A month-long novel-planning challenge with prizes galore. |
Remember Hemingway's Iceberg - 90% of backstory will not be in the story. There are 3 schools of thought on this and none are wrong. They are simply a matter of choice. The first is create the characters and let the plot evolve around what you have developed for them. You might even have an idea for the story and what is going to happen, but the ay you develop the characters could change what the conflicts are, the inciting incident is, all that sort of thing. The second is to have the story done and develop the characters who would best inhabit and navigate through the story beats. The third is a combination of both, tweaking the plot to accommodate the characters and tweaking the characters to accommodate the plot as you progress through the plotting process. Yes, it may well seem like 2 different stories, but that does not mean either is bad/ wrong. The only thing I would suggest is try not to shoehorn a character into a situation for which they are really, really unsuited. Otherwise, let the story take you and your characters where it will! Personally, I have used both. Sometimes a character comes to me and I develop a story around what that character would do and be involved in; other times I have a story and then i have to populate it with relevant characters. So, no, you're not "the weird one" - you are a normal writer working through what works best for you. |