I'm finally getting going on Chapter 1 v55 (or whatever). I've been working with this character for almost ten months. I spend half my waking hours in his head and a good portion of my sleeping hours there, too. Seth and me, we're likethis. And, yet, I'm still learning things about him.
Here are three major things I learned today:
1. When Seth drinks, he gets depressed and introspective. Every. Single. Time. I can't tell you how many times I've started a scene with drunken wackiness in mind only to come away from it with... no wackiness at all. The boy is a serious downer.
2. Seth is incapable of being indifferent to Rosetta. My original idea was that he would have a big old crush on this girl, but later I decided it would work better if she was pursuing him instead. She's doing just fine at liking him a whole, whole bunch, but he is not doing well at NOT liking her. He can't NOT notice when she's around. He can't NOT be affected by her. He can't NOT think about her. It's becoming a little problematic for me.
3. Seth is a loner. I thought I was doing something wrong not giving him a clique to hang out with, so I put him in situations where he can be around lots of people and do and be anything he wants. Most often, he chooses to retreat. Or to go off looking for the girl he's supposed to be indifferent to.
Now, I'm not one of those writers who insists my characters are writing themselves and making choices on their own. I recognize that I'm the real-live human being in charge of this story. I just can't quite figure out if these three things I mentioned come about because the character traits and history I've created simply won't allow for them. Or is Seth capable of being different and these botched scenes are entirely my fault? Like, am I letting me get in the way here?