A bit in love with my main character

[MichaelaS]

Hi all, I am making my first foray into creative writing because a story was bouncing around in my head and it just wouldn't go away until I wrote it down. I'm a complete novice. I'm about 25,000 words in so far. Not sure where I'm going with it, perhaps self publishing once I'm sure it's done, or perhaps just keep it to myself as something I'm proud of creating.

It's a fiction, alternative romance kind of thing. I am so enjoying writing it, not least because I am completely infatuated with my main male character. It is such great escapism to disappear off with the laptop and sketch out a bit more of him. :-)

Is this something others find too? Do certain characters become important to you, and begin to dominate the book, simply because you enjoy writing about them the most?

In any case I'm having a lot of fun!

Yes, definitely! If you love writing them then hopefully others will love reading them.

Yes, definitely! It's part of the fun of it.

BTW, if you're thinking of self-publishing, I would recommend you go through a process of getting a few people to critique, then rewriting. You'll end up with a much better book which will be ultimately more satisfying to sell.

I've felt the same about a particular character, and after a very very long time of idealising my leading man, making him perfect in everyway, I took him in the opposite direction.

Amongst other things, I sent him to prison, into therapy, full mental breakdown, lost his relationship, substance abuse...

I would thoroughly recommend it! Even if you only do this for yourself to read, as it is so refreshing and allows you to really develop your characters and story line.

And when you think about it, everyone has flaws and no one is perfect so it's good to tear your character up a bit (and then tone it down a tad as I had too!)

:-) thanks all, and thanks for the great advice too.

I'll definitely get someone else to critique it and them rewrite, but I'm very shy of anyone reading it just now as it's nowhere near done.

And I'm considering killing off my leading man, he's not sustainable long term and a bit of an anti hero already really. Whilst my heroine is very swept off her feet I can't see them having sensible conversations about who's doing the school run or where they will live when they retire. No, he needs to die tragically whilst still gorgeous I think! :-)