Evolution of a Story

As I'm sitting here typing chapter notes for a new work in progress, I'm amazed where my characters are taking me. This is the first book that has a lot of characters right off the bat, and I'm trying to find a way to not overwhelm the reader, as well as myself with all the information. Not everyone is needing to be introduced by name, but it doesn't mean that I don't know each and everyone personally.

But, as I'm trying to get my notes all in one place I'm realizing that my characters are evolving to more than what I thought they were. They do know each other than I do at the moment and what I had orginially thought of them and their place in the story has changed.

Don't get me wrong this isn't a bad thing. I'm only about 20 pages in to the first draft and hand a general idea of where the story is going with a shadow of an idea of who the antagonist is. But the more I sit down and listen to my characters the more the story is growing and they are get strong.

Every time something new pops up I have to take a step back and go, "Oh, I didn't know that about you. That changes everything!" All in a good way of course. If I had forced all these characters in to doing something that isn't in their nature then it wouldn't read as natural. If it means I have to go back and change something then so be it.

With each book I seem to go about it differently. Let it be from creating the characters first to having a scene and then the characters come from that. One thing is always the same. None of my characters end the way that I had orginally pictured them. For example in my first paranormal romance, both the main characters were in high school. When I had finished the story one they were both in college and one of the protagonists turned out to be a bad guy. It was a completely different story I had thought of, but it still held the core I'd wanted, but the characters evolved enough to make the story adapt and evolve.

Seeing this is an amazing thing to me. It's one of the many reasons I love to write. Not only do I get to create these wonderful worlds, but these people I get to meet and experience is mindbogglingly wonderful.

Anyways, I'm going to go back to meeting my characters, and hopefully one day you will meet them too. :)