Three Dimensionality

 My greetings to you at 4+am in the morning. Yes, I am here once again! Heh. (Although, I should say, I shall not linger long since I am awake to write, after all.) 

I'm here to chat briefly about character development. 

I would say this has been the most challenging aspect for me while writing this novel. I don't really have any formal training on writing fiction, other than what I gleaned from content on Coursera and whatever scant feedback I received from friends and family over the years. So I've found this process of developing characters quite daunting. I'm not even sure up till now whether I've gotten it right or not. 

All I know, in a gist, is that characters need to be compelling and relatable. They are the gears that move the story along. They are the reason for the story. In fact, they ARE the story, more or less. 

I've given it some thought and I've concluded that you'll probably know you've done a good job developing the characters in your story if they end up becoming memorable to your reader. And if they stay in the hearts and minds of your readers long after they're done reading your story.

I know I definitely have my own beloved list of fictional characters that I hold dear to my heart. Sometimes I even wish they were real people so we could be friends. I feel as though my life could be better if I had them around for company. 

I sincerely hope the characters that I bring to life in Intersection will have this effect on you. 

I decided on four main characters (MCs) for this novel: Audra, Radhesh, Chen Hao and Mastura. Each one holds an important message that I'd like to deliver to you through my story. 

It was hard settling on these four. I wondered if they were one too many. And whenever I did, I would consider if I should just tell this story from a single character's point of view instead. And then I'd get stressed about deciding which one person that should be. 

As you already know, my story is about memories and the impact they have on us over time. These four offer you different perspectives on this concept. 

Audra is the one who hangs on to memories with a passion, believing that none should ever be lost and all have meaning and purpose worth preserving. 

Meanwhile, Radhesh would rather leave them all behind. But that's not to say that he doesn't treasure them. He just doesn't wish to dwell. 

Then, we have Chen Hao who intended to give his memories away to others because he thought it was a good thing to do (and this says something about how he values his own memories as well as how he views the importance of sharing memories with others). 

Lastly, we have Mastura, who is sort of like a third-party observer of what happens to other people's memories. Particularly if they are abandoned and handed over to someone else who decides their fate or manipulates them. 

Is that giving away too much? Hmm. 

Things I've stressed over while developing my characters:

1. How much I ought to describe my MC's physical attributes/appearance
   
   
2. What race, age, gender and personal background each MC should have (I wanted to have a certain degree of diversity, yet I didn't want to divert too far from the traits that I felt would best tell my story)
   
   
3. How developed each MC's story arc should be since there are FOUR of them
   
   
4. How much each MC's story arcs should intertwine and to what degree their actions should affect another's outcomes 
   
   
5. What subthemes should emerge from each MC's individual story arcs (some of the themes I pondered were migration, patriotism, grief/loss, romance, filial piety, friendship, depression/melancholy, suicide, generational trauma and friendship)
   
   
6. Forming a unique voice for each MC (for which I'm not even sure I've resolved even till now)
   
   
7. How believable and/or likeable each one of my MCs are and whether any of them will be responsible for a reader's DNF* outcome  
   
   

I was making my own head spin by writing out all four of MC's story arcs simultaneously. Although I had certain concrete ideas for each of them, it is hard to hop in and out of their individual journeys all at once. 

So finally, I came round to my own method of listing down each MC's story arc and having it represented in a neat enough way visually so that I wouldn't confuse and frustrate myself. 

The method I settled on was basically to open a Google Slides file and to create a slide each for every MC. I then listed down every scene or major event in their individual timelines from start to end. 

I used a different colour for each MC's name and so whenever they made appearances in each other's timelines, it would be more obvious to me since I could see different text colours to indicate these intersections of the plot.  I also applied some (virtual) yellow highlighter to the text wherever it was relevant to remind myself which scenes are shared between MCs. 

I must say, with these Google Slides in place, things feel a whole lot more organised in my mind now.

So with all that in place, here's to hoping Intersection will be a bit better for it!

I'm still racing against a deadline, by the way. I aim to send off the revised version of this manuscript for review by an interested publisher soon.

About a week or so left to go. 

Pray for me and/or wish me luck. 

*An acronym that I was told means "Did Not Finish". Please correct me if I am somehow mistaken.