As I’ve been revising Colonized lately, I’ve noticed how strange it is to look back at my characters’ beginnings now that I know where they end up. When I start my books, I rarely know my characters, but by the end, while I still couldn’t give you a clear definition of exactly what each one is like, I feel like I understand them. It’s like making friends with someone– they might be funny, smart, beautiful, and the worst driver on the planet, but just listing those qualities doesn’t tell you who they really are. That knowledge is something acquired over time, and it’s the same with the characters you write as with the people you meet.

But have you ever seen pictures of you and that friend from kindergarten and felt slightly confused? You know them now, and you remember what they were like back then, but looking at the picture reminds you of who they were in a different sense.

That’s what revising’s like. I know who my characters become, and I’m looking back at who they were. It’s hard trying to reconcile the two, especially because something shifted in my writing style between books one and two, but I’m working on it.

The exciting thing, though, is that having written the sequel, I know my characters so much better than I would have if I revised right after writing Colonized. My side characters were so underdeveloped in the first draft, but after Pioneered, I know what role each of them plays, so I’m more able to customize them to fit that in the first book. I originally had my two main characters interacting with two others who ended up being less important; I swapped those two side characters for two who matter more to the overall story.

It is always easier to start when you know where to finish.

I run cross country at my high school. At my first meet, my teammates and I decided to walk the course before the race. We didn’t take a map and got terribly lost, so when I actually ran, I had no idea where I was going. The race felt a lot longer than just a few miles because I didn’t know where to finish. But at a later meet, we walked the course correctly, and the race felt a lot shorter as a result. I knew where I was going, so I knew where I was and how to get there.

That’s what revising Colonized feels like. I can rearrange scenes, manipulate characters, and tweak the world and story to lead to the end. I know where I’m going, so I can make my story work so I can get there.

My book and my characters already seem a lot better because of it.