The story is about a teenage girl, Cecelia, living in the medieval times who discovers she has magical powers. Other people in her city have magical powers too, but she thinks that no one has her specific power, which is the ability to manipulate earth.
In the beginning, she doesn't have control of the magic, and it spirals out of her when she gets upset. But she meets a man, Benedict, who not only has the same abilities but also knows how to control them. So he begins to teach her to channel her abilities through her willpower instead of her heightened emotions.
The advice my classmates gave me was about making her thoughts and feelings about her abilities more prevalent because I'd only been hinting at them, and it could be confusing to the reader. My teacher also explained how action/reaction has to work in a story. In the story, Cecelia does something striking to a soldier, and the way I'd written he just left afterward. It makes sense that we would be outraged and embarrassed and would have an equally striking reaction.
Revisiting this old story has made me think about my characters. I was wondering if anyone has any advice about building characters because that seems to be what I struggle with the most. How much do you have to know about a character before you start writing their story? I usually just end up writing endless versions of me. And when I write a male character instead, I wonder if I'm really doing him justice.
Does anyone else struggle with this? I'm tired of writing me over and over. I'm bored with me. I want fresh characters.
I'd love to hear feedback or advice from anyone about this! Thanks in advance.
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