Finding My Key

Ah, my story. There it was in all its imperfect glory. The plot was there, the characters acted and reacted in credible ways, but there was something missing.
I had given my female protagonist, Jenna, an interesting background which I’d incorporated it into the story. I really thought I had the character nailed.
The male love interest was handsome, quirky and utterly appealing, but why was he interested in Jenna? She was not coming across as all that interesting. On paper, she was even a little pathetic. That wasn't how I envisioned her. Where had I gone wrong in trying to capture her character?
In desperation, I turned to my shelf of writing books. I picked up James N. Frey's The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth. I had devoured the entire book in less than three days. In one portion he suggests, beyond doing the standard character profile, having a character write a journal in his or her own voice.
Thinking it could only help a story (and character) that seemed hopelessly flat, I decided to try it. I started the "journal" with the character introducing herself. What I discovered about Jenna was truly amazing. Good grief! I had her all wrong. She wasn't single, never married. She was a widow. She didn't work at a law firm. No, she worked in a library. She wasn't a stranger or new to the people in town. She had lived there all her life and knew practically everyone. The revelations continued over three pages
I completely rewrote the story and was amazed. Getting to know Jenna better and letting her lend her own voice to my writing improved the story ten-fold.
Once I stopped trying to manipulate the character to fit my carefully constructed plot, the story flowed better and Jenna ended up being a perfect match for the dreamy love interest I had invented.
Best of all, I found a technique that really worked for me. For other writers, conducting an “interview” with his or her characters is another way to dig deeper into the minds and motives of these unreal people—people who come to be very real to a writer—if the writer tries hard enough.