Question on character. ONe thing every book agrees on is that to give characters depth have them change. What I'm working on is plot heavy. The characters are under continual stress in a short period of time. So far they don't seem to change much, just show their true colors. Now the books do say that with certain kinds of fiction it is OK for characters to be shallow. But does not changing really always (or almost always) equal shallow characters? Is a character who stays fundamentally the same through the course of a novel likely to be shallow?

Well, I think if he or she is your lead, you're putting him through something, right?(FyI, I read the 90 day novel too. Some was helpful, some not.)

The character may not change but may have to dig deep to cope with issues. Maybe show hints of some inner strength/talent that they don't think much of or which they ignore that comes in handy by the end. Some hint of stubbornness or intelligence or something that they have to tap into. IE, a person who's proud of their strength and shrugs off their native brains who has to think their way out of trouble. And vice a versa.

Hmm. My character who has always been blunt and snarky will find herself having to use diplomacy to persuade powerful entities who are at best indifferent and often hostile to her to join her cause. Maybe that counts as digging deep.

It's kind of a change but not something brand new.

Typo, it sounds like you should probably write the story as you envision it, and then see what you have when you're done. It's hard to anticipate everything that will happen in the process of writing, but trying to work this stuff superficially isn't usually a good idea.

Jennifer Crusie writes what she calls the "Don't Look Down" Draft, which is essentially writing out the story without a lot of stopping or self-editing. Then you read it and see what book it is that you've written, which is often not exactly the book set out to write. At that point it's easier to see what your characters have gone through, and what you need to do to make the story work well.

Makes sense to put off that question until after the first draft. I am, as Kress suggests going to finish my scene list before I start the draft. I tried "just putting it down" before and got stuck at 12,000 words cause I did not know what happened next. But even after I do the scene list I will expect the first draft to need major rewrite, not just editing.

I'd say finish the first draft so you know the story and the characters, then try to figure out what the physical plot and emotional plot need to be. Everybody is different, but for me the first draft is more a guideline than what's going to be the final manuscript after some edits.

What Gud said.

On kind of a hot streak with something new(Which...yay,) Except for, trying to make those scene changer things like "***", I got a big dark line that is now following me through all my pages. Argh!