One of the most exciting things about writing is inventing characters and then deciding what they’re going to do. The first step is deciding on a name and this often takes some time as you think about names and then reject them until suddenly a name comes into your head and you realise the character could not be called anything else.
One of the things I love best about writing is choosing characters and watching them grow. I often have no idea what my characters might do next. There is an overall description in my head and a general understanding about how they will react but quite often they seem to ‘go off on their own’ and I find a story going in a different direction. Some characters also seem to get stronger over time. In The Entwhistle Experiment, for example, Ming starts out as Horatio’s sidekick. By the end of the series she is the one who takes the initiative on many occasions and proves to be a great problem solver.
In a way it’s like watching your children grow up and being amazed at how interesting and clever they become. It is great fun to put characters in a ‘sticky’ situation (often literally in the Entwhistle Series) and watching how they extricate themselves. And, of course, they always do.
Robyn, I watched your videos tonight and was fascinated by your discussion on where you write, accepting criticism but not derogatory remarks, how you came up with the idea for The Entwhistle Experiment series, the fun of making up characters, and your views on learning to accept failure and resilience in kids of today.
Like you, writing makes me happy and takes me into another world – exactly like reading – but as a writer, we have the fun of choosing the characters, the world the story is set in, the situations and conflicts and the resolution. It’s a wonder not more people write 🙂