We Need to Have A Talk About Writing...

originally posted on my writers blog https://fingersofthunder.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/adding-characters/

I promised this guy I game with – okay, he’s more then that, he’s one of my best friends – that I would include his latest DND character in my solo novel. I don’t think he really cared too much. He just wanted to get his game-face on, really.

In the same game, I’m actually playing one of the pivotal character from my novel to get a handle on him. He’s a paladin, and my homie wanted to play a religious fighter – seeing as we were actually playing on Good Friday. I told him, I would make his religious fighter my paladin’s man, who he actually leaves behind in his home kingdom. Hey, I never promised him a starring role, just a walk-on part. But, that’s where things get complicated.

My Paladins story is set in a dwarven settlement, and this religious fighter is in fact a dwarf, perfect. I could give him the role of appointed tour guide. Now, this is the part where adding characters becomes dangerous to your novels purity. I can really see this dwarven tour guide having a major role in the story as a matter of honour when things go all conflicty-and-excitedy – as things must in any narrative – but, I already have three major characters plus the paladin plus all the bad guys and the strange folk along the way.

Dilemma. Let myself become consumed by a tangent? Kick the idea altogether? Or maybe use the idea for a whole new short story? I know my writing pardner in my horror novella “No Rest”, is a fan of writing short stories in the world he has built – as well as writing No Rest with me, he is working on a multi-novel high fantasy series – to give him a better feel for his characters, his settings, and writing in general. If I was as prolific as him, I would seriously consider that option. It makes a lot of sense. As it is, I am a chronically procrastinating writer and I think this marvellous idea of a dwarven fighter who feels he has to redeem his honour and tag along with a rag tag bunch – see, I had given up on the idea, but having written that sentence, I can really see how he could fit in! – had better be put on the back burner where all my good dreams go.

What about you? Has adding characters ever worked for you?