creating characters – Lee Duigon

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Waterly must be something like this.

I can’t contain myself: the first 34 pages of my new book strike me as just fine. I don’t have a title for it yet. I had The Red Queen in mind, but Patty said that that would just make people think “Alice in Wonderland.” So that’s a no-go. I hope I come up with something before Prince Ozias grows a beard.

I love the way new characters come out of who-knows-where and settle into the story as if they’d been waiting for it all along. My wife loves King Flosi II and Queen Parella, Ozias’ father and mother. And Lady Gwenlann, who’s in charge of all the spies but known to most people as just a rather scatterbrained wardrobe mistress. And Ozias himself, of course. He’s only ten years old so far.

Today I wrote mostly about Waterly, the queen’s lodge in Lintum Forest and Ozias’ favorite place. I think I’d like to spend a few weeks there.

What can I say? I’m falling in love with the book. I pray every day that the Lord will guide me in writing it and make my work fruitful in His service.

(P.S.–Where the dickens did my picture go? I’m not seeing it at my end.)

Image result for images of the throne by lee duigon

Abgayle graces the cover of The Throne

Let’s face it. Half the fun of writing fiction is coming up with characters. But where do those characters come from?

Where Do My Characters Come From?

Some of them, I dream of. I dreamed of Gurun and put her in The Last Banquet. Other characters come in because there’s a job in the plot that must be filled.

But however you come by them, write your characters as if they were real persons–not just stage props to make your protagonist look good. Using “minor” characters as props for the hero is as good a way as I know to write a book that sucks.

Look at it this way: are you a minor character?