How do you shape your heroes? To the plot or do you shape the plot to them? (I guess this is a which came first question…)
I usually design my plot in some detail before I begin. (Though not in as much detail as the world, which I spend a LOT of time on.) I build it using the idea of focus scenes—powerful, game-changing scenes that I imagine cinematically and then try to ‘earn’ though building my plot.
Once that is done, I start my book with the characters. Characters, I grow organically. In writing terms, we speak of what we call “outline” writers and what we call “discovery” writers. (GRRM calls them “Architects” and “Gardeners.”) I outline write my settings and to a lesser extent my plots, but I discovery write my characters.
In doing so, once I start the book, the character takes center stage. They have, at any point, the right to change the plot in any way to fit what they would actually do. I will often try a few different ‘characters’ in a lead role when starting a book. For example, there were three different Vins I tried out for Mistborn. The first one (which was a boy) did not work. The second one (a female) did not work either. It was the third time that I got her right.
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