Laurie's character has made a complete and total 180 degree flip from the Laurie that I had originally envisioned. When I was first making my outlines and writing character notes for the story, I pictured Laurie as a sort of Troy 2.0- Brilliant, Machiavellian, prone to constant fits of rage, very testosteroney, a bit over-sexed (Troy was quite the character when he was Laurie's age). I can only postulate as to why the new Laurie exists (But don't get me wrong, I love the new Laurie so much more!) and my best guess is this- When I was writing Chapter 1, it seemed only natural that Enoch should be a foil to Laurie. In order for that to happen, Laurie would have to be a totally different sort of guy. In fact, I don't think that my old Laurie would have been able to stand Enoch for more than 5 minutes at a time. When Troy was 15, he had zero friends his age. That's right- Zero. It's hard to imagine now because he grew-up to be the sort of guy that everyone likes. Troy's metamorphosis is almost exclusively Siren's doing.
But getting back to Laurie, his character further gelled for me when he saved Cully. I had not originally planned for him to fall for Cully at all (though the rescue was part of the original notes). That was a fluke that somehow just seemed natural when I was writing the chapter. Letting these characters do whatever they're going to do (regardless of my intentions) is part of the fun of writing the story for me. And I hope it makes the story a more interesting read as well.
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