Working backward has been very rewarding. I now have good, satisfying conclusions for my characters—except Oolanga, though I think I know how he’ll play out, he’s gone, like halfway through the book and I’m not that far back. Also, a lot of the character development Stoker skipped is coming through.
Adam, for example, is a little too ordinary, a little too pragmatic, even to be the hero of the story. He’s sort of a catlyst and certainly a major player, and his arc involves coming to grips with unreality. I feel like that was Stoker’s aim for him originally, that he was the audience stand-in, for all the exposition that needed to happen…
Gonna interrupt myself and say, “Oy. Exposition. So much of it.” I’ll have to do a pass and eliminate it. A pass or twelve. Right now I have it clear in my head what’s going on, but if it’s spelled out, it’ll just be boring.
Anyway, I think the hero/primary character of the piece may end up being Sir Nathaniel. His arc will be a restorative one. Lady Arabella and Caswall himself have their heroic moments, believe it or not.
And then there’s Lila. She also has a huge role to play in the story. Right now, without all the characters doing their parts, the story would end with a worm-y victory. So I’m very pleased that there are no pointless characters (Oolanga…oolanga…the wind cries “oolanga”…but I’ll work that out, I swear) and that Lila’s ultimate fate is fitting.
But her fate isn’t her character, exactly. I have amped up her religiosity because it fits so well with her character and can explain Caswall’s attraction to her beyond just, y’know, she was just seventeen, and you know what I mean. But the “problem” with Lila’s character as it currently stands is, she’s just too damn pure. I think it’s clear from the doves—er, white pigeons—in Stoker’s book, that she is an emissary of St. Columba though he goes literally nowhere with that idea.
So, at every point, Lila’s trying to do the right thing.
And as I type that, I realize she will have one fatal flaw: Pride.
Lair Of The White Wyrm 