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Story takes the basic form of character under pressure. The other elements of narrative cause the pressure: setting, other characters, actions and events (scenes), information/ secrets/ revelations (dialog and narrative), and so forth. Therefore, your characters are the root of your structure. In more conceptual non-fiction, this might manifest as ideas under pressure, though often those ideas inhabit either the scholar or the subjects of the book.
At the same time as your characters form the basis of your structure, they are also closest to the heart of your storyteller. Right? They are the flawed and surprising creatures that keep you dazzled, hooked and sometimes betrayed. Your love for them is the measure of your possibility as a writer.
Pay attention to your characters and they will guide you to and through your story.
What does one character notice that another does not?
How does a character move or act (take specific action) that is different from how another character moves or acts?
How do your characters speak—and how is that speech its own form of action with meanings beyond the words said?
Begin to talk to your characters. We started drafting a few weeks ago with questions. Now pose your questions to your characters and about your characters. Everything you know and everything you are able to learn about people will come into play here.
In addition to your conversations with your characters, the Book Writing World provides another opportunity to bring out these people at the center of your project. This week, anyone who wants to can participate in character interviews—where you interview someone else’s character and someone else interviews your character. I encourage everybody to do so. Even for memoir or other non-fiction, channeling other characters can bring a richness and new levels of knowledge to your work.If you are writing non-fiction, this will show you what you know, what you guess and what you still wonder about your characters. Same for fiction, except you have further chances to invent the answers you don’t know.
For drafting, character interviews are a great tool for you to use when you get stuck or slowed. This absolutely goes toward your word count, by the way.