Thread: Character development and growth

I have a character that I've been working with who - as part of the story line - goes through a period of growth. During the early stages and most of the growing one, I had no problems translating her story to paper. But now she's reached a stage where she's more aware of things around her and is very conscious of her own development. Since then I've started to have problems writing about her. I'm afraid of over analyzing but there will be a conversation ongoing and smack in the middle she has an internal conversation about how things are making her feel or how hearing this information NOW makes her feel in comparison to how it made her feel BEFORE.

Has anyone had this sort of problem before and how did you deal with it?

Hey Once_more.

I certainly know what you're talking about. Sometimes, I have my characters, mid-conversation, reflect on certain things. The wondrous thing about writing is the way time can be treated. Those reflections by my characters are usually of a more intuitive sort, instead of them narrating everything in their heads. "And then I felt this and this when I realized this..." That way, I can get away with saying they had these feelings or realizations in the span of seconds. Now, I don't know the context of your story, but perhaps you should ask yourself how much your character is becoming aware of? What is it that she is thinking that would feel like "over-analysis"? Even if you feel your character would be very self-aware and intelligent, you have to weigh the pros and cons. It ends up coming back to "Show, Don't Tell". Do you want your character to show her realizations and feelings through her reactions and responses in the conversation, or do you want to halt all the dialogue to allow her a drawn-out epiphany? What would read better? Again, I don't know the context of the story. I don't know just how MUCH you mean for her to go over in her head whilst this other conversation is going on.

I dunno if that helped, but maybe if you posted a portion of the writing I could look it over and be of more use?