I totally, 100% get that! XD
1 Like
Yes.
1 Like
But the issue is what bit you’re suppose to show, in order to show a bit of her normal, but not too much right? Something that happens before the plot? But it should probably be something that, in hindsight, is like a red herring which readers will see that and think, “ooooohhhh, I get it. So that’s why that happened then.”?
1 Like
You know what I was thinking about trying with Pinti is just to write about what happened in her past and talk about how much she knows if anything. I won’t even think about her main plot.
Then when I near the present, I’ll go back and see what part I can use to be the thing that shows her normal… idk if this will work for either of us XD
Just an idea
1 Like
Exactly. I’m in a pickle because I want to start the story already, but I must do this annoying part.
1 Like
You know, talking about this reminds me… In 2012, I had a 40k novel with 10 pages of pure backstory XD I think about this when I write Pinti’s story and realize I’m doing the same thing because I have no idea where her story starts.
Sigh 
1 Like
So, start with Aeris’s past that will lead to her normal?
1 Like
Maybe. You could try, and then cut it back?
1 Like
That’s interesting. I was reluctant to start with the past because I wanted to do a major flashback in book two.
Though I could still probably do that since I am not going full throttle with the past.
1 Like
I’m thinking I’ll just start when Pinti was born XD I know how it sort of kind of happened, but I’ve never written it out. I’ll write it all out and then once I get to her present with her normal life, I’ll just keep going until I get to where I had started the story.
Then maybe cut and paste onto the novel.
You could still do that I think? You’ll cut out those parts that you want to use for the flashback and sort of hide them until the flashback where you will reveal them for the first time.
Maybe it would help? idk?
1 Like
Maybe I should start with the past. Because thinking about it, I don’t think I know Aeris’s tragic backstory as much as I thought I did.
I mean in terms of how things progressed for her.
That gives me something to think about.
1 Like
Good to hear!
It also gave me something to think about for Pinti 
1 Like
From my experience working on my novels so far, I finished a draft of one novel (though technically second draft because it was once a fanfic turned original, and it completely changed from the fic). Then I began a prequel. I’m towards the end of the prequel which has clarified what my character is like in the novel I finished. Not just her, but her new rival/love interest who has cultural similarities to the lover she loses in the prequel.
Basically, I thought I knew my two main characters in the “finished” novel. I started a prequel which gained a life of it’s own, and it’s helped me flesh out those characters in the main novel even further. It’ll require me to do some re-writes which is going to happen anyway (because drafts!), but long story short…
Sometimes going backwards clarifies the present. Doesn’t always have to be as elaborate as it’s own novel, but if your character has certain traits, defense mechanisms, or habits, ask yourself where they get them? Culture? Religion? Trauma? Genetics?
For example, my female character is also a mechanic/gun-designer. In the prequel I’m wrapping up (first draft), one of the things left behind by the lover she loses is a toolbox. He managed his own construction company and had an annoying habit of always trying to fix random stuff in her apartment. But once she lost him, those tools became precious. She knows him enough to know he’d hate for the tools to sit there and collect dust. So she uses them in her own work. I don’t plan to explicitly say it in the main novel that the toolbox is his, but just these little breadcrumbs have helped me make her a deeper character.
(Disclaimer, I haven’t published a novel yet. I’m learning just like you. 
)
1 Like