Today, I dug into my guide character’s internal and external conflicts, then went back to fill in his background before starting in on his interview.
I was feeling a little slow this morning and it took me some time to get into the writing, but once I got going, it started to flow and I could picture the character, his disposition, how he got to the position he is in, and his family issues that are the core of his conflict. I even discovered a conflict with the hero that could make the story interesting, as well.
While my guide character is an archetype, I feel like I haven’t seen another character with quite the same characteristics in other fantasy works, so he feels original and exciting to me. I don’t want to say too much for (absurd) fear of spoilers, but he is going to be right in the middle of the central conflict for power and a natural piece of the puzzle, rather than a wandering wizard type.
Over the last couple days, I have not gotten in as much writing as I would like and I need to figure out how to become more efficient with my time. But at least at the character creation stage, it takes time to mull over the decisions I have to make and doing this part wrong is going to have lasting repercussions for the book. So, I guess it makes sense to proceed slowly and patiently.