the character more solid, relevant. I love the idea. In general I am obsessed with organizing things, though only a select number of things, writing is one of them. I already had a character list. I guess I'll just have to add a bio for each one now. It would work out good considering I was planning to make a webpage for this novel and I could now add the individual character bios to it.

So I guess I know what's on my agenda for today, besides watching South Park and Brothers & Sisters ;) Gosh, it's going to be so hard killing characters off now when you know they like fig juice and sleeping on soft hay in the corner of their cottage!