Yes, absolutely. Their journey during the book takes them towards their 'other half' - Clara learns to let go and be less controlling, while Jo finds her strength. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly where the problem lies, and I'm hoping HJ's reader will give me some info/clues. I'm too close to the whole thing to look at it objectively at the moment...
Susiex

I have no idea if this will be of any use to you. At , you can download her free ebook

Mugging the muse

. there are sections on character creations that you may find of interest.

<Added>

www.hollylisle.com

<Added>

It was meant to read.... have no idea if this will be of any use to you. At Hollylisle.com, (an SF writer from the USA), you can download her free ebook

Thanks, Heckyspice
Will take a look.
Susiex

This is a good book! Am already on page 71! Would recommend it to all writers.
Thanks
Susiex

I've never been tested, but I find characters / dialogue easy to build. When bored I write short stories about my characters.

It just takes one thing to start building.

Start with:-

"Claire Bristol loves Shakespeare."
What type of woman is she? How was she educated?
Build in a dialogue rule for her - 'To contract is to sin'.

In answering the education question, let's say boarding school.

Why?

Because her father was killed by friendly fire in the gulf war. Her mother couldn't cope with the loss of her husband, full-time job and a child.

So what do we have so far. A woman struggles socially with men (boarding school). Does not trust men in uniform, hates all Americans with a vengeance. Comfortable with her own company (she was an only child).. Perhaps link that with the Shakespeare thing we can make her a bit of a bookworm.

If you give your character one characteristic, then ask the question - Why? You will give them more characteristics by answering the question. e.g. Give her ginger hair, she will need to be very confident or a victim. Ginger kids know, at school you've got to stand up for yourself or accept your status as a victim.

As good luck would have it, Claire Bristol is one of my characters, the only trait she has of the above is the Shakespeare and lack of contractions. Somewhere I have a bizarre account of how she tried to take over my plot.

And remember, the events in your work will change your character's character. - I hope this helps somebody somewhere.

Thanks, Michael
I'm intrigued by your term 'dialogue rule' - can you say more about this?
Susiex

Remember, I know nothing. I just make it up.

Dialogue Rules. - I won't tell you mine, just give you a direction.

Accept that you can never be anybody else, the best you will ever do is an impression, that's all your characters can be.

We are by our nature repititive.

Except as in the example above where the character will not contract a word. There are other areas. Does this character drop sound 'Gs' is it nothing' or nuttin'. Disposable pre and suffixes.

Why wouldn't he/she.
You know it make sense.
And why not.
It happens sometimes.
The way I see it.
Oops.
I heard that.

EXPLETIVES / CURSES

Again build a list, assigning one or two per character making sure they do not cross. If the characters have a long relationship, they expressions may cross as they do in real life.

Finally, there's psychology.

A man lives a happy life until he discovers his wife has been having an affair for 5 years and the man he's always called his dad - is not.

For me this will be reflected in his dialogue. Things that he believed true, are not.

He can longer say:- Johnny went to London.
He must say:- Johnny, said he was going to London.

He uses words such as 'appeared' and 'seemed' in favour of 'is' and 'was'.

Many may think it over the top, but it's what I try to aspire to.

Hope that helps somebody somewhere.

Yes, the psychology is vital I think. I like the idea of delving into the character's history and that history affecting the way they use language. Very interesting, thanks!
Susiex