(i) (i) (i) = I i (C)

Although I'm no mathematician, numbers and equations do fascinate me. A different form of language which, for the most part, seems quite foreign. Yet I know hidden in the formulas are answers to complex problems which impact real life scenarios. (i)(i)(i) = Ii (C) is my formula for character development. Multiplying (i)magination by (i)ntrospection by (i)ntrigue equals (I)nviting (i)nteresting (C)haracters. Okay, I'll simplify.

Without imagination fiction would cease to exist. It's the foundation for all elements of a compelling story with interesting characters. With imagination, anything is possible! The writer's challenge is to make possibilities believable. (A topic for another post.) Once imagination is tapped into, it must be multiplied by introspection. How does what you've imagined apply to another person? Who will care about what you've imagined? Why will they care? What benefit is it to the reader to go to the place you've imagined and with the characters you've imagined? What emotions will they experience as a result of your imagination and introspection? Blending imagination with introspection creates a synergism of intrigue. Intrigue is essential to draw the reader in and not only capture but also keep their attention. The product of these three elements--imagination, introspection and intrigue--is an Invitation for interesting Characters. The formula works but you have to work it. It's up to the writer to accept the invitation and make it happen. Using this equation will result in characters that evolve, come alive, and are interesting enough to care about.

Here's an exerpt from a scene in The Stelladaur: Book One, Finding Tir Na Nog. Reilly is in his precalculus class, bored and daydreaming, as usual.

For a few minutes he zoned back in to what Ms. Lamar was saying. Something about coeffecients and plugging constants into the quadratic equation. Oh yeah, that was covered in the last chapter. Got it. No need for review there. When is she going to get on with the next chapter?

Math had always been easy for Reilly. He was fascinated that numbers were so precise, always anxious to learn something new about how they worked.

Like when Eilam showed Reilly how to take one times nine, plus two, to get 11. Then to make the one a 12, multiply it by nine, and add three to get 111, and so forth.

Reilly drew it out on the back of his test paper. Soon the final equation was clear in his mind: Take the number 123456789, multiply it by 9, add ten, and the answer is...

(Grab a calculator and draw it out yourself!)

He looked at the pyramid of numbers for a few minutes, remembering the exact moment Eilam had explained it to him. They were sitting on a dock at the kayak hut, feet dangling over the water, on a hot summer day. A tiny crab scurried up the piling near their feet.

"Some may think that little creature is useless," Eilam had said. "But even the very smallest of all creations is essential to our existence. Every single one adds to the whole." It was the way he emphasized one that caught Reilly's attention.

He had watched Eilam carve something beside them on the dock with his pocket knife. It had a similar pattern to the mathematical picture Reilly had just scribbled on his paper, but it fascinated him even more.

Reilly lifted his head now and stared blankly out the side window while he drew it out in his mind. Every number started with only ones. One times one equals one. Then he began again with 11 times 11 to get 121. He kept adding ones to both sides of the equation until multiplying nine ones by nine ones revealed...

(Get out your calculator and pen again!)

It was just as Eilam had told him. Perfect. No disputing its authenticity. It was a fact: "Everyone is vital to the whole. And everyone has a purpose and place in this world," Eilam had told him as he folded up his pocket knife.