Part of my process when I start revising…or really “re-imagining,” is that I get a bunch of epiphanies. Mostly, answers to the question: What if?
and more important:
what is it you are trying to say?
It can be a little bit frustrating. (perhaps more to my friends than for myself). Themes often come to me first. Sometimes, (and maybe in this case), too many. There is A LOT I want to say when I first envision a character.
I always proceed the same way. Play. I also talk it out. I need to look ahead and see where these ideas might take me, but not so much that I stifle the intuitive part of my brain. (I am really lucky to have friends who don’t mind.)
In general, I find that the things that come to me first don’t always go together. Sometimes, they lead me to dead ends. But the breadcrumbs are always worth following. In the end, all these epiphanies help me figure out where it is that I need to go.