Lions and Tigers and Lemurs, Oh My!

My book's release date is nearly a year away, yet I'm working away now on the rewrite suggestions sent by my editor. Like I said earlier, it's not as daunting as I once thought. After all, I know the characters already. The beginning, middle and end already exist. Instead of reinventing the wheel, so to speak, I'm just adding more air and spraying them down with a healthy coating of Armorall to make them shine.

Not that this doesn't get tiring. It does. So the other day I took off with the kids--all are on Easter break from school--to the zoo. (Btw, quips about going to see our relatives were lost on my creation-minded kids...) Saw coatis, alpacas, meerkats and lemurs. Also took a gander at capybaras, asian otters and the two-toed sloth. Man, whatever happened to pigs, bunnies and the occasional crooked neck giraffe? Actually? They were there too.

This, of course, got me thinking about characterization and how there's so much more than, well, pigs, bunnies and giraffes. If we writers were to simply take a walk in the zoo, study the wild things God created, and apply just some of the breadth of creativity on exhibit to our own characters, well, we'd blow away the competition now wouldn't we?