We’ve talked about weaknesses, now how about strengths.
I’m all about my characters. My plot, descriptions, etc, all of it is just a way to showcase the people involved. My plots sometimes wobble because I don’t care WHAT is happening, I care WHY.
Despite that, characterisation is my strength because I get to know them so well. I know why they wear blue socks instead of white, or what kind of cereal they’d like in the morning, and (yep) WHY.
For an example of how this works:
In my latest WIP, I needed a character shot so that my main characters could react to it. Problem was, I kept shooting the wrong character. Because I was concerned about getting the reactions I needed, not about how it would work into the plot. (I’d like to say I won’t make that mistake again, but honestly, yeah, I’m going to do that kinda thing again and again…) Because it’s the way my mind works. I did finally shoot the right person, and my characters AND plot perked up.
Which leads me to wonder how much of a freak does that make me! Is this the same ‘freakishness’ that led me to study Psychology in school? Do readers care WHY something happens? Or are they, unlike me, more concerned about what is going on than why?
And, in a related note, when a writer is giving you the Why of something, how many steps are you willing to take with the writer between Cause and Affect?
Do you need Fred’s phobia of spiders to be because he was bitten as a kid? Or would you be willing to read more, to find out the phobia actually stems from a repressed fear of something else? Say the man who tried to grab him on the streets as a child, the man who seemed to have more arms than he should have?
If you can answer two of my questions today you’ll be doing well 
August 18th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
I love to know “why?”. It makes it all more interesting to me. I like a little backstory and I LOVE being teased with possibilities.
Does that make me weird?
August 19th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Wow, Dayna. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Your fear of spider reason is great. It gives the book more depth. And no, I don’t think you’re a freak of nature….well…okay, NO, you’re not. LOL