The Guardians--A Novel

Sit down across the restaurant table from a blind date or someone you met online. After the first awkward moments of introduction and the pleasant small talk is exchanged, the hardest part of the date begins: learning who the person you are sitting across from really is. Anyone who has gone on any date will recognize this process. The creation of characters is the same mental game of friendly chess. Some writers consider it to be a method on interview and interrogation of the character to learn what they are like.
Characters, like real people, have their secrets. We begin designing them and the story when we think we know who they are. Yet, I have often found that characters, like people you just met, do not want to reveal their secrets. So, the game of chess begins, as it would on a date, with friendly chatter and slow questions to open up the character and make them feel comfortable revealing themselves to the writer so they can be shared with the reader. The interview/interrogation process is not needed unless they raise a brick wall . . .then, as on a date, you begin to see under the façade and find out who they truly are.

I have been building the characters for The Guardians and have been discovering that my characters have more secrets than I have expected. This should make the further plotting of this novel fun and the writing of the character driven plot exciting.

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