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By now, you probably know your characters better than you know yourself. I say this because characters are knowable in a way that people are not.
If there are questions dogging your book at this point, they probably have to do with character: motivation, development (arc), change . . .
You really have to sink into your deepest wisdom to get at these final blocks to your book’s completion. You may witness your own character arc as you learn something new you need in order to finish the book.
Your characters are in action in your book, doing, thinking, talking, feeling.
Some have interiority—we see their inner workings—and some we see only externally. Then again, how people understand themselves may be different, in the final analysis, than how others understand them—and this is certainly true for characters.
Your job now is to see who comes off the page.
Have you done your characters justice? Have you forced them to take actions they would not actually take? Have you neglected to understand them in some crucial way? Have you told the whole story—and only the story—that serves your characters best?
Don’t go looking for trouble—you know if the answers to these questions is yes or no.
Have a final pow-wow with your characters. Ask each of them to weigh in on the book and their own role in it. (I suggest you do this in writing!)
CLICK HERE TO POST Assignment: Post your conclusions: what do you have left to do to satisfy and serve your characters? Is there anything you don’t know and are thus avoiding about your characters’ actions, motivations or history that needs to be addressed in your book?
