A Meal of Ingredients

My favorite part of writing is making characters. I love defining people and qualities in them, explaining their past in order to understand their present mentalities and beliefs. Seeing the world through their eyes is definitely interesting, but the best part is telling the story of who this person is.

The problem is that such a story is like one ingredient in a recipe. Character bios need to be mixed with settings, conflicts, potential resolutions, and countless other parts. If I just told a character bio, it would be like eating a piece of lettuce instead of making a whole sandwich.

What I would like to do is write a collection of character bios. They might only be a few pages, or they could be a sizable short story in length, depending on the depth of the character. But, rather than tell a full-length, drawn-out story involving these characters, I would simply present them, one at a time.

It would be like having a platter, each section of which having the makings of a sandwich, but rather than assembling one, just eating each ingredient one at a time.

At this point in the thought process, I remembered: I like to do exactly that! One can totally enjoy a meal of ingredients. They're all going to the same place (stomach/mind), so it doesn't matter how mixed up they are before they head that way.

I'm going to be working on my collection of characters. Their stories may be brief, even miniscule, but it will be ok, because they will be satisfying.