characterization .

Basically, creating a character is hard.  I know myself so well, that it would be easy to give the character all of my own thoughts, make them mimic my movements and words.  But that's not how writing works, so I've learned that I need to get creative (that's what creative writing is all about, I guess).  I admit I still don't know everything (or much at all) about characterization yet, but I'm giving it my best effort through the group writing project, and hopefully I'll be successful.

I do know what good characterization looks like though.  Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" is probably the best example I can think of.  Woolf somehow manages to delve into the minds of almost every character in the story, each distinct from the other, yet she writes each character as if she IS that person.  Septimus and Clarissa are foils of each other, and yet Woolf seems to identify so intensely with both of them.  Virginia Woolfe also killed herself by weighing her body down with rocks and walking out into a river.  The best writers are generally pretty crazy.  I like the water, but not THAT much.