I have a wonderful post about developing a character by Jeffrey Zweig II, author of The End Begins: The Nine. Be sure to see my other post for his blog tour as there’s a great excerpt in it. I’ve added this one to my TBR list – how about you?

Developing the Character – Cassarah Doneye Telmar

Thank you for having me Trish!

Developing a character can happen many different ways. It depends upon the author’s writing style. Do you start with the character and build the world around them? Or build the world and put a character in there? Do you start with a simple base for each and develop them simultaneously?

I normally start with the character – there is a characteristic or a trait that I like and I start there. I develop them separately at first, then I construct a world that fits that version. Then comes the simultaneous development. I’ll try to show my progressing for Cass in my post today. I’ll try to remain as specific as possible without being spoiler-riffic.

Cass was one of the few “original” characters that remained from the adoption of my story. Her backstory always made her the heart of the story, so I stuck with her as the main character because she has attachments to every important piece of the story. So I started with exiled sorceress in the “modern world”.

Her personality came second. How did she act at The Nine? How would she react to a new world? The character’s personality and train of thought has to come pretty early for her to be believable and somewhat predictable even if she is completely not so! I settled for a brainiac who would be a fish out of water, so she would be kind of cold and straightforward with some sass mixed in. I inevitably based Cass’s personality off of Emily Deschanel’s performance from the TV series Bones. I love that character and thought she was a perfect example of what I was looking for. Continue reading Guest Post: Jeffrey Zweig II →