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New Writing Partner Needs a Name

14 Oct

Hallo! I would introduce myself but, I have no name.

Hallo. How are you called?

What name are you called?

I recently came to rest on the desk of  Rabbit Hare’s Tales. My last acquaintance was a Sage in the great city-state of Alusia. How I came to reside in this writer’s space is still a mystery to me. The one usually sitting in the chair apparently acquired my services to assist in creating a masterpiece of fantasy fiction. Ha! Talk about a fantasy.

Because his brain is as idled as his body appears to be, he has yet to provide an adequate name for me. Being that his wits are limited, I offered up two suggestions, Bob and Prince. He stated that the former was already taken by a spirit who consults a wizard out of Chicago and the latter was taken by a musician of some sort. The musician apparently can’t make his mind if he likes the name or not.

SO, I ask for assistance from the cosmos internet to provide a suitable name that I might perform my duties and respond to something other than Skullboy. Please leave your suggestions in the comments area provided below and I will demand that my new master fairly compensate the one who provides the most suitable name with accolades and verbal gratuities.

Alas, I beg you please do not tarry as he grows restless and may start calling me poor Yorik.

 
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Posted by on October 14, 2013 in Musings and Odd Thoughts

 

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What’s in Character – Experience

07 Apr

In previous What’s in Character posts, we have been creating a character full of interest and realism. We have discussed core personalities, physical appearances, and external influences. Five more layers to add and our creation will come to life.

The next layer is pretty straight forward but no less important. What age is the character? Sure the story line may dictate certain ages for your main characters. However, you should still consider the ramifications of the character being older or younger. Could the “Mentor” in your story be a sixteen year old computer prodigy instead of a seventy year old. How would that affect the way the character reacts? Try different ages for each of your characters and see how the dynamics of the story changes.

Another internal trait that can completely change a character is self-esteem. Variations in self-esteem can affect different core personalities in a variety of ways. A leader with poor self-esteem may look to his advisers to make critical decisions. A self-absorbed engineer may ignore the advice of the architect and take shortcuts when building a skyscraper, just to come in on time and under budget. He could care less that the building is unsafe. Self-esteem issues are very high on the list of reasons people seek counselling. Why does the character see themselves the way they do?

That brings us to major events that have affected the character. Most of us can look back over our lives and point to few events that changed our lives. Our lives were changed not only by the events themselves, but by the way we reacted to the events. Sometimes these events are global and affect thousands of people. Natural disasters, war, and plague are a few that come to mind. Other times they are personal and may seem insignificant to an outsider. For example, a family member dies or is buried on a holiday or a parent ridicules a child in front of his friends. The event doesn’t have to be negative. Setting a state record in a sporting event, receiving the acceptance letter to a highly respected school, or winning the lottery could all be life altering events. Now take into account that core personality. Each personality type may react differently to the same event.

Closely related to major events are the passions that each person has. it may be writing, or running, or chess, or programming computers, or politics, or working with statistics. What ever it is, a character should have one or more things that they are passionate about. These are the things the character does when they are not working for a living. They may be related to the story line or they may be used as  a divergence to slow down the pace of a story. Either way, they make the character deeper. the reader can relate better to someone if they know what the character loves to do.

Okay. You are almost there. You should have a dozen or so pages, at least, of notes about your character. by now you should know the character well enough that you could sit down and have an interview with a reporter as your character and never miss a question. So…

Time to open an internet browser or your file cabinet and locate a “Character Questionnaire”. There are hundreds of them available. I’m sure you’ve seem them and you may have already used them. That’s fine. However, even if you used one before, you now have a fleshed out character that can actually answer the questions in a meaningful way. You have a background and experiences to relate to that will help you answer the questions. Take your time here. These questionnaires can provide a wealth of detail that you can use to draw the reader into your story and make them love/hate your characters.

There you are. If you have followed along and added all of the layers we have discussed, you have a fully fleshed out character that is ready to be thrown to the wolves of your story conflict. You will know how the character will react, most of the time, to most of the situations where you may place them. Why is he hedging you may ask? That’s because, no matter how well you develop a character outside of the story plot, some characters find a way to do what they want even though the writer doesn’t want them to. If this happens, my advice is to go with it. The character may know better than you.

Those of you who have been creating a character using this technique, I would love to hear from you on how it worked out, or not.

See the previous What’s in Character posts at: Core Personality, Physical, Natural Environment

 
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Posted by on April 7, 2013 in What's in Character

 

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What’s In Character?

08 Feb

Every story has at least one character. The character can be almost anything. It could be a person, a spider, a tree, a rock, a dragon, a storm, etc. What ever the character is, it has physical and emotional features. It has a point of view, perhaps a history, some kind of future. Most likely, it has a personality, a temperament  even feelings. A story without a character is not a story.

Characters are depicted in different ways by various writers. Some go into lavish detail about how characters look physically while others use virtually no physical description at all. These latter writers rely on the reader to create a mental image of their own based on the character’s actions and dialogue. Even though the physical description never makes it onto the page, I would bet that the writer knows what the character looks like and how they dress. Interesting characters have detailed backgrounds. It’s the character background that I am interested in exploring.

Most of my stories start with a character. My first writings were, in fact, character sketches for role-playing game participants. I enjoy character creation and have approached it from many different angles. Sometimes I start with a physical description, sometimes a profession, sometimes a core personality profile, and sometimes a history. Each one works and very well-rounded layered characters can be created, regardless of where you start. The key thing is, always build more into the character than you will actually use in the story. Sometimes, your characters will go someplace or have to deal with an issue that you may not have thought about when you started writing. If you have a detailed character background, you can easily determine how your character should respond.

Recently, have I tried to write without having a fully fleshed out character to start with. I am finding myself having to re-read previous sections to remind myself what the character said or did. This is time-consuming, so I have started taking notes as I write. I hope the characters turn out okay. we shall see.

My intention is to offer a series of posts devoted to character creation. During the series, I will tear apart the main character from several flash fiction pieces and my short story, “Good Night’s Sleep”.  I will show you how Yursi was developed. I actually created her twice, using two different methods. Each gave slightly different results, as it should be.

I look at character creation like creating a painting. The artist starts with a blank canvas and begins by drawing a pencil sketch, the a base layer of paint is applied. Then, the picture begins to take shape as the artist adds layer upon layer of paint to the canvas. Each layer uses the layer beneath and adds detail to painting until together, all of the layers make up the final image.

I have seen characterization addressed many times in blog format. Usually, it is a brief discussion talking about character tags and traits we use to describe characters within the story. I have posts covering those areas as well. I hope this series will be a deeper dive into the background material where those tags and traits originate.

If you are in the initial stages of a story or have a story with a character that seems flat, I will give you suggestions that may help you bring your characters to life. Along the way, if your character has a major problem area that you would like to discuss, I would be happy to do so. :-).

 
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Posted by on February 8, 2013 in What's in Character

 

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First Drafts

14 Jan

Those of you who follow my blog have seen several posts entitled, The Actress and the Warlock parts I, II, III. It is an experiment that I started after a writing exercise during a writer’s group meeting. For those who are just viewing this blog for the first time, let me give you a little background. I took the character and setting from the writing exercise and am trying to write a complete story using a series of flashes. So far, each flash has run fifteen or thirty minutes. Once the timer goes off, I finish my last thought and go back over the piece to clean up spelling and obvious grammar issues so I don’t look like a complete idiot when I post it. They are VERY rough pieces.

I’m still not sure where the characters are going to take me and that’s half the fun. But, to help keep some continuity, I went back to the beginning and am taking notes on what I have already written. Three things jumped out at me as I re-read the first drafts.

One, I need to add more sensory interaction, including character tags and traits. This was not really surprising to me. I am trying to write as fast as I can (which is not all that fast) in a limited amount of time. So, the result is the bare bones plot with very little description or back story. I like to take my time and look through character and setting notes to add these details. Giving the reader key sensory details makes the characters and setting come alive.

The second thing that I realized is that I will need to add considerably more tension during the re-write. This did surprise me a little. Maybe it’s because, I see the story in my head and the tension is there. However, because I am writing fast, the tension does not make it to the keyboard as fast as my mind has laid it out.

Lastly, writing in first person POV is different from what I’m used to. This is my first extended experience writing in first person. It’s fun in that I am the protagonist with all of his traits and abilities. However, I have to be careful handling the other characters since I no longer know what they are thinking. I can only respond to their words,  actions and what I already know about them.

I need to hold off starting any re-writing until I finish the first draft. I do need to create some back story on a couple of the characters. They came into being outside my usual method so I have to do some character building based on what I’ve written so far.

So far this has been fun and educational. I originally thought this would be a short story, but it seems like it will go much longer. I will just keep writing the flashes and see where it takes me. I hope you are enjoying this project and I look forward to hearing any feedback you would like to share.

 
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Posted by on January 14, 2013 in Thoughts on Writing

 

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And this too shall pass…

20 Mar

Some of you may have noticed that my novel progress bar has remained stationary for  some time. Progress has been made. However, the word count has remained relatively static. Progress was made with characterization. I now know who my main character is and what makes him tick, at levels he doesn’t even know exist. Also, #1 antagonist is ready to enter the fray at a similar level of understanding. This information has given me the tools to move forward with the story. Time well spent, I say.

Reason number two for static word count comes in the form of a first chapter rewrite. A few weeks ago, I submitted my draft first chapter to my writing group, TC Fantasy Guild. As usual the comments were helpful and I made a strategic decision to rewrite chapter one so I have a strong beginning to work from. I made the recommended changes and though it still needs some work, I feel comfortable where it is at.

 Now, “If the good Lord is willing and the creek don’t rise”, I will finish up chapter three by the end of the month. After that, I will need to get busy. I would like to attend a writer’s retreat on Lake Superior in September. But I will need considerably more content than I have now before I register. I’ll keep you posted.

It’s time to write. I will give you the back cover summary in a future post.

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Character Traits

13 Mar

Last week I provided some commentary on the use of character descriptive tags. I promised that I would follow that up with one regarding character traits. So, let’s clear up the question that I know has kept you awake every night since my last post, “What is the difference between a tag and a trait?”

The correct answer is: It depends on who you ask. But, since this is my post you will get my opinion. Tags are primarily, descriptors of a character’s appearance. These are words you might use to describe a picture of your character to someone else. Hair color or style, eye color of shape, general body type, height, weight, clothing worn, tattoos, scars, jewelry, tools carried, weapons, are all examples of tags.

Traits on the other hand, are those descriptors that make your two-dimensional character jump off the page. In most cases they are action or sensory oriented. Traits help the reader create a motion picture that affects all five of their senses.

Physical:

How does the character move? Does she limp? Does she have grace? Is she a good dancer? Does she routinely trip over her own feet? 

What is the character’s mannerisms, gestures, and expressions? Two of my favorite bloggers have already addressed this, so here are the links to their posts. Carlie Macullen  wrote a wonderful post relating to this group of descriptors. Also, Nicolette Jinks wrote an interesting post on body language. They are certainly must read material.

How does the character sound, smell, feel, and taste? What does his voice sound like? Does she wear perfume or does she reek of garlic? Is his handshake cold and clammy? Does her throat taste like the apricot scrub she used this morning? The more senses you can include, the more real the character will become.

Psychological:

This where you should go back to the volumes of character information you generated at the airport, (See previous post) and dig through your character personality, family history, back story, life crises, etc. What you want to do is find quirks, oddities, phobias, likes, and dislikes that will give your character that extra spark of interest and make them REAL! If you did your home work you should have a boatload to choose from. Decide on a couple to use that help clearly define your character. Clearly, this is where you insert flaws into your character.

Some notable examples include: Indiana Jones was afraid of snakes. Dr. Robert Langdon had claustrophobia from being stuck in a well as a child. Felix Unger was a neat freak. Ocean Eleven’s, Rusty Ryan was constantly eating something.

Don’t be afraid you will hurt your character by making them unusual. Trust me here, we are all unusual. Even identical twins are not truly identical. Otherwise, my trip to the airport would yield a blank notebook.

Like tags, traits can be overused. If a character has too many flaws, the become unbelievable and the reader will get bored. On the flip side, if you don’t use them, your characters will come off flat and uninteresting. This results in the reader getting bored. We all know what happens when a reader gets bored, the book closes. Just like chocolate and alcohol, use tags and traits in moderation.

One more thing, while I’m on the subject, Do not forget your supporting cast. Unless your main characters are interacting with crash-test dummys, add a few tags to your minor characters. It would not be the first time that the ogre”s spanish accented, sword-wielding side-kick cat, became the star of his own story. (I love that movie.)

So, go forth and flaw your characters. Make them real. And please, let me know how it works for you.

 
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Posted by on March 13, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Character Tags

08 Mar

The last week or so has been busy to say the least. Sunny southern California looses something when the only time you are outside is to drive from the hotel to the office and back with just enough time to grab a quick dinner and collapse into unconsciousness. The upside of the business trip was the seven and a half hours of plane travel.

Yes, if you follow this blog and you were at the Lindberg Terminal, you know that I was the strange man watching you and taking notes on the way you dress and your behavior. There are some real interesting people out there. 🙂  Now back to the flights.

Having spent two hours collecting “data”, the task before me was to create two in-depth characters. Core personality types soon were expanded to include: family histories, tragic situations, love languages, physical looks, costumes, education, etc. All told there is twenty to thirty pages of notes for each character. This page count will go up dramatically as the writing unfolds. However, it is a good start.

Somewhere over Nebraska, at 36,000 feet, it struck me. From all of this material, what six or seven words or phrases would I use as tags for the characters.  Those descriptive words that help the reader identify who the players are. How do we as writers decide what, of the volumes of physical description, psychological detail, back story, and personal background will we use to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind? Tags are the physical descriptors. I will discuss Traits in a later post.

Physically descriptive tags can create a cliche’. For example: a witch with a wart on her nose, a pointed hat, a broomstick, poison apple, and a black cat familiar. How many stories have you read where the villan has beady eyes and wears black clothes? Or, how about the villan’s bodyguard is a hulking brut with the IQ of a slug and hands like meat cleavers? What turns my stomach is the hero with blond hair, blue eyes, strong chin, six-pack abs.

However, tags can also give the character…well…character. Doesn’t the villan become more disturbing when he looks like the boy next door, wears designer clothes, and is a great cook to boot? The fact that dinner consists of the census taker’s liver and farver beans just adds more flavor to the story. 🙂 Why can’t the hero have a wicked scar across her face, a crippled leg and dress in thrift store cast offs?. The hero in one detective show I watched as a child was short, always wore a rumpled trench coat, smoked a cigar, and came across as extremely forgetful. Yet, he always figured out who the murderer was and usually got a confession.

Try to stay away from the cliché’s unless you have a very good reason. To me, cliché’s are boring. I have the attention span of a gnat when I read. If I get bored during the entrance of the main characters, the chances of my finishing the book are slim at best,  

So, use the volumes of character details you have worked so hard on and pick out the most unusual descriptors you have. If you don’t have anything that is unique, go back to the airport and sit there until you do. It should take you all of about two minutes.

Now that you have six or seven interesting  tags, use them. Not just the first time you introduce the character, but often throughout your story. I am not saying to use all six every time the character shows up. but, one or two inserted within the action, help your reader create a picture in their head. When you are finished reading this post, go pick up a book where you really liked the characters and find where the main character is introduced. Look for the tags the author uses. Then flip back a chapter or two and see what tags the author is using. Are they the same tags? Go back a few more chapters and see if the tags are still being used. I will bet you a magic acorn that the author is using the same tags throughout the story. The repetition reinforces the character’s image.

Take a look at your current project and see if adding a few tags will help bring color to your story. Let me know if it works for you.

In an upcoming post, I’ll talk about traits which are the psychological and action descriptors that really bring your character to life.

 
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Posted by on March 8, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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