Thursday, February 26, 2009
When the Fog Lifts
A thousand random thoughts travel through my mind at the speed of light. I tap the keys of my laptop, hoping to capture the one that inspires me. A scenario is waiting behind the next fog bank, a teasing potential for a new WIP. I see the shadow of a figure step toward me. It stalks me in the mist, whispering the snippets of their existence in my mind…
Characters are as real as you wish to make them. They want, they dream, and they disappoint. As writers we form a shell of existence on the page. We breathe emotion, physical features, and actions into the outer and inter shell of their being. The shell becomes a person with flaws, conflicts, and the desire to love and be loved. Sometimes our characters never expect what we have in store for them, and most of the time they fight us tooth and nail with their own agenda. In each character, male or female, we leave a little part of ourselves behind. We grow, we cry, and we conquer the world with them. And in the end we are better writers for having created them.
We can never dream too high, or work too hard to make a character more real. We give them lives that possibly parallel with our own, or take us on a path we may desire in another life. We make them catapult unforeseen circumstances, and emotional hurdles. We place someone in their path that converges on their world, and changes them forever. We take them through the darkness and back into the light. We give them our best, and hope others see them as we do.
The characters that I remember from favorite authors are memorable for a reason. They spoke the right dialogue, they made me laugh, or they were good even when they were bad. But most of all, they made me want to be a better writer. They made me want to put a pen to paper.
…Finally the fog lifts, and the perfect vision of a man stands before me. His thoughts evade my mind, translating his deepest secrets. He is muscular, dark, and sinfully handsome. He has the physical strike of a rattler, and the stealth of a ninja warrior. He’s a modern day rake, who thinks women are for one use only. He could use his physical abilities and business contacts to make a dire situation better, but he doesn’t see it that way. He lives by his own rules, but even they are about to change.
His name is Mitch Black, and he has a story to tell.
How do your characters present themselves? Do you leave a part of yourself with each of your characters? Who is your favorite literary character, and why?
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28 comments:
My characters just pop up in my mind. Sometimes I see them so clearly it's just scary. Jinan danced for a man she loved (Rothburn) when I met her. She told me she was sad, because she loved him, but could only dance for him one last time. Rosa came to me as an incredible prodigy to the piano, forced to take her love to new heights when she was in an accident that caused her blindness. Joceline was a survivor of the brutalities of the French Revolution.
I have a theme... I like to write women who fight for survival. lol! I think they all have some of my character traits. They might not be so real to me otherwise.
Favourite literary characters: Connie and Mellors, because they are real! They are believable, there is no holding back with those two, it is what it is, the good, the ugly, right/wrong. It just is.
Great blog Lisa! My characters, as well, just come to me. Suddenly they're there, in my head, and the only way to make them go away is to write down their story. And they definitely usually have their own agenda. My hero and I are currently embroiled in a battle of wills, to the point that I've actually started working on something else for a few days, until he comes around and does what I want *g* (why do I have a feeling that will be coming around to do what *he* wants?? *sigh*)
Tiffany,I love how your characters presented themselves to you. Each of your descriptions makes me want to hear their stories.
Hal, All of my heroes have had their own agenda. Even when I wrote fanfiction, Ranger often took me on his own path. I'm sure you'll work it out. You handle it the same as I do, leave them alone or work on another story. Sometimes i find doing it the characters way is the best way:)
Lis - usually doing it the character's way is what I end up doing. I'm just protesting right now *g* How sad is it that I'm battling a fictional character, and yet I know I'll lose? LOL. But sometimes you just gotta let them tell their own story, even if it's not the one you planned.
Hal, Be stubborn! It's your story too. If you have a vision, and an intricate plot, it pays to follow your agenda. Sometimes if I follow the character's heart I get the plot so far off course I lose my way. It's happened to me more than once.
Well hello Mr. Black.
Like others, my characters just show up. They come with names and a general attitude I'd say. They give me a very condensed version of their story, just enough to get me started. Not that I ever get started. But I usually take some notes to return to later.
I'm sure all my characters have pieces of me. My current heroine has some of my insecurities while her BFF, her total opposite, has my penchant for talking and being outgoing. Even my hero has bits of me. Can we say control freak? LOL!
I haven't had to leave any characters behind but now that you bring it up, I think that's going to be depressing.
Ter, My characters always have issues, just like me:) I hate leaving characters behind, I still have to write about Ranger because I miss him so much. They become such a part of us, it's like leaving an old friend. I even like my villians. LOL
Lisa, my characters approach out of the mist too. First, I hear their circumstances, goals, dreams, desires. It is only after I know who they are and what they face that I finally see their faces.
Tiffany, I like to write about women struggling to survive too. While historically speaking women needed men to build foundations for their families, it is the strong, vibrant, resourceful woman that fascinates me. How, in a violent, turbulent setting rife with male domination and segretory cultural mores did a woman explore her own desires, or act upon them?
This makes plotting historical novels so much fun!
My characters physical bodies show up on their own but it takes me a little longer to get to know them. Actually, it feels like it takes me about 1/4 of the book to feel like I know them.
I end up doing what they say as well. I think it's the easiest way.
I also think it's annoying when my characters say they're one way and act a different way.
Kathy, How I wish I had a historical voice. Historical romance is my first love. I admire those who have the voice, the plot possibilities are endless, and so much fun.
Marnee, Before it has taken me forever to form a character. Mitch is the first one who has ever presented himself in this fashion:)
My characters come to me like they're in need of a good defense lawyer. I feel like I'm a defense lawyer, like I'm creating the story that presents them in the best light of WHY they do the crap they do. I want the jury to like them. I want the jury to want to give them a HEA--so when I create one at the end, they aren't pissed that these flawed characters got off easy.
Admittedly SOME of my characters are easier to defend than others. Adam, who isn't deceitful and Lothario like Lucifer nor riddled with the reputation that Ben has, is a much easier prospect to defend. He's just a guy--a gloriously insensitive guy. Though he has sensitive moments. In fact, in this story, it's a lot harder to defend Eve in this story, because she's so damned stubborn and full of pride--and you wish she'd be the better person here. But she won't. And when she constantly harps to me about that KitchenAid, I just want to throw things at her.
I already heart Mitch Black.
Marn - When I first met Celi & Bryan, I didn't know nearly what I know about them now. I wonder if putting all this on hold and letting the characters live in my head might actually pay off when I really get back to writing.
I still "see" them, I think. But I feel like sometimes they tell me they're one way, but after I get to know them I realize that sometimes they tell me their surface persona and I end up figuring out what they're "really" like the further I go. Does that make sense?
And I heart Mitch Black too. That's so exciting Lis. And so exciting that you're back in the saddle, per se.
Marn - These two are definitely different than when I first met them. But I think that was more a change and learning in me. They were very one dimensional and both happy and smiled all the time. Very sarcastic but little underneath. Now they feel more real and have much more depth than when we first met. Thank goodness.
That's awesome Ter. They'll be all ready when you get them on paper.
My characters always snip and snap at me to make them tougher, prettier, taller... They visit me in dreams and if they catch my attention tight enough, they end up on paper.
Right now, I'm contemplating a phone man, with a curse on his head... MINE!
Great blog, Lisa. I'm just too tweaked to take full advantage of it.
I do know that one of my favorite characters from literature was Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's man-of-action. I adored Archie and named my beagle after him.
I completely forgot about the favorite character question. Gosh, that's a hard one. There's a heroine in Eloisa James' original Duchess series named Esme. She never had her own book, but her story flowed throughout the four. She's my favorite character.
If we're talking mainstream lit or classic lit, I'd have a hard time with that one. Jo from Little Women might be in the running.
I love pretty much all the characters that Nora creates.
Well, yeah. That's Nora... I always lean toward the mystery stuff, crew.
Yeah, even the secondaries. Eve Dallas' sidekick, the detective and the rock star are two of my favorites...
Sorry, I'm swamped and can't comment to everyone. I wish work wasn't necessary for survival.
I heart Mitch Black too! He had a humble beginning in a small cardboard box. He was placed on the steps of a rectory and a nun tripped over him in the early morning hours because it was pitch black and foggy. She couldn't call him pitch so she named him what rhymed first. Thus- Mitch Black was born:)
I've enjoyed all of your characer's presentations. Thanks for sharing.
Great blog, Lisa!
Mitch Black sounds like a great character.
My Drake is very demanding and very used to getting his own way. We're disagreeing on who his heroine is (the pig-headed stubborn fool) I know he'll be happy with her, he just can't see it, yet. However I am about to shake his world up. Hee-hee, I can't wait!
Favorite character, hmm, that is hard because there are so many, Cam from Sea Swept, Eve, Roarke, and the gang from the In Death series, Jemma and Elijah, Alex and Jordan from Something Wonderful...
Di
I don't read the In Death books, but I'm sure those characters are just as great.
There are two characters created by Dorothy Garlock that I've always loved. Kathleen and Johnny actually have two books. The first is when they initially fall in love and the second is after the WWII when their marriage falls apart and they fall back in love. They are part of a four book series set around the time just before the war and I'd recommend the entire set.
The first characters I ever created came to me fully formed, as did everyone else in that manuscript. I knew them all.
The characters in this new one are emerging slowly out of that fog. No one else has come forward fully formed yet either. They still exist in the ether which is unusual for me as a reader because I adore secondary characters. I always see the potential in them of future stories. Sigh.
All this doesn't give me a warm fuzzy about my writing but I do have to say that I don't think I am giving my writing enough time to fully ferment, if you will. I don't have huge amounts of time to write in one sitting and so I think I am holding back because I don't want to get into a groove only to have to stop and return to RL.
Just typing this has been a revelation to me. I think I just have to stop being a chicken *$#@.
Thanks for the great blog, my dear!
Santa, I love secondary characters as well. So many of Lisa Kleypas' secondary characers impressed me just as much as her heroines and heroes. It's such a challenge to write a great secondary story to weave into the main plot,but it's fun to figure out how they can support the main characters while making a great lasting impression.
II'm with you, it seems as soon as I maintain a decent pace, RL happens. I'm glad to hear my blog sparked a revelation. I was just rereading it, and thinking it really sucked:)
Lisa,
How terrific to read your blog. That connection with your characters is so vital. Mine seem so real I hear their voices in my head (and no, I'm not certifiable - yet!). Sometimes - not all the time - they're so real that I don't feel like I'm creating fiction at all. At those times I'm almost convinced they live in some parallel universe and all I'm doing is pulling down the wall that separates us so I can see what they're up to. Sigh. Wish it was like that all the time. Too often it's like pulling teeth.
Thanks for the thought-provoking blog!
Annie
Annie,
I'm honored that you stopped by. I agree, most of the time I find pulling information from a character on a character survey is as fun as a root canal. Mitch just appeared one night. He walked out of the mist with a swagger and an attitude. He's a hard nut on the outside but he had the need to share a few secrets. I'm just glad he picked me:)
Lisa, Isn't it terrific when a character just appears and then begins to let you inside them? Good luck with him.
Annie
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