When I finally wrote my first draft in June she was still kinda dull. I just ignored her and focused on figuring out the plot details. And then I struggled with reworking the plot all through July and finally rearranged the bits in just the right order that I could start the second draft.
But when I sat down to write, Pauline was still... bleh. I became determined to find the right placeholder character for her, as none of the ones I'd tried had worked. (I have a physical placeholder for her, which I'm happy with. But needed a character one.)
Who am I?
So I started pulling up on Google my favorite TV shows and movies.
Psych (my current amour) - but no, the two leads are too self-confident for Pauline
The Moderns - not right, my fave character's too brash and blustering, and my other fave too morose
Impromptu - definitely not, George Sand way too confident and brash
Much Ado About Nothing - that's exactly the kind of heroine who populates 50% or more of romance novels--the kind I'm trying to avoid
Jeeves and Wooster - ... ... ... ! !! !!!!!!!!!
And so my heroine has become Bertie Wooster. Kind, easy going, a bit dumb, and easily cowed or controlled by strong personalities. And now everything's falling into place.
Yay! I once was lost but now am found!
...Good thing I already have my heroine and plot firmly in place for my next novel. I even tried out 50 000 words of it for Nano one year, and it worked great. The process for this book has been a big piece of crazy pie. The original sweet romance was written in one summer, so the initial book came easily to me. But changing it into a comedy, well that's something I've never done before. And it made for some crazy soup.
But as long as I'm learning new things about writing, I'm happy. And the research was fascinating.
Okay, off for some breakfast (wrote this at noon) and then back to the drywalling!
