At the last Tri-Valley Writers Social Space Zoom meeting we talked about how some of us have stopped reading an author we love because the protagonist doesn’t seem to learn from the past. It’s not a trivial question, because I am as guilty as the next reader of wanting my favorite characters to change, learn, and grow – but not too much. I still want to recognize the protagonist, even as I’m cheering for the character to evolve.
I also have to think about the characters in my Chenille series. Ann Anastasio and I intended our first book, Death By Chenille, to be a one off, but here we are writing our fourth novel with the same characters. We started out with characters who were flawed, yes, but essentially grounded. We wanted to tell the story of normal people in an unusual situation (saving the world from aliens who disguise themselves as bolts of beige fabric). As each new book in the Chenille series unfolded, we tried to keep our characters essentially who they were, but let them learn enough to solve the next problem. Now I’m wondering if that is enough.
While I certainly intend to bring up the question of character development in a series again at the next Social Space meeting, I came up with a few possibilities to consider:
- Start with a character that has a boatload of problems, and solve them one novel at a time.
- Start with a character at a specific age (younger is better), and trace her evolution in real(ish) time.
- Write entirely plot-driven novels where the protagonist has to learn something new in each novel or die. That also solves the problem of how to end a series when you are bored writing about the same characters.
Only you can decide how much change is enough for your character, and how much of a reset you are going to do in each novel to maintain the loyalty of your readers. For now, I’ll try changing one thing at a time, unless the discussion at the next Social Space meeting changes my mind.
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