J - Jenifer

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J - Jenifer

Of all the characters, Jen has changed the least during the creation process. Her appearance has always been frizzy brown-brown hair, blue eyes, glasses, freckles (except for a short period of time when I got her mixed up with Anthea [another character from a completely different WIP] and she had straight hair ...) Her backstory has been pretty much the same, she had a friend (Chris. He later became her brother) who disappeared when she was seven and he was eight. Even her position when the play/book opened has stayed the same: she's still sitting beside a stream, trying to make a story appear in the notebook in her lap, and makes a wild wish for Chris to show back up and tell her what happened to her imagination.

Yet at the same, she's the character who changes the most. The girl with the ultimate case of writer's block I begin with on page one is a completely different person than the Anka at the end.

I was supposed to play Jen, which is why she looks so much like me. Even now, I don't think I have a character who I've bonded so well with. I won't say that she's my favorite character *sidelong glance at Maryanne, Clara, and Robin, who are constantly vying for that position. They have sword to make their point clear ...* Indeed, I actually don't really consider her a character at all. She's more of a best friend to me, with whom I'm working on writing her story. She's my introverted and more organized half. I slip so easily into her voice and character, she may as well be the one writing the book.

I must admit that, when I first started typing the book up about a year ago, I didn't know much about her personality. I'm more of a plotter, not a character builder, so while I knew her reactions, I wasn't as aware of the why behind those reactions. It wasn't until she met the mermaids that I realized that she was shy, and not until she had her memories back that I realized that she had a mischievous streak a mile long.

In the second draft, her shyness is apparent much sooner ... and her mischievous streak, it turns out, could translate into cruelty if she doesn't like someone (namely Tisha and Chris). *whistles innocently*

Jen doesn't know she's a character. She knows she's part of a story, but she thinks that she's the one writing it. Which she is. I'm just letting her use my pencil.