Learning from Alaire

This week, despite how I've been MIA from a while now, I feel like I've been learning a lot from Alaire.  I guess it sounds silly that a writer can learn from her own fictional characters.  However, since I've begun editing --and I've been doing this for a least two weeks now--it seems Alaire and I have grown closer to another.  Being only in the beginning chapters, I find myself wishing I was already at the chapter where he comes into the story.

Now, I know at this point, it's a question of what could I could possibly learn from him.  What kind of experience could we possibly be sharing together?  Honestly, I think a big part of it is the relationship he has with Celestria.  While their friendship is anything but ordinary, it also is what ultimately made Alaire and Celestria both more human than they originally would have been to begin with.  Many writers have been talking about making your novel "real" for agents to recognize.  It may be significant feelings, emotions, and relationships like this that actually do separate the real books from the fake.

The last couple of nights, I've actually been thinking of more dialog between Celestria and Alaire.  Of course, the problem here is that I don't know at this point where it would fit in.  All the same, it may be what actually keeps me on my feet --so to speak--with this book.

Woman: I've seen the way you look at Alaire.  You treat him differently from everyone else... you look at him and laugh with him in a different manner than anyone else.
Celestria *looks over at Alaire*: I think it's because he knows who I am.  He seems to understand events in my life more than I can.
Woman: Does he know how you feel?
Celestria *laughs*: How I feel?  Alaire and I are not in love, despite what you may think.  He is my friend --my closest friend--and if I were to tell him all of my feelings, I think he'd be too careful with what he says to me.  I don't want him to change.

What I've really learned a lot from Alaire this week is that what you say does not always bring you close to someone.  Sometimes it's what you think and never say but hint at and express.... It is that which brings one closer to a person they share so little in common with.
Sometimes I wonder if He watches over people like us, or simply shakes His head and looks away.

"There's a lot that I want." He said. He smirked as he said it like he knew he was pushing my patience.