Here’s why you can never know too much about your characters, their dark private selves, the subtle ideals that drive them, the hidden urges and desires that hinder them.
In fiction, as in life, some people are hard to know. In life you can throw up your hands and walk away: “She’s a mystery. Who knows why she does what she does. I’m through trying to figure it out.” Not so in fiction. If you ever catch yourself saying, about one of your characters, “I don’t know. It’s a mystery,” that’s a red flag. Get busy. You need a transfusion of rich character knowledge and you need it now.
