Wow. I guess it's a personal thing then; my characters are crap if I try to push them out that fast.

50k is word-count, yes?

Oh no, no - the first draft is crap. That's the point :) You're making the framework for your story in the first draft. Once that's done, you go back and re-write to pretty things up and flesh out ideas and things like that. Letting yourself write badly is a really difficult thing to learn, and getting into the habit of re-writing is something I've been struggling with (due to various reasons), but I can't dispute the jump in the quality of my writing ever since I started doing it that way.

And yes, 50k is word count :)

Hmm. Maybe I should try it sometime, then. Not with a novel, but maybe with a bunch of short-stories that I started brainstorming and then abandoned because I couldn't get them to work at the time. They could all use a re-write.

Characters are usually what keep my interest in a work, so if my characters suck, I can't stand to work on the story. It's turned me off a lot of half-baked ideas.

I can get that. Sometimes I've found that I think I know my characters, but after I do the rough draft they have changed and shown different sides of themselves (which is awesome). I can then work that into the earlier bits of the story so they are portrayed accurately throughout :) If you don't like your characters, though, it's difficult for you as the author to get involved enough to want to write about their lives.

Yes, I love it when characters change without telling you! Then not even you know what's going to happen. ^_^

- I have mixed feelings on characters changing without telling them too, on the one had, it can make for interesting character development, but on the other hand it can totally mess with your plot. It's the main reason that I stopped writing my big 4-year nano project, because the characters all ran away on me and the plot didn't make sense anymore. I should go back to it but it needs some serious work.

What I really would like, is someone to read it (or at least part 1 and 2) to tell me if it is something at all interesting that is worth continuing and finishing.

Ah, that is a draw-back, indeed. You have to get creative to keep them around, especially if the plot is emotionally-based. It's easier with an action-based plot; that way you can drop an event in the mix to change their course.

How long is your project? I wouldn't mind reading some of it, although it'll have to take a back-burner to my college courses.

- Yeah, I more or less lost the original plot, and need to go back and fix it.

Well, I did it over 4 years of nano, so the whole thing is about 200k, but it started to fall apart in the 3rd part, so if it was just the first two parts it's about 100k, the second part needs some serious trimming down (I got a bit carried away by a friend's prompt to add a traveling circus, but it made a pretty great plot device and introduced some fun characters)

A traveling circus?! What's this story about, if a traveling circus can just drop by in the middle? :D

- When can a traveling circus NOT drop by in the middle?? lol. What the story is about is kinda hard to explain, it's a fantasy world were people learn their 'destiny' as a part of their 'coming of age' and the main character learns that she doesn't have a destiny. The story starts out as her kind of trying to figure out what she is going to do with her life without any direction, but it kind of quickly strays from that plot.

A circus is a pretty amazing thing to suddenly drop on your characters XD

- It actually worked out pretty well for my story, I needed a way to get 4 16y/o girls safely from point A to point B across a country, and traveling circus seemed to fit the bill (although... 'safely' is relative)

Haha! Yes, join the caravan. :)

So it's a story about seizing one's own destiny? It does seem the type to suffer without a plot, though the antics and off-kilter feel would definitely help to sustain interest.

- That's the thing though... it's not really about seizing one's own destiny. Eventually she actually learns her destiny, but the way I had originally planned for that to happen got totally scrapped cus my characters got screwed up.

So there is a mechanism by which people realize discretely their destiny. For some reason, the protagonist's destiny did not manifest in the usual way, or at the usual time. This suggests a theme of… openness to opportunity?

I know you've got two things in your head, the story you meant to write and the story you have now. So this observation may not fit with either; I'm just saying back what I perceive to have heard.

"Safely", yes XD While learning how to do some crazy circus tricks?

- No, there's not really a way to discreetly learn what your destiny is, it has to be 'read' by a soul reader, the protagonist's destiny has actually been blocked by powerful magic, She was supposed to be told by another character, and that particular character is the one I'm having the most difficult with. He just doesn't want to cooperate. At all.

- nah, they don't do tricks in the circus, but some of the patrons of the circus are a little questionable. The circus 'after hours' turns into a casino of sorts :P (although I might 'edit' that bit out)

Oh interesting ^^ That's a different take! If the character is being difficult, is there a way to either tweak him or replace him entirely?

Discrete, as in individual and distinct, not discreet, as in subtle.

I second what Kibu said. Another option is to combine characters or to bring a new character in. If it isn't central to who the uncooperative character is, a different, more cooperative character could absorb the role of soul-reader. Or, a totally new minor character soul-reader could have significant ties to the uncooperative character, who is resistant to introducing said soul-reader to protagonist? …just throwing stuff out here.