For several years, I have had this story in my head that I have wanted to write. For roughly seven years it has been bouncing around my head and so far, not making it onto paper. Don’t get me wrong, I still haven’t fleshed out all the corners of this story. It started off with me sitting on my sofa, watching TV when a character popped into my mind. It was just like a thought bubble appeared. I could see her, but I didn’t know who she was. I sat there, thinking about who this young woman was and what was so important about her that my mind demanded I create her. What is her name? Where does she live? Does she have siblings? A million questions started swirling around my head, but the answers took much longer to appear. Character by character, the world grew, and then the cities and small towns appeared. Each answer came after a burst of inspiration from my real world surroundings. And, little by little, I learned more about my character and her story.
Today, I know more about her family and her home kingdom. I understand her loss from her sisters moving away and remaining with her socially awkward older brother. Her parents aren’t happy in their marriage, but they put on a good show most days. And, her life is about to change as soon as her bedroom door opens, letting her know that a message from the land her eldest sister moved to so many years ago, brings big changes not only to her life, but to the entire world.
Now, that all sounds fine and dandy. The makings of a possibly passing-for-interesting story, but here’s the thing. I cannot figure out the middle. The meaty center that keeps people flipping the pages to the very end. In essence, I’m stuck, which is why I haven’t started page one. I cannot find the journey for my character. I have the beginning of a story and the end of a story, but how the two connect, is a whopping mystery to me, the supposed author.
So, I have continued to stumble around year after year, waiting to see the big picture, the whole picture, well, at this point I’ll settle for the outline of the picture. A dear friend of mine told me in 2017 about National Novel Writing Month, and she thought I would be interested. Naturally, I was, and I sat down at my dining room table, ready to crank out what would be potentially the worst first draft ever written ,when I finally realized a major part of my problem, my characters. They had been bouncing around in my head for years and I still did not know them. I knew where I wanted them to go and what I wanted them to say, but I didn’t know their motivation or the reason for their reactions to scenes. I stopped, day three into trying to write 50,000 words of this novel in my head and I realized, I needed to finally get to know my characters.
I started researching character development questions, and I realized there were plenty of websites that provided lists of questions but then I realized, if I printed them all out and started filling them in, I would be killing a small forest before I even began chapter one. I tried a couple and said I would write one character. I got half way through when I realized, I didn’t know their environment. I didn’t know what they ate for breakfast and if it was common where they were from or unique to them. Once again, I was in the land of questions without answers and it was my job to hunt them down. I started feeling like a bounty hunter or detective, the answers were out there, I just had to find the clues they were leaving in my world. One way or another, I was going to answer all of these questions.
I then realized that building a world would leave an almost equal paper trail in tree death and started searching for an app. I opened my phone, went to the app store, and started searching. Of course the perfect app is out there, waiting for me to download it. I searched for over an hour and I kept finding apps that were close, but they were missing things I was looking for. I started craving to want to build my own monster mash of apps like Dr. Frankenstein. Frustrated, I didn’t know what to do. I could download an app that didn’t meet all my requirements, or I could create my own. I could make one that answered all of my questions about my characters and the world that they lived in and looked good, too without wasting precious paper.
Thus began two weeks of actual work being done on the dining room table of writing out the perfect app for me and my story. I created the outline, then the screens and their functions and then I began looking for a team of developers who could code the madness of my new creation. I’m not an app developer by nature. I view myself as a problem solver who hunts for specialists to help me through the journey.
A friend of mine saw a very rough and quite ugly version of the app I had developed independently, and he started his highly convincing campaign that his team could do a better job and with a visit to their office I would see. Now, I am not blind, I could see my little creation needed help. He was right, after one visit I said I would think about it. Upon my second visit, I had a list of questions, and by my third visit, documents were being signed. With every development meeting, Figmentha grew. This little app about trying to answer my own big questions for my story started to develop into a business. This wasn’t going to help just me, it had the opportunity to help countless others in the world who may be stuck on the simple question, “who is this character that I constantly see?”
Having a character stuck in your head kind of feels like trying to remember if you turned the stove off before leaving your house. It nags at you, popping into your thoughts whenever it can find an opening, tapping its foot, asking when will you give them a name, or a hair color. They move into your mind like an unwanted house guest, eating your food and keeping you up at night. Sure, you can ignore the character waving dramatically at you while sitting bored at your desk, but sometimes they grab your attention and make you spend way more time during the day, trying to piece their back story together. A conversation begins. Do you like apples? It may be a strange question to need to know about a character but it’s the little things that make us unique and a story stand out.
While the app was being developed and in between frequent in-person meetings, phone calls, and emails, I had time to think of my characters a little bit more. Then I began to become excited about the app being finished. This was really going to help me organize my characters and world for my story in an easy to find location. I can never completely empty the dining room table of all the clutter, but it would greatly decrease the amount of paper and I shouldn’t lose a character back story if it’s on my phone. The app was going to solve so many problems for myself. My characters would be all together, in their world, easy to find, and easy to take with me anywhere. Just what I wanted. No more scraps of paper all over the house, notes in my emails, and notes on notepads physical or digital. All my characters in one place, where I could answer all the questions I had about them. What a novel idea. By organizing the way I was planning to create my new world, the more the characters started flowing. The anxiety of knowing where I put a character was soon to be gone.
Over all of the development meetings, I started to realize, this was an app that others could use. Someone else might be struggling as well, and if it could help me, there must be others who have similar issues. Someone trying to write a book, but stuck at one of the most basic steps, developing a well rounded character and environment. I had to take a step back and reexamine the app itself. I realized it was too focused on my book and my vision and it had to become more general before it could become specific for different types of writers. What was universal when it came to character development in any genre? Are all these questions important for world building for say a mystery? I had to take a moment and realize, if I wanted to help other writers, I would have to be open to other genres and to learn about them and their needs. Figmentha was growing and I was glad.
I then had to begin thinking about the future of Figmentha. Every conversation with the development team, they seemed to have more and bigger ideas than I had at the time. I kept thinking I was solving one problem, for myself. They saw it as a product for writers. It took some time but I started to change the way I viewed Figmentha. I started to see how it could help not only me but others in different areas of trying to write a book. I could add a section to help build outlines. Writing tools could help me track details about different time periods. I could build a family tree to track my characters connections. This didn’t have to stop at building an app to develop characters and worlds, it could help writers in several areas of creating a story. There are plenty of ways to start a story and there are plenty of ways to get stuck in your own head before writing a single word. If this app can help one person get that first word down and then the next until the finish their first draft, that would be a success.
Today, I see Figmentha growing, constantly, in a fantastic direction of its own making with guidance and encouragement from me. I don’t want to put too many constraints and restrictions on its development, it should come from part need and part desire for something to be added over time. Today the app is a tool, but hopefully, with time and support, it will become the whole toolkit for helping a writer complete his or her first book. I hope I finish writing my first book. And, I cannot wait to see where Figmentha takes me in discovering other novel writers to be.