I have spent much of the past week updating my character profiles and background descriptions for my Tonia Jackson series. It has turned out to be a lot more work than I thought, and while I find it greatly gratifying to play God and determine how long people live, who they interact with, and what their personality is, it is also exhausting. Add to that the fact that each character is intertwined with other characters in the story, making changes and developments in one character's profile the start of a chain reaction in many other profiles, and the amount of work suddenly seems to explode. And, to make it even more difficult, as I flesh out a character, like a Frankenstein monster, he or she begins to take on a life of their own, wanting to change things, be in control, and thwart all my God-like plans.
I also have to update and explore the background data. For example, I have a couple who got married in the early 1940's. So what was going on then? Well, there was Pearl Harbor, for one thing. So where was this couple living? How were they affected by the outbreak of war? What did that do to their plans to start a family? All these things come into play. And these are just minor characters! Yet their decisions affect one of my main characters quite directly, since they are his parents.
But it is fun weaving such complicated tapestries, isn't it?
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