This month has been quite a learning experience for me, and we’re not even ten days into it. In that time, I’ve been writing with a fury and passion that I’ve never attempted before, and some interesting items have been poked from the fires.

One in particular is that I didn’t know my characters well for over 50k words. I’m aware that this can be regarded as a sign of weakness. Trust me, I had worked out paths for them, and basic characteristics, and even goals and drive. I even had a little character growth chart for the main two characters.

Then, around Chapter 13, I realized my plans had defenestrated, and the characters emerging from my story as it whipped along were not quite the same people I had initially laid out. Cracks and twists appeared in them that I had not intended, and the plot took off for parts unknown, safely landing in Chapter 17, but not without a lot of collateral damage to the original outline.

So I didn’t know my characters for about 17 chapters, and only on the rewrite will I be able to make cohesive their individual paths and journeys.

Is that a bad thing?

I don’t know. Probably more an inexperienced thing.

Kind of thrilling though.

What about you?