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.

1. Yes.  If a portion of the characters lack depth the entire work will suffer.  Nobody wants to read about boring people.

2. 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.

3. 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.