When first asked to blog about growing a character in a series, I figured I should be able to write about this topic with little trouble. After all, I’d developed a couple characters for the BelleBooks’ Mossy Creek series and I’d outlined twelve books for Heather, my hypersensitive teenage heroine in my middle grade YA Ghost Handler series. But that was not the case.
With the best of intentions, I sat at my desk yesterday morning and stared at a computer screen filled with disjointed ideas that weren’t coalescing into anything I could even pretend to like. What could I say that was insightful? How exactly did I grow Heather? Why was I sitting inside on such a gorgeous spring day?
Fortunately, after consuming some chocolate courtesy of the Easter Bunny, I figured out why this topic was so daunting. Growing a character in a series is basically akin to raising a living, breathing child—only without the back talk and driver’s training.
Make Plans
As with real children, your life/writing will be easier if you set some goals and create a plan to get your protagonist there. This plan can be a series outline or it can be a synopsis for each of the books you expect to write in the series. But you have to have some type of overall plan for something as big as a series. Your character/child must have an ultimate goal to reach for, and this goal has to be big enough for several books. My goal for Heather is to become confident in who she is, even if she is weirder than the average teenage girl longing for a hunky prom date. Her goal is to be less of a freak.
One way to develop the big plan is to break down those ultimate character goals into smaller steps. I envisioned my series as twelve books total taking Heather from the summer before her freshman year of high school through the end of that first school year at Pecan Hills High. In Book One, Haint Misbehavin’, Heather states her smaller goals of wanting the hot lifeguard at the pool to notice her, of becoming less of a bottom feeder, and of making some progress with her older sister, who finds Heather a big embarrassment. By the end of Haint, Heather makes s
ome progress toward achieving her goals, but there’s still room for further improvement. Book Two, Hainted Love picks up where book one leaves off. She’s hoping to build on her relationship with her older sister during their vacation at Jekyll Island and to discover her absence has made the cute lifeguard’s heart grow fonder. Of course, she encounters obstacles and a ghost who makes her goals more difficult to achieve. What Heather doesn’t know is that she’s becoming more confident in who she is with each obstacle she overcomes and each ghost she helps. As an author/parent, you have to see the big picture, even if your heroine/child doesn’t.
Keep It Real
Just as every child comes into this world with good as well as challenging personality traits, each teenage character created for a series must possess both likeability and flaws to seem real. Perfection isn’t real, and it leaves no room for growth. You’ll know you’re keeping your protagonist real, if your character has the ability to make parents want to hug her and bang their heads against the wall when she makes the wrong decisions. Heather is that kind of character. She is basically a good kid, but like many other teenagers, she sometimes makes bad choices for what seem to her to be good reasons.
Part of keeping your heroine real is determining all the little details of this child/character’s life. You decide where you want to raise this character. In what environment will she have the best chance to flourish—or achieve your goals as an author? In which school district will she live? Will she attend a public or private school? What’s her neighborhood like? How many siblings will she have? Who are her friends? How much interaction with other extended family will take place? What have been the biggest challenges in her life? What chores does she have to do? Does she oversleep? The more you know about your protagonist, the more real she becomes.
Listen to Your Gut
Sometimes as a parent, you sense when something is wrong with your child. The same can be said for an author and a series protagonist. Because we live with these characters for such a long time, our gut often tells us when something in the story or series outline isn’t working. We need to listen to that gut reaction. While working on Hainted Love, Book Two of the Ghost Handler series, I had this feeling that something wasn’t working between my heroine and her aunt, who also sees ghosts and is suspicious of Heather hiding a similar ability. My gut told me to move forward with that relationship—something I hadn’t planned on doing until much later in the series. Listening to my gut made the second book better than it would have been if I’d stuck strictly to my detailed outline.
So that’s how you grow a character in a series. You make a plan for this kid. You realize she isn’t perfect, and that’s a good thing. And you listen to your gut instinct when it comes time for crucial decision-making. Sure, this character/child might give you a few gray hairs along the way, but she eventually grows into the heroine you envisioned when you set out to write the series. Best of all, characters, unlike real children, never ask you if they can borrow the car.
Georgia author Maureen Hardegree is thankful that heroine Heather Tildy does not as yet have her learner’s permit. Readers can learn more about Heather in Hainted Love, Book Two of the Ghost Handler series and can visit Maureen’s website (www.maureenhardegree.com) and Facebook page for updates on signings and events.
