I spent the day writing a chapter for my next Wolver novel that won’t fit in until much later in the book. If you’ve checked my Wolver WIP page, you know that Bull’s job is to ‘eliminate’ wolvers whose behavior threatens the secrecy of the pack’s existence. There are two ways he can do this. He can consign them to a permanent feral state, or he can kill them. So yeah, my main man here is a killer. Now, I usually reserve murder for the bad guys, so how do I make you, the reader, love my guy, knowing what he does for a living? What kind of man takes a job like that? No matter how much it pays, most of us (I hope) couldn’t do it. And most of us (I hope again), couldn’t be with a guy who did.
This chapter started as a scene about how fate brought Bull and Tommie together and ended up a chapter where the reader gets to see a part of Bull’s early life. It’s the first hint of why he became the man he is. When I get to that part of the story, this chapter may or may not fit and may end up ‘on the cutting room floor’ as they say in the movies. It doesn’t matter. I’m glad I wrote it. Now I, like my readers, will understand Bull’s motivation; the why of what he does and how he acts.
Actors use this method all the time. It isn’t enough to read the lines. They need to know a character’s backstory even if it’s never mentioned in the script. That backstory helps them understand the role they’re playing which in turn, helps them make the character real.
Now I know Bull’s motivation, I’ll go back and rewrite some of what I’ve written and it will be in the back of my mind for everything I write from here on in. I know where Bull’s coming from and by the end of the book, you will, too.
