#WatchMeWrite: Characters with a will of their own

Hey hey hey! NaNoWriMo is nearly over, so that's why you get a #WatchMeWrite of ... not my NaNo project.

Instead, let's take a look back at Matryoshka, which will be first order of business once exams are over! (Yes, blookunity, winter is coming, but never fear. Alyssa will return ... or at least the blogging clone will.) A chapter of Kim, my fav character in this WIP:

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If you join my takeout army before December 12th, you can read the entire chapter, so what are you waiting for?

As I construct my revision plan, I slowly realise just how much Kim has changed from her cameo appearance in Shadowplay, the Matryoshka prequel I am planning to rewrite into a novella someday. Kim was always intended to be something more — or rather, she intended to be something more.

Fictional character or not, Kim is not someone to be controlled ... not for long, at least.

A look back at Kim in Shadowplay:

“There are those who would like nothing more than a pretext such as this to eliminate those who share your view. Penning this document would be the stupidest thing you could possibly do, Senator Astova [better known to you as the Chancellor in Matryoshka]. I advise you to forget you ever thought of it and, failing that, never show it to the Prime Minister.”

“The Prime Minister is a reasonable man,” Mona Wynn [a random Senator] said. “He will listen to us.”

“Dominic Mallister will listen to nothing, take the list and execute you all for treason when the time is right.” Kim stood, finished her drink and placed it on a passing server’s tray. “And on that note, I take my leave. Good luck, Senators.”

When I first conceived the idea of Shadowplay, Kim definitely wasn't there — but somehow she found her place as a cameo, then as a secondary character, and look at her now in Matryoshka: a PoV character in her own right and my favourite character.

Instead of being the strict matron-like and randomly Asian character with an unbending grip on the law, Kim has now developed to be much, much more. And if you'd like to explore her character more fully, my takeout army will receive an early Christmas present in the form of an entire Kim chapter from Matryoshka. So don't miss out on the chance to read it!

Writers, how have your characters developed behind the scenes? Readers, do you approve of Kim's character changes?

Twitter-sized takeout:

• How did @AlyssaC_HK's secondary character become her fav PoV character in the sequel? (Click to Tweet)

#WatchMeWrite is a campaign started by E. R. Warren and Samantha Chaffin, wherein writers record their process, speed it up, add music, and show it to the rest of the world. Here are all past #WatchMeWrite videos!