I put down my book, Smashing Pumpkins, a few weeks ago to work on something else for a bit and hopefully clean out my eyes. I had stared at my characters so hard that I felt like I wasn’t seeing them anymore, just their shapes. My writing turned into just words. It was discouraging me in a big way and I didn’t want to lose all that I had accomplished. So I walked away from it for a bit and drowned myself in The Mine, my first ever piece of fan fiction. While The Mine is not finished yet, working on it has given me a greater understanding of what I had blinded myself to with Smashing Pumpkins. Not all of my characters had depth.
I sit here wondering if true depth is really necessary for every single character? Why can’t it only exist for the ones I like? Do the distasteful ones have to have depth also? I feel that I have found my answers.
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Yes. If a portion of the characters lack depth the entire work will suffer. Nobody wants to read about boring people.
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Because it can’t. Again, nobody wants to read about two interesting people and three boring ones. The book, as a whole, will not work.
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Stop asking the same question three different ways!
See the problem there? I argue with myself way too much.
I need to stand in the shoes of all my characters to effectively narrate their lives in my book. I absolutely have to do this, even if my character is not a person I can relate to. There is no other answer.
Wish me luck. I’m heading into the abyss now.
