Favorite Enemies
- A Little Sisterly Advice
- Cheeky Reads
- DRD aka Donna's Blog
- Gunner Marnee's Blog
- J.K. Coi: Living with Immortals
- Just Janga
- Killer Fiction
- Kimberly Killion
- Maggie Robinson
- Maureen O. Betita
- Megan Kelly
- Pam Clare
- Renee Lynn Scott
- Romance Bandits
- Romance Dish
- Scapegoat's Blogspot
- Smartass Romance
- Terri Osburn Writes Romance
- Tessa Dare
- Vauxhall Vixens
Blog Archive
Powered by Blogger.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Characters on Character
Stuck on Repeat: Ten Years (song) – Rev Theory (band) – Alt. Rock (genre) – Light It Up (album)
As a writer I’ve spent countless hours contemplating characteristics for heroes/heroines, secondary characters, and villains. It’s like a mental chess game with yourself. I capture one piece; then I sacrifice another. I make a move for the future, then I distract you with another. Each turn brings me closer to the goal of checkmate. In this case each piece is strategically placed to create who I see in my mind and how I want that to translate on paper into my ever-evolving final drafted character.
Yet, no written character remains unchanged. From the first time they step out onto that page, your character is constantly changing shape. You see this growth the most in a series where the main character is changing to adapt to new situations. You see this transition much faster in a single title as your main characters only have 400 pages to change and mold into the person they need to be to have the HEA (happily ever after)/HFN (happy for now-preferred by me). Character ARCs are complex in nature, yet one of the easiest things to write because we have a chance to draw on personal experiences. Combined with the chess game, your character becomes a bigger than life person on page and draws the reader into the story.
Songs bring a lot of personality into my writing. I tend to get stuck on certain songs when I’m writing (repeat was a wonderful invention, IMHO). A thought. A memory. A phrase. Anything can stick in your mind and influence the foundation of your character. Music tends to keep my creative flow running. If I’m having a hard time, I take a song and I write something to it with my character- take the emotion from one thing and transfer it into another. Heartbreak, disappointment, anxiety, joy, your characteristic chemistry is what helps your character deal with those emotions. Kiki’s characteristics make it difficult for me to express emotion through her point-of-view simply because she often feels every step she takes is one that can be exploited. Yet, for me, writing with music helps me step over that struggle and keep pushing forward with her characterization.
Certain characteristics run rampant in our writing as much as your voice sticks out like a beacon to your readers. Even reading our blogs every week, you don’t need to look at the bottom of the page to know who wrote this. While it may be routine for me to blog on Wednesdays (now alternating with the fabulous DRD), if I moved to Fridays, I’m pretty sure just by the tone of sentence structure, you’d know it was me writing it. Just as you’d know it was Chanceroo, Bo’sun, Hells, DRD, Hal, Marn… so on and so forth. It’s the characterization of our personalities, of our voices that show you who we are.
I spent a few years writing fan fiction, we all know this since I’m not afraid to really talk about it no matter how taboo it is or not. Learning how to write characters through someone else’s characterization of the same character helped me learn an appreciation for what it takes to make a multi-dimensional character come alive on the page. It gave me a challenge to stretch that character into something the character wasn’t but was still recognizable to a reader.
Characterization is everywhere. I see it every day, through patients, through family members, through brief interactions with people walking down the street. That’s why people watching is good for the writers brain. It gives your brain a chance to interact with the outside world while allowing it to feed on new characteristics to bring to your writing. While observing is good practice (especially if you have a good memory bank), drawing inspiration for characters is a must to create that unique personality guaranteed to sell your story.
Where do you draw your inspiration to sketch up new characters? What author inspires you to think up your own crazy cast of characters? What characteristics do you find yourself writing most often?
As a writer I’ve spent countless hours contemplating characteristics for heroes/heroines, secondary characters, and villains. It’s like a mental chess game with yourself. I capture one piece; then I sacrifice another. I make a move for the future, then I distract you with another. Each turn brings me closer to the goal of checkmate. In this case each piece is strategically placed to create who I see in my mind and how I want that to translate on paper into my ever-evolving final drafted character.
Yet, no written character remains unchanged. From the first time they step out onto that page, your character is constantly changing shape. You see this growth the most in a series where the main character is changing to adapt to new situations. You see this transition much faster in a single title as your main characters only have 400 pages to change and mold into the person they need to be to have the HEA (happily ever after)/HFN (happy for now-preferred by me). Character ARCs are complex in nature, yet one of the easiest things to write because we have a chance to draw on personal experiences. Combined with the chess game, your character becomes a bigger than life person on page and draws the reader into the story.
Songs bring a lot of personality into my writing. I tend to get stuck on certain songs when I’m writing (repeat was a wonderful invention, IMHO). A thought. A memory. A phrase. Anything can stick in your mind and influence the foundation of your character. Music tends to keep my creative flow running. If I’m having a hard time, I take a song and I write something to it with my character- take the emotion from one thing and transfer it into another. Heartbreak, disappointment, anxiety, joy, your characteristic chemistry is what helps your character deal with those emotions. Kiki’s characteristics make it difficult for me to express emotion through her point-of-view simply because she often feels every step she takes is one that can be exploited. Yet, for me, writing with music helps me step over that struggle and keep pushing forward with her characterization.
Certain characteristics run rampant in our writing as much as your voice sticks out like a beacon to your readers. Even reading our blogs every week, you don’t need to look at the bottom of the page to know who wrote this. While it may be routine for me to blog on Wednesdays (now alternating with the fabulous DRD), if I moved to Fridays, I’m pretty sure just by the tone of sentence structure, you’d know it was me writing it. Just as you’d know it was Chanceroo, Bo’sun, Hells, DRD, Hal, Marn… so on and so forth. It’s the characterization of our personalities, of our voices that show you who we are.
I spent a few years writing fan fiction, we all know this since I’m not afraid to really talk about it no matter how taboo it is or not. Learning how to write characters through someone else’s characterization of the same character helped me learn an appreciation for what it takes to make a multi-dimensional character come alive on the page. It gave me a challenge to stretch that character into something the character wasn’t but was still recognizable to a reader.
Characterization is everywhere. I see it every day, through patients, through family members, through brief interactions with people walking down the street. That’s why people watching is good for the writers brain. It gives your brain a chance to interact with the outside world while allowing it to feed on new characteristics to bring to your writing. While observing is good practice (especially if you have a good memory bank), drawing inspiration for characters is a must to create that unique personality guaranteed to sell your story.
Where do you draw your inspiration to sketch up new characters? What author inspires you to think up your own crazy cast of characters? What characteristics do you find yourself writing most often?
Labels:
2010,
Quartermaster's Queries (Sin),
Sin
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Books by the Crew
49 comments:
Well, I have multiple personalities in my head that come out at night and play with everything I've read, seen or experienced in any way during the day, week, month, year, decade, etc. before... So... I get all my characters from me.
Well, most of them.
I think.
For all I know, I've tapped into the multiverse and all these folks really exist out there, somewhere... I'm just writing what I see!
Most often? I write characters that never really heal...they get better, they backstep, they get even better, they find another pit to fall into - oh! it was there all along! Of course!
So...I write characters that are constantly growing and healing. In need of healing? And usually burdened with a heavy load of denial. (Something I think we all write...funny how that works!) And they most often get the help they need from somewhere outside, before it's inside.
And no, I'm not being dirty.
Ya filthy minded pirates!
LOL -- another great post, that gets me thinking. Which is why I love to stop by and see what the pirates have to say before I dive into my revisions.
My characters seem to spring forth from the primordial mass of stuff I've collected in my brain over the years. They tend to be funny, although slightly neurotic, and they're definitely wary of commitment. (No, they don't sound like ANYBODY I know. Why are you asking me that? LOL)
I don't usually listen to music while I'm writing, because it can be distracting for me. But I do like the idea of using it to explore a character. It does tap into emotion in a completely different way, so I may use that technique in the future.
And thanks for the shoutout. I'm loving my new call sign! :)
P.S. The LOL was for Chance's "ya filthy minded pirates" comment, not the post. Yeesh. Would somebody take the keyboard away from me until I've downed at least TWO cups of extra-strength caffeine?
Don't worry DRD, most of my posts are LOL worthy as you see my sad pathetic attempts to connect everything to writing and pretend like I do know something about the subject. LOL
I'm currently downing Starbucks as fast as I can, so I can relate. Obviously.
And I am a filthy minded pirate. I own it.
Chanceroo, I have multiples too that come out when I'm writing. I think it gives writing characters some flavor.
Denial is my favorite subject. Live in it constantly. Write about it often. Denial is a good place to be. It's always sunny and the grass is always green and doesn't make my allergies go haywire.
DRD, heaven help you babe if I get you thinking in the morning before caffeine. lol
We've had debates on the ship about listening to music while writing (everyone knows I'm constantly listening to music. Helps me drown everything out.) but I can see how it can be a distraction for some people. Different brains operate in different ways. I've always needed music to focus. Most of the time I don't even notice it in the background. Especially if I know the song well. I think my next blog day I'm going to talk about themes, exploration and self perception. I think that has a lot to do with characters and character growth as well as our growth as writers.
Sin -- you are gonna help me cut my coffee consumption in HALF. I hope it doesn't send Starbie's into bankruptcy though. LOL
I generally listen to music while driving, and that's when I usually tune into the character exploration like you're talking about. Probably because my brain is on autopilot anyway, so it wants to think about my characters, and what they're doing, rather than paying attention to the yayhoos on the road. LOL
I think if me, you and chanceroo cut our SB's consumption in half, they might be in real serious trouble. lol
I'm one of those people too that as soon as I hit a familiar road, I'm on auto pilot. Dangerous, I know, but my brain automatically thinks about characters and what they are doing and what my next move is scene wise. Some of my favorite conversations with my characters happen in the car on my way somewhere. Windows down, sunshine beating in and the music blasting.
Sin, great topic. I have no idea where I get my characters. I do know that I just go with it until I stall out. Then I stop and think, "Wait a minute.... What exactly makes them act these ways?"
This explains why I pause in writing my story at about the 25K mark, then again at about the 60K mark. Usually those are major turning points for my characters. I find that something happens that makes them think about themselves, some turning point that makes them do some mental digging. Which means I then have to do the mental digging for them.
As for what I write a lot? I have no idea. Learning to accept oneself. That's kind of overarching. Learning to leave the past in the past. Not sure what else right now. Still thinking.
p.s. - I hit the 25% point today, and I *think* I'm back on a roll. At least I'm making progress! Woo hoo!
I love music while I write, though it has to be just the right song for that scene. Once I find the right song, I stick in on repeat and try to just keep writing. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much.
I'm not sure where mine come from, but I don't think about it too much. I'd hate for them to go away :)
The character I keep writing over and over again is the one who is trying to find that balance between independence and vulnerability. Independent enough to not need another person, yet vulnerable enough to allow another person into their life. And accepting both sides of themselves. (which probably says more about me than I want it to . . . . shhh!)
Woohoo Hal! Go go go!!
I'll actually have a few scenes for you on Friday!
Whoot!! :) I hope I have another chapter for you by then too. I need to get cracking again. My mind is a sieve.
:(
Where do you draw your inspiration to sketch up new characters?
From random phone calls at night. My noisy, sex-crazed neighbors. My insane family. My drama-drama-drama friends (who hate drama, ironically). Cats.
What author inspires you to think up your own crazy cast of characters?
Janet Evanovich: before #13.
Jennifer Crusie
Christie Craig
J.K. Rowling
What characteristics do you find yourself writing most often?
I write a lot of guys with caramel or light-colored hair. WEIRD, because I don't like blonds.
My heroes SMIRK all the time.
Christie Craig does an awesome job with crazy characters!
Oh, and I write neurotic, low self-esteem heroines who either like pirates or Harry Potter. A lot. And occasionally I'll give her type-A friends who are always correcting her behavior.
it's a good thing these character traits we seem to keep writing in no way reflect us, isn't it?
oh...wait
LOL! What's that we always say about therapy?
It's best done with plenty of rum.
:) Oh right right....
Lessee...I haven't gotten any *new* characters in a long time and the ones I have sitting around in the "Pending MS Waiting Room" came out of nowhere. Almost all of them in that moment between awake and asleep.
All my stories seem to have someone who is either repressed or live life on the edges, never willing to step on the dance floor. And there's always the element of "I've been hurt before so no one gets close again!"
Would love to say these are all new and interesting aspects of humanity I enjoy exploring. Unfortunately, I'm well acquainted with these experiences. :)
Everyone else has a self-help book out there, they just have the nerve to call it "non-fiction" and say they're helping others when in fact they wouldn't be that knowledgeable if they weren't so screwed up themselves!
My self-help novels occur like a moral or a fable, long-windedly for 400 pages, and have a happy ending. Mine is much more interesting to read. It also costs less and is less pretentious, however slightly. (I think that must be my favorite English major word. I've used it twice already this morning--once to the boss. "Why do you guys use this language in your papers? It's pretentious and we all know what you're really saying. You're really saying 'If you want people to pay attention, you need to be interesting'--so why did you say it this way? It was boring--and therefore IRONIC."
I'm sorry you guys. I really want to keep up but apparently there is this thing the DR wants me to do. Work. I dunno what that is but he's pretty adamant that I do it today.
I think we all have the same thoughts. There is a little part of our own personalities that go into our characters. Slivers of our lives, situations we've been placed into, conversations where we wished we had the last word that get slightly tweaked so that in case it were to be read, they might think it sounds familiar but won't be able to put their finger on it. That's what makes being a writer so much fun. Do overs.
Damn work getting in the way of our fun.
I'm grading midterms. Boo.
Boo *two thumbs down*
Marn, I agree. I think there are turning points in each story you tell when you have to sit back and rethink on your character's growth and think about why they tick that way. At those points, I tend to over think and since I over think, I have a tendency to put paragraph after paragraph of inner thoughts into the story that don't really belong. I'm trying to grow as a writer, my character is trying to grow as a person, but the reader doesn't need every little detail of that. lol
Hal! YAY for progess!
For music playing while writing you're absolutely right. It has to be the right song with the right tempo and right mood or it doesn't work. I can't stand the Pussycat Dolls but I sat down at the computer one night and wrote a short story to Buttons. Haven't listened to the song since.
Every sex scene I've ever written has a different song behind it. Not so much for the emotional support or the right mood as the right beat to fit the scene.
Hells, I feel like the drama and cats comment was directed at me. LMFAO
Not that I blame you.
There is something about a sandy blonde haired hero that makes a girl's heart atwitter. Take Hardy Cates. Wasn't he blonde and blue eyed?
Marnee Jo Says:
LOL! What’s that we always say about therapy?
Bo'sun Says:
It’s best done with plenty of rum.
We need this on a shirt.
Bo'sun, sometimes the easiest and hardest things to write about are things that are all too familiar to us as people.
Why is work getting in the way of all our fun? Waaah. Are we supposed to be grownups or something?
Oh. Never mind.
*runs back to revisions*
You know my job sucks when I would SOOOOO much rather be doing revisions! LOL!
I'm not sure I have a 'rather be doing XXXX than revisions.'
Revisions seem to be about the bottom on my pit of despair...
A few days ago, I read this awesome opening to chapter five of Fantasy in Death, by JD Robb, aka Nora... A conversation about the staying power of the penis...
And now I wonder...what does this say about Nora?
(Get thee into a bookstore, find the book, crack it open at Chapter Five and read this...best penis discussion...EVER!)
She's having a lot of fun in this one, in the midst of all the death and dying stuff. I imagine Nora in a good mood, chuckling as this one skips along...
If books are therapy, I'd say she's doing pretty good!
I can't listen to anything while writing. Even the kids playing in the parking lot outside my open window make me crazy. If it's working and flowing, sometimes I can tune stuff out. And I can write in a cafe or something like that. Minor distractions.
But right in my ear? No way.
I do hear songs and know they could be part of the soundtrack of my story. Like, after it's finished, they would play in the background for certain scenes.
I've been having to work too. And I have a meeting around 2. More party stuff. *sigh*
You were neither the cats or the drama.
I'll send you the cat conversations. (Though the smell-the-cat-belly convo with Matty the other day was hilarious. Actually he was pretty funny yesterday too--I guess he's in a good mood? Or is he just faking again?)
Bo'sun, by the time this party open in December, you'll be so ready for the drinking part of things...
I write in bed, so I'm not listening to anything either. Except the sex-crazed neighbors, which I try not to pay attention to. I get more pages writing in bed, so it's probably the silence that helps. No TV to wish was on.
Matty has been in a good mood. His boyfriend, however, is not. He came home last night and said, "Sylas is acting like a girl."
I sat on the couch and snickered, "And why is your boyfriend acting like a girl? Says he's got a headache?"
More snickering on my part. I'm most clever, of course.
Sylas SOUNDS like a girl.
Chance - You are so right. LOL! Found out last week our sales rep QUIT so I have to start with a new guy. And I don't know what he knows and he already pissed me off. So he's coming to my office to meet me and, I'm guessing, smooth over the fact he wasn't up front about the rep change.
So at least I have berating and intimidating someone to look forward to this afternoon.
Who would name their kid Sylas? LOL!
Besides the Marners, of course.
God, I hated that book. What a complete waste of reading time!
Wait, wait, I'm thinking of Adam Bede--also a waste of reading time.
The Rise and Fall of Silas Lapham was the one where I was tempted to turn in my professor for needless cruelty to students.
B''sun... You've never met him? Hmmmm...maybe the right kind of sparks will fly!
I am such a romantic!
I went to a frekishly religious high school, and the only books we were required to read (ever) were Silas Marner and The Scarlet Letter.
Hal - Me too! Though we read lots of other stuff too. Catholic schools and nuns are more adventurous than one would think.
Chance - Would have been nice but I'm pretty sure I don't have the equipment this guy is looking for. Just my luck.
Oh. Ooops.
Post a Comment