I'm going to miss my characters

I'm up to 90,000 words. I've written most/all the major scenes, I basically have exposition and links left, and then the first draft is ready. Then I'll edit/tighten etc - the first 5,000 or so need a major rewrite. However, I am approaching the point the book is finished.

The main characters have become like friends. I watch and learn about them. What the book is about isn't what I thought it was when I started.

Writing at lunch time I had a major revelation (in a minor way). Rich and Lizzie are still desperately in love, even after 30 years together. I know I described them this way, but as I type I don't have to write it - I just put down what I observe. They met when Lizzie's best mate said to Rich "My mate fancies you, will you ask her to the Christmas disco" when they were 5th formers (year 10).

As I wrote I found their relationship is the rock on which the others depend. The book is actually about Gabriel and Lucy, with a minor theme of Charlie and Jason. But with out Rich and Lizzie the others, especially Gabe, couldn't do what they do, they act as a fixed point. And with in that the outgoing Lizzie relies on the calm Rich to be the centre of her universe.

Sometimes I go to write one thing and a character will say something totally unexpected.

And one day, in a few months, I'm going to stop learning about them.

That's when you begin the sequel. /jest

I know the feeling myself. By the end of this year the first draft and editing of Endless Conflict will be complete and then I ask Now What?? In my case anyways it's begin the second book of the trilogy. (Also I'll be starting on alternate projects in the kid's book format.)

I can't picture myself ever actually ending something. Then again, I didn't picture myself finishing my first draft, and I did it.

Don't worry, you will find new loves.

That's why I plan a humongous series.

Just remember what you did to create those characters create some more , after giving them some time and affection, you'll become close to those.

edited 26th Mar '12 5:13:19 PM by JewelyJ

Oh, I know that I've got things to find out about Rob and Dee. How do you identify if someone has magical talent, why does it matter that Dee is naturally a redhead, even though she dyes her grey/white hair brown, who exactly is trying to kill her?

But that is for later. For now I know I'm going to miss Gabe, Lucy, Charlie, Lizzie and Rich - Partly because it turns out there is so much of me in Gabe (a colleague was telling me about me, and I thought 'Hang on...'!). I've shared 25 years of their lives with them (though I know Gabe and Charlie will never let me know if they actually 'slept together'; I'm fairly sure they shared a bed at the darkest point of their lives, but how far that went they refuse to tell).

I may end up writing my own fan-fic.

Out of curiosity, have you killed off any of your characters? It's one thing to finish up their stories, but (in my experience) killing off a character is like eating a boot sandwich...like, somebody's wearing that boot and is trying to force it down your throat...and that boot has titanium plating.

It sucks, is what I'm trying to say.

Well, maybe I'm a little too sentimental. I'm the guy who had a forced retirement when one of his virtual squadmates died in an explosion. But still, saying goodbye to a character — especially since so many people, myself included, put emphasis on their heroes and heroines — can really sting.

Oh Kaidan! Why did you have to leave me! Come baaaaaaaaaaack...

You'll never completely leave them behind. You'll compare them to current ones occasionally. Last night I got into bed and thought of a character I haven't written in six years.

I've never had any difficulty killing off characters, but it has been hard to 'say goodbye' once I finish a work.

I started with 6 happy teenagers in the 80's (told in flashback), the second half is 5 forty somethings - the death is a plot point that happens in the intervening time, and affects at least two of the remaining 5- it sort of gets dropped on the reader out of nowhere; you follow one teen romance, then when we catch up to 'now' someone is missing... It's a pity, because I'd like to explore more of that person's character, especially the group dynamic.

edited 27th Mar '12 10:02:38 AM by LastHussar

I know my characters won't leave me even if I ever finish my story. They're all stuck in my head as invisible friends actually.

I've only finished a couple of works, but I know exactly how this feels. I miss Lucian and the others' adventures, but they had to end. I only intended this to be a one-shot story. I'm keeping it that way.

But there will be new adventures, with fan fictions or original fiction alike.

And who knows? I might finish my 2nd Na No Wri Mo project too.

But then I'd miss Aaron and Karlo.

Ah, this feeling is inevitable.

I never miss my own characters. They're all just in my head anyway, and they're still living out their fictional lives in there.

It's other people's characters I miss...

That's a good way to look at it: The story goes on, except that you aren't writing it anymore.

Which can be bad if you really screw over your characters, but if not, then you're good.

I find I miss them more when I write them, at least for the minor characters. I go all "holy shit, I forgot how batshit awesome you were."

—gets shot for thinking highly of characters—

Like I have these two minor characters I'm re-using for NP Cs in my LARP club, and it's funny because while they're rather beloved and seen as OP in that group, in the actually story, they are kind of buttmonkeys being constantly overrun by people who are a lot smarter than them.

It makes me miss them in a different way.

Depends on how Diabolus ex Machina you are. Presumably if everything goes wrong while you're there, random chance will resume its normal flow when you leave.

Not if you end things in way that ensures the future misery of said (surviving) characters. Granted, this is rare for long works outside of depressing, Russian-scented literary contrivances, dystopia porn and the rare horror novel of substance, but it still happens now and then.

In cases like that, I just create some sort of Lighter and Softer story about the characters, a la Carnival Phantasm.