I (eventually) wrote another character / anecdote / backstory piece today. A bit shorter than the others I have written, but I also ran out of time. The day got away from me, between work and the kids and the store and the bank and — omg the Alberta provincial election results, which are… wow.

However, what worked today for me in my story was that I got the character in a place and time completely separate from their current incarnation in my novel. This is not a major character, nor one who is intended to appear in future books. Just a one off, but I feel like I was able to really develop aspects of him that I hadn’t previously thought of. I am really happy about it, even though the story is sketchy in places. It feels like the sort of thing I was hoping to accomplish this month. (Although, of course, I do sort of feel like I’m creating more work for myself later, when I got through these pieces and try to decide what to do with them!)

I took this character, Sean, who is a sidekick of sorts in my novel, and took him back to his teenage years and the relationship he gradually develops with his elderly neighbour. I feel like if this came from a prompt, it would be something about a character having mistaken assumptions about others.

Onward!