In my previous book, "We Won't Forget You Mr. McGillicuddy," the characters were right in front of me. I used family, friends, and acquaintances as templates for the characters. As I wrote, I noted the characterisitcs of each person I modeled my characters on and used that as a guide for their creation.
The present book, "The Children of Raven's Reach," was totally different. The characters were created out of thin air, or at least seemed to be. I started with Chase, and as he went on his quest for real magic, the story told me when another character was needed. Ususally this communication between the story and I happened during one of my meditation sessions where I would visualize parts of the story as well as the backstory of characters already in the book. The backstory, of course, never makes it directly into the book, but it gives me a deeper understanding of the characters and how they will react to different events in the story.
An example of this process went like this: As I visualized the story, it seemed something was missing. The scene where Chase is attacked by two robbers was good, but it seemed Chase should have some warning. I then remembered that a sorcerer needs to have a familiar. I tried a dog first because I love dogs so much but the story said that it needed an animal with more mystery, so I visualized the scene with a cat. It became clear that I needed to have an animal that was more mobile. When I tried a raven in the scene, it worked well and I could see that in the future it would be a great way to foreshadow danger since the raven could fly anywhere and ravens have also been described as having some kind of magic. Then I had to go back and write a scene where Chase met the raven and include it as much as possible up until the robber incident.
The selection of the raven suggested other elements of the story that I followed up on such as the gifts he brings to Chase. It also suggested the breath-taking part of the story where the raven becomes not just a loyal friend, but a heroic bird who helps save the day.
I hope you have enjoyed this sneak peak into my book. I also hope that you will be motivated to get a copy and read it and perhaps post a review of it. Thank you for your time.
