Leftover Trauma

“For all of us there will be those irreconcilable injuries and humiliations that persist and infiltrate into adult existence. They may become the seeds for those monotonous repetitions of hurting others and getting hurt ourselves,...Or the leftover traumas can be incentives for innovation and change,...the opportunity to rewrite the scripts, introduce a few new characters, get rid of one or two, perhaps even change the ending, and free the lover and jester inside us all.”

Louise J. Kaplan

This quote is actually on parenting, but it applies equally well to writing.

The one constant draw of compelling fiction is always going to be the character. We as a reader have to connect with the main character emotionally. A character that we can relate to, even if we won’t make the same choices, differentiates a pedestrian story from a satisfying story we will read over and over again, so that we can triumph right along with the character.

The challenge of writers is to make our characters as interesting as possible. We do that by creating a fictional trauma, sometimes a childhood trauma like the death of a parent or sibling, or an early adult trauma, like a difficult breakup, a parent’s divorce, a shocking crime, to torture them. To give them a reason for the way they behave in the present. By doing so we explain why people (and our characters) do what they do. We motivate them.

Because, in reality, no one acts in a vacuum. Each experience we have, the choices we make while dealing with the experience and the final result based on those choices influence how we will behave the next time. And we still may not make the same choices.

Then factor in the character backstory, the leftover trauma. Every person is going to react to the same experience differently. And then, hopefully, even the same character response to a situation will change throughout the book as they grow. Because each time we have an experience, we are different.

As Louise Kaplan points out, leftover trauma can be an incentive. Sometimes authors make the mistake of having the character continue with the same destructive behavior, which experiencing as a reader is very unsatisfying. But if the character deals with their trauma, overcomes that injury or humiliation, they can free themselves to enjoy a happier outcome, a happier life.

As readers we long for that fictional resolution, that tidy seed of change in the character’s life, because change within ourselves doesn’t always neatly occur within a set of parameters like four hundred pages. Although some days it would be nice if life imitated fiction, wouldn’t it?


Lisa

making babies, making readers

This week’s guest is Pamela Groves, a youth services librarian for the Princeton Public Library in New Jersey. Also an essayist and novelist, Pamela shares her love of reading by fostering literacy in the youngest among us.

Want to meet some great characters? Come to infant or toddler storytime at your local public library! When last have you quacked like Duck or gobbled like Turkey or snickered gleefully as Itsy Bitsy gets washed down the spout again and again? Wouldn’t you have wanted a lamb just like Mary’s little one? Or a pocket-less bear named Corduroy?

If you’ve never attended a baby or toddler storytime, go, even if you have to steal a baby to get in. They are unique gatherings, sorted by age—newborns, infants, toddlers, preschool—accompanied by their caregivers, who come together weekly to listen to age-appropriate stories, sing songs, chant nursery rhymes, and play with puppets. The librarian knows not only the rhymes and songs, but also the importance of using words to promote mental development and the acquisition of language. He or she is conducting the storytime as a fun activity for all, while teaching and modeling critical family literacy skills.

The goal is to show parents and caregivers --often older brothers and sisters-- what they can do to help their children become aware of and comfortable with books and language. Often we think that children will learn literacy skills in school, but these skills develop long before children enter school.

Here’s how I see it: What does every writer want? What does every writer need? Readers, of course! As a Youth service librarian I am in the reader-making business. People make babies (I helped make two beauties, myself) and if the baby and family are lucky enough to have someone like me in their life from birth, they will benefit greatly because my job is to help get them ready to read. This is the philosophy that forms the foundation for a new undertaking in my home country – creating a storytime project in rural Jamaica.

When Mama or Papa can’t read (Jamaica has a high illiteracy rate) how do they help their child? Storytimes help to counteract intergenerational illiteracy, and offer a wonderful opportunity for partnership as all ages come together to experiment with words and language. It is easier to learn when you are actively involved; therefore “fun” is at the heart of family storytimes. And just like when one writes, a storytime shows rather than tells how much fun and joy there is in reading and rhyming.

On my last trip to Jamaica I did a family storytime for all ages in a cute little fishing village on the south coast. The Coast is made up of a series of small fishing villages with silky grey volcanic sand and fossilized rock. There, the wind (Jamaicans diminutively call it a “breeze”) is an almost constant companion; you either make it your friend or you’ll find yourself grumbling a lot. It’s only a part-timer resident though...which is good because it can start to feel like you’re being bounced, battered and dried out. I can still remember feeling sand behind my eyeballs. At my age one doesn’t welcome dryness easily, no matter where it appears.

Before leaving the U.S. I spent hours scouring Amazon and my library’s shelves to find characters that would appeal to rural Jamaican children in general and the children I would be reading to in particular. So, who traveled with me to Jamaica – risking confiscation because if you can believe it, the Jamaican government recently instated a tax on people bringing in books?? (I confess I didn’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth at Customs…)

I had to take at least one trickster tale: Anansi’s Party Time by Eric A. Kimmel: a hilarious story of wit and wisdom in both Anansi and Turtle. Big Friends by Margery Cuyler: Set in the wide expanse of Eastern Africa, two giants meet at their respective campsites and become great friends. Every household, with or without a child, should own I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont, Hush Little Baby, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, and Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani.


I love picture books that can be sung – singing engages everyone and being able to have a book open brings the words on a page, music and images together beautifully. Other titles were Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic, Dear Zoo, a clever pop-up by Rod Campbell, and Nanta’s Lion by Suse MacDonald, set in Africa where what the lion Nanta cannot find appears by the end of the book through clever diecuts. Aesop’s fable The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind was perfect for the windy village.

The books were a whopping success. I had everyone engaged in call and response, singing, answering questions and a lot of laughter. What the books had in common was their universality. They were darned good stories with universal themes and, most importantly, universal characters. The audience of about two dozen, (half adult, one elderly, a couple teens and one infant) most of whom had never left their village could still relate to Itsy Bitsy’s perseverance, or Angelina’s sadness at leaving home.

I invite you to sit in on storytime and meet Little Angelina who has moved to the Big Apple from Jamaica and misses her island home until she finds a way to make Manhattan island her island in the sun. VIDEO

Yes, I write --and love it-- but I must tell you that making readers is a bit like making babies: A helluva lot of fun and always rewarding.

Characters Alive on the Page

by Gigi

I have a trick I use to figure out if a character in a novel was a great one. When I think back on a scene, if it takes me a moment for me to remember whether I read about that character on the page of a book or if I saw them on the stage or the screen, that was a great character. If a character is drawn effectively, I can visualize them effortlessly, and that image sticks with me.

Now, I'm not talking about great books here. Though it's often the case that vivid characters end up in great books, I don't think they always go together. As a lover of mysteries, some of my favorite books involve the cleverest of plots that leave me wonderfully satisfied at the end—and yet I can't remember a single character.

(This happened to me recently when I picked up a second book by a Clayton Rawson, an ingenious mystery plotter from the '30s. I must have been halfway into the book before I realized one of the main characters was a recurring character from the first book.)

But if a book has both? Yeah, those are the books that will stick with me.

So if it's characters who come alive that we're looking to create, where does that magic come from? For me, I was involved in theater long before I ever imagined writing a novel. In high school, I wrote, directed, and acted in plays and short films with my school friends. (And yes, my first failed attempt at writing a novel involved a cast of characters from a theater production.)

With this theatrical introduction to storytelling, I learned to approach a story visually, looking to actors—with very few props and bare-bones sets—to engage the audience. Character was the most important tool we had.

When I started writing more seriously, I found I was in danger of letting my love of characters sabotage my plots. These characters of mine had lives of their own. This is a great problem to have—up to a point. It's the reason I tend to write in intense bursts, rather than a little bit each day. When I'm successfully getting into characters' heads, they end up taking over. At some point I have to remind them who's the one who's alive and doing the typing.

Martha Is Ready To Kick Character's Ass

I'd like to share a sample of my recent editorial rejection letters.

"...the characterization didn't ring true for me..."
"...I didn't understand [the character]..."
"...I never fully connected with the characters."

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ow. And take the knife out of my gut, please.

The editors are on target. Character is the last thing I think about. My process goes:

1. Themes/Concept
2. Plot Points
3. Paranormal World, Rules, and Setting
4. Major Character Arcs (in line with theme)
5. Character (the actual person filling the role)

To be honest...I just...don't....get..people. We're strange and crazy and bizarre. Justifying and motivating actions with psych 101 bullcrap, particularly by conveniencing my 1st-person present-tense narrator with a rich internal monologue, feels trite.

I don't have a tidy way to sum up this post. I haven't found a fix for my problem although I did complete a major agent-sanctioned revision which focused on character. I'll be attending summer writing conferences and stalking every session on emotional and feeling and other hand-holding-kumbaya topics.

I absolutely have to tackle and beat this shortcoming to the ground. If you know the secret to writing awesome characters, fill me in. I'm in need.


****
Note: We've just added another term to the Sophie Littlefield challenge, my friends. In addition to a bounty for the first person to find use of the word "gasp" in her novel, an additional bounty is being offered for "muse" used as a verb. Let's find it, people!

Character Study

I am a perpetual student--always learning. I take online classes. I read books on writing. I attend workshops. Using all that information--packed into the tiny crevasses of my brain--I love to analyze books. Umm, not the plot structure (makes my head hurt!) or sentence structure (because no, parsing sentences is not my forte). I don’t do grids or Hero’s Journey outlines. But I do examine why a novel does or doesn’t work for me.

And before I go further, I’m talking about fiction–primarily romance or mystery. I love the payoff. I want a happy ending where the girl gets the boy, the hero(ine) gets the villain, or even better both occur.

A novel’s strength (for me) comes down to character. In my opinion, character is the single most important element the writer should labor over. Because without a memorable character–someone who makes us root for them, bleed for them, and even condone behavior that goes against our moral code–the story, the plot, the setting, the theme becomes unimportant.

Great characters are the key to great fiction. A high-octane plot is nothing without credible, larger-than-life highly developed en-actors to make it meaningful. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass.

The best novels marry both intricate and deep character with a plot that will bring them the most heartache yet ultimately the most satisfaction. And when the character triumphs and vanquishes their enemy or overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to true love--the reader is rewarded richly.

True Character can only be expressed through choice in dilemma. How the person chooses to act under pressure is who he is-the greater the pressure, the truer and deeper the choice to character. Story by Robert McKee (this is a brilliant book–to be read over the course of months because there is so much material to absorb)

Human beings are flawed. I doubt there are many people out there who would say they are perfect. I absolutely doubt there is anyone who would not change one single thing about their personality (and if you find one, they are lying! :) )

Most people want to be a higher form of themselves (and no I’m not talking about being skinnier or richer). They want to be more honorable, more generous, more kind, more forgiving, more honest, more heroic...more something.

Through works of fiction we get to experience that higher form of ourselves, making choices, performing sacrifices which will have a profound impact, without the fear of actually making the wrong decision and screwing things up. The author has already worked out the perfect course of action to make that ending the best and most creative and most rewarding for the character and ultimately for us, the reader.

Lisa

Real and Imagined

L.G.C. Smith

My books almost always have characters based on real historical figures. Occasionally I lose track of what’s generally known about them as opposed to what I’ve made up to make a strong story.

I’ve spent a good portion of the last few years in the imaginary company of a handful of 7th century Anglo-Saxon kings. This started as a ‘what if?’ question that arose while I was in England, near Chester, indulging one of my favorite hobbies, the study of English place names. In the process, something else entirely caught my attention.

In the early 7th century, there had been a dramatic battle in which Æthelfrith of Bernicia, the pagan king of what would become Northumbria, faced off against a coalition of British and Anglo-Saxon kings. According to Bede, more than a thousand monks from the nearby monastery at Bangor surrounded the battlefield to pray for his opponents’ victory, Æthelfrith ordered his men to kill them all.

This was a vicious act on an extreme scale even in a brutal time. I kept wondering about the character of a man who would do such a thing. What if, I thought, Æthelfrith, or any of the dozens of warlord kings of his time somehow landed in our lives? Here. Now. What place is there for men like this? If they didn’t land in jail, the only places I could see them fitting in would be military contexts.

It was only a hop and a skip to making up stories about exactly that happening, which left me having to flesh out the character of men about whom very little is known. Because they were real, and because there’s not a great deal I can infer about them aside from the handful of facts that have survived the centuries, I had a lot of work to do.

First, I had to know more about 7th century Britain. A lot more. As I read – history, archaeology, landscape studies, mythology, Anglo-Saxon literature, Old English linguistics, hagiographies, manuscript studies, ecclesiastical development, and more – I kept Æthelfrith and his colleagues in mind. I built a sense of their world. A limited sense. Unquestionably. I can’t know a character without knowing their world in as much detail as I can muster.

This is more of a limitation than not. Many, if not most, writers come to know their characters in more universal human terms, I think. Emotion is key. Unfortunately, I come to emotion slowly. I seem unable to leave my training as an ethnographer behind me. I want to know the contexts in which my characters lived before I can fathom how they dealt with feelings.

Once I get a developing vision of that context in place, I still don’t have enough on my 7th century warrior kings for any of them to carry a novel. So I write in what I imagine to be their voices. I have them tell me about themselves: the things they've done; the things of which they are most proud, and most ashamed. At this point, I draw not so much on anything directly related to my historical characters as figuring out what a certain personality type might have been like in another time and place. This is where the fiction starts.

I am aware of two characters as I do this. One is shadowy but real. The other grows ever clearer in my mind, but is made-up. They bear the same name, but they aren’t the same. My Æthelfrith was broken by his victory near Chester when he slew so many unarmed monks, though he would not admit as much. Shortly thereafter he lost everything he had worked a lifetime to achieve, his children scattered in exile, a hated foe claiming his crown.

But was the real Æthelfrith a broken ruler at the end of his life? There’s no way to know. It’s possible he was a sociopathic butcher who had no finer feelings whatsoever. I have a few arguments I could make against that, but I will never know. I only hope that if I ever hie myself off to an early medieval conference where there are people who know about the real Æthelfrith and not my character, I will remember how I learned so many details about him – I made them up.

Channeling Her Inner Captain Kirk: Dana Fredsti on Character

Our guest today is Dana Fredsti, author of the Murder for Hire mysteries but perhaps more importantly, the lovely star of Princess Warrior...a truly schlocky viewing experience.

From Dana Fredsti:

When Juliet Blackwell asked me to write a post about character for Pens Fatales from the perspective as a writer and an actress, I pushed thoughts of impending deadlines to the back of the old brain pan and said 'yes.' Various writing related blogs talk a lot about creating characters: the pros and cons of pulling them from real life; how to make them realistic and/or interesting; what to name them; and so on and so forth. Lots of diverse advice and -- like a salad bar -- writers can pick and choose what works for them.

Actors have a lot of choices as well (and boy, will some actors talk your ear off about those choices if you give them half a chance) when developing a character. The choice of which way to turn can be a huge issue. I actually had an actor in my Murder for Hire troop argue with me when I told him he had to exit left. He objected, saying his character would stride forward, not turn. I pointed out the only off the stage and back to the dressing room in this particular venue was to the left.

We did not get along well. Ah well, such real life anecdotes, while annoying as hell at the time, gave me much grist for the writing mill when I wrote Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon.

Sometimes the choice is as simple as following orders; some directors are very particular about performance specifics. Writer/directors are even worse. But at least when you combine the two, you don’t feel like you’re being Pushmepullyou’d.

Some actors build elaborate back-stories for their characters, even when the part is a walk on with one or even no lines. You’d be amazed at how many background characters could tell you details ranging from their first kiss to what their favorite brand of ice-cream or underwear is. And again, if you ask them, they would be delighted to enlighten you.

I worked with one actor who played the villain in CAUSE OF DEATH, a low budget movie put out by the same people who produced PRINCESS WARRIOR (my claim to low budget, fashion terrorist fame. More on PW in a sec). D had a list of demands he gave us before production started, including (to name but a few): Several pairs of expensive leather gloves; certain designers for his wardrobe; and (my favorite) NO Rollo’s in the craft service area. Rollo’s, in case you’re not familiar with them, are little pieces of milk-chocolate enrobed soft caramel. He insisted these demands were necessary to help him fully immerse himself in his character. I wanted to immerse him in a large body of water and hold him down for a few minutes. He got what we gave him and I made sure to have a constant supply of Rollo’s on set. D ate most of them. Go figure. He managed to find his character. Actually D found more character than needed. Some truly glorious over-acting occurred.

For me, I never thought a lot about background, etc., when I was cast in a role. I mean, Eliza Doolittle is pretty much Eliza Doolittle. And Kate from Taming of the Shrew is a no-brainer. Although I chose (augh! I made choices and didn’t even realize it!) to make her sympathetic as opposed to an uber-bitch out to screw with patriarchy just because it was fun.

My best and favorite role was Amanda in Noel Coward’s Private Lives. In case you’re not familiar with the play, it focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in the same hotel. Realizing they still love each other and regretting having divorced, Elyot and Amanda abandon their mates and run off together to her apartment in Paris. Before long it becomes clear that while Elyot and Amanda cannot live without each other, nor can they live with each other. They argue violently and try to outwit each other, just as they had done during their stormy marriage. During the course of the play, Amanda breaks a record of Elyot’s head.

The actor playing Elyot happened to be my ex-boyfriend. We’d broken up right after we were cast in the roles. When I went into rehearsals, I was still in love with him. He brought his new girlfriend (who he moved into his apartment the day I left) to all the performances. By the end of the play, I was over him. In between, I thoroughly enjoyed breaking records over his head.

Finding the character was amazingly simple in this case and it is honestly the best performance I’ve given in my life.

Then there’s PRINCESS WARRIOR. Juliet has seen it. I know she’s snickering while reading this and she is right to do so. It is a terrible movie, known for having the longest and dullest wet T-shirt contest in cinema history. I used the experience in a book (not finished) about low budget Hollywood, and include here an excerpt that is very close to my real life experience. I’ve changed the names of the director/producer to protect the guilty.

"So you're here to read for our villainess, Daggerette. Let me tell you a little bit about the story so you'll have some context for the scene. By the way, are you comfortable with the sides? Do you need more time?"

The only correct answers to those questions were respectively 'yes' and 'no', so that's what I said. Besides, it was the truth. My stage fright had subsided and the butterflies in my stomach had regressed into nice calm cocoons. I was ready to channel my inner Captain Kirk.

"Great! Okay, so Curette and Ovule are sisters, princesses on a planet in a galaxy somewhere far, far away." He grinned, pausing, so I gave a 'hah hah, aren't you clever' laugh in response. "Their mother, the queen, is dying and passes on the royal Seal of Power to Ovule even though Curette is the older sister 'cause Daggerette's evil."

Of course she is, I thought. She's brunette.

"So Curette tries to kill Ovule, who escapes to present day earth in a teleporter. She transports into a strip bar and meets our hero, Darren. He thinks she's crazy, but falls in love with her anyway and helps her hide when Curette and two of her evil minions follow in the teleporter. So it's basically a classic tale about good and evil, very black and white, no shades of gray. Any questions?"

My only question was how he gave that entire rundown without taking a breath, but it didn't seem relevant so I shook my head.

"Great! Don't worry if you make a mistake, you can read it more than once if you want. It's a short bit, so the main thing is to have fun with it. I see Curette as an old fashioned bad guy, black and white, she's bad and she loves being bad! So have fun and be bad! Don't be afraid to think outside the box."

Okay, so this called for evil Captain Kirk, possibly Turnabout Intruder, 'I'm really a woman' Captain Kirk. I could do that.

"Great! Okay, whenever you're ready."

I took a deep breath, thought "I'm captain of the Enterprise!" and dove right in.

"Have you ever seen what a white hot spoon does when inserted into a human mouth?" I asked, enunciating and rolling the words out with relish. "It sort of...cleaves to the roof of the mouth and the tongue." Pause for evil – yet subtle chuckle. If I had a mustache I would have twirled it.

"Let me make myself very clear, sister." I stared at both James and Manny and narrowed my eyes. "And if you don't give me the Seal of Power, sister, your precious boyfriend will be something short when it comes to the more… pleasures of life." Pause. "No? Very well." Dramatic pause with evil smile. "Bulemia, hand me the spoon!"

Dana kicking some Uvula butt as Curette, Princess Warrior (in her earth clothes)

The end result? I gave great white hot spoon. And I got the part. My performance is somewhere between a female Tim Curry a la Rocky Horror Picture Show and generic villainess from hell. My motivation? Mom always loved Ovule better. If you’d like to read more about the making of Princess Warrior, go here (www.danafredsti.com/Skeleton_wore_fishnets.pdf) If you want to watch it with MST3K type commentary, come on over to my place! Just bring a bottle (or three) of wine ‘cause I can only stand to watch it while tipsy.

I’ve done a few projects where I wrote or co-wrote the scripts. Murder for Hire is a good example, as is a horror/sci-fi film called PALE DREAMER. We cast it, made a trailer and got a lot of interest in the project, but the film never did get produced, more’s the pity. Although the part of Jeanette was not originally written for me, I knew I wanted to play it even while we were writing it. Strong, ornery women are the most fun to play and I was cast opposite Ken Foree (if you’re a horror geek, you’ll recognize his name as the lead in George Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD). Also cast were Josef Pilato (another Romero favorite) and Brinke Stevens (former Marine Biologist turned Scream Queen). I was in heaven. Yes, I am a horror geek. Anyway, the trailer (co-directed by Brian Thomas – also co-writer – and Jeff Varga – also the producer) is linked here for your viewing pleasure, http://movierich.com/Squeezed/pd_Custom.mp4 .

I could blather on about character, acting and writing for hours, so I’d better stop here. Besides, if I give away all my stories, there’s no point in anyone reading my books. I do tend to draw on real life quite a bit. Anyway, thank you, ladies of Pens Fatales, for having me as your guest!

Note from Juliet Blackwell-- check out the Pale Dreamer trailer. Classic!

Odd Ducks

--Adrienne Miller

Write what you know.

I hate that adage. Cause the things I write about I have never experienced. I have never waltzed at a ball. I have never worn a corset. The closest I have ever been to Scotland is the local Highland Games at the fairgrounds--and no, I won’t eat the haggis.

What I do have is access to a fantastic library system, a high speed connection to Google and a bucket load of imagination. I’ve always thought that was enough.

Turns out, I thought wrong.

This weekend I listened to two authors I admire speak at my local RWA chapter. One question they asked stuck in my head.

What special expertise do you bring to your work?

Well, crap, I thought. I don’t. I drive a Toyota Avalon to work everyday; I don’t ride in phaeton through Hyde Park. I don’t have any expertise on the little details of my characters daily lives. Lots of resources, yes. Real expertise, no.

But as I was driving home, obsessing over my shortcomings as a writer, it hit me. I may not know off the top of my head what kind of material my heroine’s nightgown is made of, but I do know her. We have a connection, her and I.

You see, I don’t write regular heroines--or heroes either, now that I think about it. Mine are not the graceful, slender beauties of society. Nope, I’ve got a smart-mouthed pickpocket, and an unsophisticated but wickedly clever lady’s companion. There is one very rich heiress who keeps poking around my head, but even she insists on wearing pants.

I write about odd ducks, because I am one. That’s what I know. That’s my area of expertise. I know what it’s like to be a little different than everyone else. I know how it feels not to neatly fit in either column A or B.

This is what I bring to my characters. They aren’t weird for weird’s sake. They just are who they are. And since I throw them down in the middle of England’s Regency period, with all its social rules and expectations, I usually don’t have to search very hard for conflict.

So in a way I do write what I know. But I still hate that saying.

Characters Behaving Badly

--by Juliet Blackwell

For the past week, my characters have been behaving badly.

Here's the scenario: I'm writing along, following (more or less) the outline that I was contractually obliged to turn in to my editor months ago --long before I had a clue what the book was actually going to be about-- and then some character pops up and goes an entirely different way than originally intended, veering off the outline and careening into brand new, uncontrolled territory.

What the hell?

I'm a reasonably intelligent person. I realize only too well that these characters -- in fact, this whole fictional world-- is a product of my mind, and my mind only. So how on earth can a character decide to disobey my demands... act and say things that are NOT part of my script? This makes no logical sense.

I used to be a social worker, so I jump up and consult the DSM-III-R (which, if you're in the field of psychology, gives you an idea of how long ago I trained -- I think they're on the DSM-X by now). This is the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic Statistical Manual, which is supposed to help in the diagnosis of disorders.

*Frantic flipping through pages...*

Hearing voices in my head...yada yada yada...Yup. I must have a multiple personality disorder. But don't we all? According to a great literary name, Mel Brooks:

Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.

So maybe all fiction writers are just schizophrenic, living with multiple characters within us. This idea frightens me because I write murder mysteries. I hang out with people who write about murderers, assassins, and serial killers...these people enjoy nothing so much as talking about gruesome, inventive ways to kill someone. Does these mean they're just waiting for the right moment to let their inner Hannibal Lecter out for a spin? Should I become a romance writer instead? After all, I'd rather be romanced than...ya know...killed and eaten.

Maybe I'm becoming a romance writer already, whether I like it or not. Because the character that I said was behaving badly, the one who inspired this post? The one in a perpetually bad mood, who smokes, wears motorcycle boots, a black leather jacket, and a scowl? He just hit on my protagonist, right out of the blue.

He was supposed to be a bit character with a simple walk-on role, and now this.

The real problem is... my protagonist kissed him right back. I cannot keep that scamp under control.

Dating Your Characters

by Rachael Herron

I like my characters. When my characters talk, pull out a chair and watch the fireworks. Sometimes they get the best of me, and leap off the page and run around and have their own little party under my desk, and it's damn hard to round them all up and herd them back into my computer.

(Plot? Suspense? And the dirtiest of all words: Conflict? Yeah, I'm way more comfortable with characters. More on that dilemma another day.)

Of course, my characters don't start off as real, and I think one of the best things I've learned in recent years is not to try to force anything on them. The longer I write a character, the more real they become, without me trying to make them Be anything or Act Certain Ways because they should (they hate that).

It's kind of like dating. On page one, you go on a blind date with your character.

Let's call this blind-date/new character Anna. (See? I just spent less than a second naming her. That's another thing I don't get hung up on. I name them, and if they tell me their real name later, that's a perfect time to sit back and enjoy the magic of Find and Replace. Last names are really fun: I use Oakland city streets for all my main character's last names: MacArthur, Harrison, Bancroft.) Anna doesn't have a last name, though. She's just Anna. Or maybe Anna Pensfatales (pronounced pen-fet-ahl--I know you were wondering). I like that name.

So I take Anna Pensfatales out for a spin. First page = first date. We know nothing about each other. I'm horrified to learn she doesn't eat cheese, and she thinks I'm crazy for having four cats (well, she's right. So I've learned she's smart).

By the second chapter I've learned that she's a little bit snippy first thing in the morning if she doesn't inject caffeine straight into her veins. In the third chapter, I put her in a lace negligee and she gets so annoyed that it takes me the next four chapters to figure out that there's no way in hell she'd ever get into a negligee of her own volition, and she's still ticked and that's why she's being such a donkey.

By the end of the book, though, I know her. She's mine. I get to go back and fix all the times I screwed up, changing her sentences to lines she'd actually utter, changing her actions to things she'd actually attempt and carry out. And by now, she likes me, too, and she's willing to work with me. A little more, anyway.

(Now, crazily, I'm a bit fond of this Anna and may give he a little walk-on part in the novel I'm editing now. See? She suckered me!)

Yep. Characters are just people, and I am very like Kenneth on 30 Rock who stated, "There's only two things I love in this world: everyone and television." Amen, Kenneth, amen.

Topics Coming Soon

05.31.09 Writer

06.01.09 First Lines

06.15.09 Characters

06.29.09 Summer

07.13.09 Creativity

07.27.09 Movies

08.10.09 Food

08.24.09 Deleted Scenes