It’s hard to describe what someone else is feeling when she’s not sure what she’s feeling herself. She was really resistant to me peeling back her layers, which was frustrating for both of us. Raised in a strict, highly-controlled and sheltered environment, she’s never given herself permission to get to know herself, let alone let anyone else in. Nadin, my other protagonist, though-she’s an enigma even to herself. Even though we had a few rough patches here and there where I got a few facts wrong, he was patient and didn’t mind sticking with me until I got things right. Isaak wasn’t as straightforward as Henry, but he’s friendly and open, albeit a bit snarky.

He shrugs and says, “Yeah, I could have told you that.” “Henry, you should have been the protagonist of this book,” I sigh whenever I’m stuck. He gives very clear instructions on how he wants to be written, so his scenes were always easy and fun for me to write. Henry Sandhu, my protagonist Isaak’s best friend, stomped into my brain pretty fully-formed. And every time I struggled, it was because the characters were trying to tell me, “Hey! You’re writing me wrong!”Įvery character is different, of course. I had to start parts of the book over from scratch six different times.

Even though I had a pretty good idea of where the story was going, I often found myself wrestling to get through scenes. That was definitely the case for me when writing my first novel, Fourth World. You have to take your time getting to know them-and even if you think you know them better than anyone else, they can wind up surprising you. The funniest thing about characters is that they’re really like people. Today, I’m participating in a blog tour for the new YA science-fiction, Fourth World by Lyssa Chiavari, and she’s going to tell us about how she gets to know her characters. Hey guys, it’s Alexa! Happy New Year, and hope your holiday season was fantastically full of family, friends, food, and books.