About the only thing I have to check off my to do list is to make the secondary characters come alive. I don't know why this is a struggle. Maybe it's working within the shorter confines of a YA (my adult books were always 80,000 words or more, my YAs are
about 50,000 or less). Maybe it's because in this book they are all members of an environmental activist group (think ELF or ALF) with made up names and big-time agendas. My editor thought they sounded like they were making speeches, so the speeches went. But I think they are the kind of self-righteous people who would make speeches, so it's hard to think of what else they would talk about.
I am trying to think of the character traits each one has and how that would be revealed. Things like: comfortable with himself, independent, intelligent, cold, true believer, stubborn, curious, brave, slight, good-natured, clever, oblivious, tenderhearted, self assured, pays attention to details, self-conscious, easily manipulated. And tags, like chain smoker, speech impediment, fidgety, bites nails. These are helping. Things are better.
But are they better enough?
This could also have something to do with the fact that it is 100 degrees today, and we don't have air conditioning except one noisy unit in the upstairs bedroom. ("Turn if off -- it's too noisy!" "Turn it on -- it's too hot!") I bought a padded cot at Fred Meyer today and my plan is to sleep in the moldy, but cool, but spider-haven basement. Until I can't stand it and go upstairs to argue about the airconditioner.
I'd much rather be reading the blog of this blob that lives on the side of the filing cabinet where I work: Blob on the Filing Cabinet
