It begins with the Characters

My stories always begin with the characters. Maybe it sounds strange, but plot doesn’t come into play until later at least for me.

It usually happens something like this.

  1. I’m driving somewhere or I’m outside walking.
  2. I hear a song that sparks something in me. I get a chill down my spine from the lyrics or even from just the voice. It moves me.
  3. Sometimes it makes me think of myself or my own story or of other people I know. Sometimes I just think, “Wow, this song would be perfect for this sort of movie…” Or sometimes, it makes me imagine completely new characters and the beginnings of a story start to form in my head.
  4. If it’s a good idea, I won’t be able to stop thinking about it. I’ll think about it the next time I’m driving or walking. I’ll think about who the characters are, what they want, what their flaws are, and eventually it will start to turn into a story.
  5. That’s when I sit down to write. I usually start by creating a simple character sketch in a google document and it usually includes the following:
    • Physical characteristics
    • Personality Traits
    • Likes/Dislikes
    • Fears
    • Values
    • Motivations/Goals/Desires
    • Personal History & Family

In my first book, which is currently in it’s fifth draft and I’m currently taking a break from editing, my main protagonist’s name is Lacy Dunham. Her basic character sketch looked like this:

Lacey Dunham

Physical Characteristics:

  • Dark, almost black hair
  • Hazel eyes
  • Pretty
  • Upturned nose, dusting of freckles across that come out in the sun
  • Full lips
  • Average height – 5’5”, curvy figure
    • The curves appear the summer that she moves to Silver Spring

Personality Traits:

  • Fairly quiet & reserved
  • Lack of self confidence
  • Dreamer
  • Romantic
  • Keeps people at a distance
  • Rule follower
  • Loyal 
  • Homebody
  • Beats to her own drum but also somewhat wants to blend in/fit in

Likes/Dislikes:

  • Likes:
    • Reading
    • To be alone
    • Journaling/Writing
    • Outdoors
    • Animals
    • California
  • Dislikes:
    • Partying/Parties
    • Small talk and shallowness/shallow people
    • The cold
    • Sports

Fears

  • Losing people she loves
  • Repeating family cycles of addiction
  • Being abandoned
  • Being hurt by people she loves
  • Letting people get close to her
  • Disappointing her mother

Values

  • Intelligence
  • Integrity
  • Sobriety
  • Loyalty
  • Love

Motivations/Goals/Desires

  • She’s enamored with California – the bigness of it, the ocean, the beauty of it, the sunshine of it
  • She wants to move to California and write
  • She wants a great love – to be fully known and fully loved
  • She wants to keep her head down and get through high school and make something of herself
  • She wants her dad to heal and come back 
  • She wants her mother’s approval

Personal History & Family

  • Birthdate: May 2, 2009
  • Charles & Dianna Dunham – Her parents
    • Her parents got married right out of high school due to the unplanned pregnancy of her older brother, Joseph Dunham.
    • Charles is an addict and winds up leaving the family
  • Older brother Joseph Dunham
    • 2 years older than Lacey
  • Her Grandparents
    • Charles’ side:
      • Elizabeth & Robert Dunham
    • Dianna’s side:
      • August and Mae Hooper

I add and change things and do more in depth character “study” as I go. When I’m writing, I feel like getting to know my characters inside and out is the key to making the story meaningful.

New Book Start

I’ve been writing stories since elementary school. In the last decade or so I’ve written three book drafts and they’re all in various stages of editing. Haven’t tried to publish anything yet because I’m a perfectionist and a scaredy cat. One is close, but I’m tired of the editing process. I’ve decided to take a break and come back to that project in a few weeks. Hopefully clear my head and do one more round of editing before I submit some queries and/or pursue publishing.

In the meantime, I’ve started a new book. Starting a new project is always my favorite part. I love writing a first draft. It’s the work after that’s hard. I mean I guess it’s all hard, but I love the part where I just let myself write, where I can be creative and I don’t worry so much about prose or grammar or inconsistencies. It’s the best feeling – letting my fingers fly across the keyboard and my imagination completely take over. Even if it’s terrible which, honestly, sometimes it is.

Anyway, this new book idea I have takes place in a small fictional town in Alabama. It follows a born and bred there boy and a misfit girl who become unlikely friends. He’s steadfast and solid and dependable. She’s wild and free spirited and spontaneous. He has a plan for his life, a plan that eventually means settling down in the same town he grew up in and running his family farm. She has no plan. She just knows she wants to get out of dodge, see the world, travel and not stay in one place for too long.

They’re total opposites but their friendship runs deep and eventually grows into something that’s so much more. They are intrinsically linked. But what do you do when you both want entirely different things? When, inevitably, someone has to sacrifice everything they want in order to be with the other person, is love worth it?

That’s the idea I’m toying with. I’ve just started mapping it out and I wrote a brief beginning. Thought I’d share it here:

Benson – 2005

Piper was never going to stick around. No one could say she sprung it on me. I knew it was inevitable. Not only because she talked about how much she hated Whitmore, Alabama, but because I knew her, better than I’ve ever known anyone. Maybe even on a soul level. 

My soul was steadfast, tied to this land, this place. Mine needed the open country, the stability, the winding back roads. And her soul? Wild. Restless. Her soul needed to run, needed newness and adventure and spontaneity. I didn’t want her to stay when it was so obvious she didn’t belong here. 

I keep reminding myself that this wasn’t a surprise. I was prepared for this. I was prepared to watch her walk away. I encouraged it, even. She can’t help it that she’s not meant to stay, just as much as I can’t help that I’m not meant to go. 

But despite the preparation, despite the foresight, despite the knowledge that she was always going to walk out of my life, that she was never mine to begin with, despite all of that, it still feels like something sharp is piercing through my gut when she leaves. The door closes behind her and it’s like all the air has been sucked out of the room. I struggle to breathe and have to take a seat. It’s like I just finished a suicide run at football practice. 

Only I can’t just breathe through it. I know it won’t pass in a moment, this urge to vomit, this feeling of drowning. I know I’ll have to live with it until, hopefully, time does what it does. Time is my only hope of dimming this terrible feeling that can only be described as heartbreak.

written by stephanie coder, from my unpublished manuscript

Welcome! A Bit About Me…

I’m Stephanie. Words and writing are my passion.

I love to tell stories about complicated people. Stories of hope, of redemption, of love.

I’ve finally gathered the courage to share my writing publicly. I’ve written several books and never felt brave enough to publish them but life is short and I’ve wanted to make a career out of writing for as long as I can remember. A dream is just a dream unless you take the next step.

Thank you for visiting my website. I’d love if you clicked the subscribe button below to stay up to date on blog posts, newsletters, and hopefully, in the near future, published books.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

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