Who, What, Where, When... but WHY???

I watched Lady in the Water last night. A well made movie, sparking creativity in a mind. The role of a character in a storyline is key to the plot. The main character of the film, Cleveland, had to identify who would play certain roles in the events that were unfolding. He was given a description of the role played and he had to find the personality that would fit.

My book came to mind. Do I have logical assignations to key roles played in my drama? My brain was off and running. My first thoughts were of book 2 in the series, tentatively called “Forever is a Long Time...When one is Immortal.” The plot has been giving me trouble. I don’t have the details worked out. I have the Who, generally the What, and part of the Why. I’m mainly missing the How.

At the end of Lady in the Water, every one gets what they deserve. It is a fairy tale after all. Perhaps something from their past prevents them from doing something… they will have to overcome the obstacle in order for the story to progress. My brain was off and running again. Do my characters have that? My main ones do, but what about my secondary, colorful, characters? I have general motivations but not a large amount of back story or purpose. I started jotting down plot ideas and motivations, personalities, how they would act in certain situations, etc… I already had some concrete ideas about their character in my head, but I didn’t necessarily have the Why they are a certain way.

Now comes a more difficult task. Let’s say I have all the motivations worked out for my characters. My series is written in first person. How am I going to reveal the Why about my other characters without it seeming like my main character is a psychologist? Why would everyone go around spilling their secret motivations to her? The answer to that, at least where my series is concerned, is I’ll have to go slowly. Being a series, I don’t have to have it all done right away. But if I have certain plot devices planned later, I can allude to them now. I can add some quirky behavior that will be explained later. Hopefully my readers will have an Aha! Moment when the pieces start to click together.

I have been receiving quite a bit of praise about book 1, but I still feel that it needs a lot of work. I know I can make it better, add more intrigue/depth. I wasn’t quite sure what I was missing. I had foreshadowing, dropped hints that worked themselves out later. I believe what the book lacks currently, is some of the characters intrigue falling into place. They need to have character arcs too. I do it in a subtle way, they just naturally changed with the progression of the story. I do believe I need to be more conscious about their change. Perhaps I will be left feeling more satisfied.