Here I am, four chapters away from finishing the first draft of book three of my fantasy series, A Chronicle of Crowns, chipping away at a character who's been giving me grief since I started writing this book. I think everyone has a character like this, one that demands all of your concentration to write, and who you moan at wildly for not writing itself. I love my characters, I do, and I have some who's chapters write themselves much smoother than others, but I've never encountered a character who's given me as much grief as this one.
Let me try and explain without giving away who the character is. For the most part, my series has been set in a human medieval world in a couple of different kingdoms based on real-world counterparts. It's drawn a lot of comparison to Game of Thrones for that regard. While there are some more traditional elements of fantasy woven in and mentioned, including magic, sorcery, elves, dwarves, faun, all that fun stuff, it's been predominantly man-driven so far. But when I was planning out book three, I knew one of the new POV characters would head off in a different direction and fall into a more fantasy-themed setting than the others. And I was so excited to write their chapters and their storyline. They play a crucial part in the overall plot, and act as a primary hero for many books to come.
And I thought I had them fleshed out in my head... They made an appearance in book one, and was mentioned numerous times throughout both book one and two, but this is the first time I've had to write from their perspective, and that's what's throwing me off. They're an aloof character, quiet and stern, slightly humourless and filled with self-doubt masked with confidence. But for some reason, they're resisting the typing I've come up for them. Instead of quiet and stern, they're coming off whiny and self-entitled. Instead of humourless and riddled with self-doubt masked with confidence, they're coming out weak with a LOT of baggage and father-issues. In the end, they're not coming out very heroic.
And to make matters worse, I'm starting to think my plot points that lead this character to a more fantasy-themed setting, are pretty weak, and I'm second guessing motivations and plot points.
Now, this could all be in my head. It wouldn't be the first time, if that's the case. I tend to overthink things, and in the first two books there were many parts that I thought were poorly written or developed that readers really liked. I suppose what I need to do is stop procrastinating and push through this chapter. It's the final chapter for this character anyway... I can rehash the whole thing in post. But man is it frustrating when the chapters don't just write themselves.