Oh hi!
Yeah... I know. I'm supposed to post on Fridays. Blame the piskies in my computer. Or possibly the troll that lives under the blogger-bridge that kept eating my post. Now let us never speak of this again.
So.
Character building.
Never done it. Don't know how.
In fact, I am somewhat in awe of writers who know anything about their characters before they start in on a story. And more than a little jealous. Sounds like it might make things a whole lot easier.
Early on in my writing career (and waaay before it could justifiably be called same), I tried using all the cool tools to come up with my characters. I tried character fact-sheets. I tried interviewing characters. Writing letters to me from them. Charts. Geaneaologies. Background dossiers. Free-writing in "voice". Cutting pictures from magazines. Basing character-traits on friends...
These attempts at pre-creating character versimilitude will never see the light of day. I have fed them to the fire. They are buried deep in the earth. Committed to the vast endless silences of the little wastebasket icon on my computer desk-top.
I just can't do it. I can't pre-write characters.
Some of the time, on those lucky rare occasions, a character will appear to me fully formed, leaping from my brain and directly into the story like Athena from the forehead of Zeus (often with accompanying headache!). That happened with all of Bob's scenes in WONDROUS STRANGE. I didn't have to do a dang thing!
Those are the happy few.
The others? Well, mostly, all I can do is sit there and commit impolite acts the like of which my mother told me never to do. I eavesdrop. I listen in on conversations between total (to me, certainly, and sometimes to each other) strangers... and I transcribe what's being said. Oh - not for real, Mom. I'm not sitting on the subway stretching an ear, for crying out loud. (In fact, private conversations in public send me diving into my knapsack to retrieve my iPod so that I don't have to listen!)
No - what I mean is, when I'm writing a character, the only way I can get to know them is through what they tell me as the story progresses. And the most useful information always comes in the form of their conversations with the other characters (especially when they're not necessarily saying what they're thinking!).
For me, once a character starts to speak, then the rest of the information starts to fill itself in. I gather and glean and sift and write back and forth through the manuscript and tweak and alter and build personalities as I learn about them through what they say to others.
That's about it. It never happens pre-story for me. For me, plot and characters are inseperable and - as I'm discovering in the edit process right now on book 2 - when something in the plot isn't quite working, it's because I didn't get something quite right with a character. And that means, I have to go back and - metaphorically speaking - pull up a chair next to their table at the corner cafe, and listen in just a little more carefully to those private conversations!
It all feels very naughty. But it seems to work for me!
Showing posts with label Character Building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Character Building. Show all posts
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Images and Voices
I’ve been struggling to come up with what to write about on this topic all week. Not that I have anyone but myself to blame, because I think this topic was my idea! But now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve realized that I don’t really "build" my characters, at least, not consciously. When I start a story, I usually have the basic plot idea first. Then I think about how a person might react/act in that situation. But from there I always feel like the characters sort of build themselves.
A main character usually comes to me as an image. I’ve written before about how The September Sisters began only with the image of two girls fighting in a pool. For my second YA novel, The Life of Glass, (out from Harperteen in Winter 2010) I started the book with only the image of a girl riding her bike in a prom dress. This actually never ended up happening in the book (though there is a crucial bike riding scene at one point) but it told me a lot about the character, that she was the kind of person who was impulsive or impatient enough to do this.
Other times I hear a character’s voice. A line of dialogue pops into my head, and then I know exactly who the character is. In The September Sisters, Abigail’s next door neighbor looks after her for a while after her sister disappears. When I first heard her voice in my head, it was in broken English, with an accent. I heard her mispronouncing Abigail’s name, and then I realized that she was an elderly Hispanic lady. The same was true with Abigail’s father – I could hear the stern way he continually called her “Ab,” and then I knew exactly what kind of father he was.
How do I imagine and hear these things? How do I get from these small moments to a full-fleshed out character? I’m not exactly sure. In my head a book always starts like a puzzle, a thousand tiny little pieces that at first seem to make no sense. But I take the little pieces, the voices, the images, and I just start writing what I do know. As I write, it all, somewhat miraculously, starts to come together.
Sure, I learn a character’s quirks and nuances along the way, and when I revise I have to go back and change things that, after learning more about the character, don’t feel just right. But I never feel like a character is “built.” From that very first image or word, a character always just feels like a real person to me, and like any other relationship, as you get to know this person more and more, the little things, the things that make you love (or hate) someone eventually reveal themselves.
Yet, despite thinking of my characters as real people, immersing myself in their lives, even dreaming about them, what I love most about character building is the thing that separates it utterly from real life. With characters, I am completely in control of their destiny. I can manipulate them to do and say what I want, to find resolution in chaos, and hope in disaster. And then, 75,000 words or so and several revisions later, I get to say goodbye. And start all over again.
A main character usually comes to me as an image. I’ve written before about how The September Sisters began only with the image of two girls fighting in a pool. For my second YA novel, The Life of Glass, (out from Harperteen in Winter 2010) I started the book with only the image of a girl riding her bike in a prom dress. This actually never ended up happening in the book (though there is a crucial bike riding scene at one point) but it told me a lot about the character, that she was the kind of person who was impulsive or impatient enough to do this.
Other times I hear a character’s voice. A line of dialogue pops into my head, and then I know exactly who the character is. In The September Sisters, Abigail’s next door neighbor looks after her for a while after her sister disappears. When I first heard her voice in my head, it was in broken English, with an accent. I heard her mispronouncing Abigail’s name, and then I realized that she was an elderly Hispanic lady. The same was true with Abigail’s father – I could hear the stern way he continually called her “Ab,” and then I knew exactly what kind of father he was.
How do I imagine and hear these things? How do I get from these small moments to a full-fleshed out character? I’m not exactly sure. In my head a book always starts like a puzzle, a thousand tiny little pieces that at first seem to make no sense. But I take the little pieces, the voices, the images, and I just start writing what I do know. As I write, it all, somewhat miraculously, starts to come together.
Sure, I learn a character’s quirks and nuances along the way, and when I revise I have to go back and change things that, after learning more about the character, don’t feel just right. But I never feel like a character is “built.” From that very first image or word, a character always just feels like a real person to me, and like any other relationship, as you get to know this person more and more, the little things, the things that make you love (or hate) someone eventually reveal themselves.
Yet, despite thinking of my characters as real people, immersing myself in their lives, even dreaming about them, what I love most about character building is the thing that separates it utterly from real life. With characters, I am completely in control of their destiny. I can manipulate them to do and say what I want, to find resolution in chaos, and hope in disaster. And then, 75,000 words or so and several revisions later, I get to say goodbye. And start all over again.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
You WILL Talk To Me
Sitting down to write this blog post, I had an image in my head of backing one of my characters into a corner and forcing her to talk to me by any means necessary--threats, tears, gunpoint, whatever.
Because that's pretty much what it's like for me when I write a book.
See, my first drafts start off so...first draft-y. Characters aren't fully fleshed out and are one-dimensional at best. And often times, they do things that serve my plot well, but make no sense based on personality. Like, "Why would the girl who's afraid of the dark be wandering around a forest at midnight?"
But, as I've discussed before, I ignore those details and push through my first draft. It's in the revision stage that I give my characters layers--quirks, backgrounds, likes/dislikes and weird habits. Of course, I start with an overall emotional arc for each character, but it isn't until the story portion is complete that I can sit back and scrutinize the puzzle pieces.
When my first draft is done, I sit down and do a good old character inventory. Embarrassing moments, first kiss, favorite food, celebrity crush, etc. And I tweak it around and twist it until relatable, but also unexpected and funny. Like, for instance, one of my YA characters has a crush on...Phil Collins. Strange, no?
When I wrote the sequel to A Bump, I didn't have to worry about any of that. The characters were already fleshed out. I "knew" them. And THAT was the greatest joy--it was like sitting down with old friends and catching up on good times. I was so connected to all of them that I couldn't get the words down fast enough. And often, they were all talking in my head at once.
Which often lead to moments where I'd find my husband staring strangely at me and I'd say, "What?" And he'd tell me that I was just sort of whispering to myself about a character. (Maybe it's best that writing is a solitary profession, no?)
Because that's pretty much what it's like for me when I write a book.
See, my first drafts start off so...first draft-y. Characters aren't fully fleshed out and are one-dimensional at best. And often times, they do things that serve my plot well, but make no sense based on personality. Like, "Why would the girl who's afraid of the dark be wandering around a forest at midnight?"
But, as I've discussed before, I ignore those details and push through my first draft. It's in the revision stage that I give my characters layers--quirks, backgrounds, likes/dislikes and weird habits. Of course, I start with an overall emotional arc for each character, but it isn't until the story portion is complete that I can sit back and scrutinize the puzzle pieces.
When my first draft is done, I sit down and do a good old character inventory. Embarrassing moments, first kiss, favorite food, celebrity crush, etc. And I tweak it around and twist it until relatable, but also unexpected and funny. Like, for instance, one of my YA characters has a crush on...Phil Collins. Strange, no?
When I wrote the sequel to A Bump, I didn't have to worry about any of that. The characters were already fleshed out. I "knew" them. And THAT was the greatest joy--it was like sitting down with old friends and catching up on good times. I was so connected to all of them that I couldn't get the words down fast enough. And often, they were all talking in my head at once.
Which often lead to moments where I'd find my husband staring strangely at me and I'd say, "What?" And he'd tell me that I was just sort of whispering to myself about a character. (Maybe it's best that writing is a solitary profession, no?)
Monday, January 19, 2009
Creating Characters
Just like with any writing topic, everyone builds their characters differently--at least to some extent. When I first tried my hand at writing novels, I used these long and detailed characterization charts. They asked everything from name, to religion, to political beliefs, to how they dressed, what their favorite food was, and on and on and on. I quickly learned that these characterization charts, no matter how detailed, simply did not work for me.
For one, in these charts, all my heroes and heroines would appear to be basically the same person (except for, perhaps, hair color, eye color, etc.). But once I started writing....well, that character chart gave me very little information I actually used. This is because (as weird as it sounds), my characters don't really come to life for me until I begin delving into the story. Once I figured that out, I changed the way I build my characters in the pre-writing stage.
So, what do I do now? A very shortened version of the pages of charts I used to use. It's actually a very simple approach, and it goes something like this:
1. Name
2. Siblings and names, if any
3. Friends and names
4. Age
5. Employment
6. Physical characteristics
7. Basic journey of the character (this is where I try to, at the very least, understand the internal and external conflict my character is going to face...from where they begin, and where I think they'll end).
And that's all I have as far as a "chart" goes, and these are more so I know who the people are they're going to be dealing with, and because I'm a character driven writer--knowing their journey is critical for me. That doesn't mean I know how they're going to get from point A to point B, because often I don't, but at least I know WHAT the destination is, if not the exact path to get there.
My next step (and I've talked about this before), is to write myself a letter from the character. Now, I don't do this for every character in my book--but I definitely do it for my hero and for my heroine.
Again, this probably sounds a little odd, but I simply open a new Word document, type: Dear Tracy: and begin to free write. Sometimes I'll end up with pages and pages of information (that I never would have thought of while filling out a chart), and other times it will just be one or two pages. Regardless, I'll always discover at least one or two bits of information about my character that I didn't know before. Sometimes this will alter the journey, sometimes it will bring it into clearer focus, and usually--it will help me understand WHY this journey is important to this particular character.
And...um...that's it. The rest of what I'll learn about my characters will happen as I'm writing the book. However, while I'm writing, I give myself free reign to write the characters as they need to be written, even if they don't follow suit with what I planned. For me, though, that's part of the magic of creating stories. I love it when things I haven't planned (or even thought of) happen on the page in front of me.
My process for character building is much more about learning WHO they are in the process of telling their story, than it is about deciding who they are before I've even begun. This process works for me time and again, but there is one thing I'll often have to change once I'm writing--and that's their names. If a character isn't clicking for me, the first thing I do is change their name. Often, the new name (for reasons I don't understand) will click, and suddenly whatever issues I'd been having disappear completely.
Regardless, my end goal is to write about characters I care about and to tell their story in their way. That's the only way I know how to bring them to life.
For one, in these charts, all my heroes and heroines would appear to be basically the same person (except for, perhaps, hair color, eye color, etc.). But once I started writing....well, that character chart gave me very little information I actually used. This is because (as weird as it sounds), my characters don't really come to life for me until I begin delving into the story. Once I figured that out, I changed the way I build my characters in the pre-writing stage.
So, what do I do now? A very shortened version of the pages of charts I used to use. It's actually a very simple approach, and it goes something like this:
1. Name
2. Siblings and names, if any
3. Friends and names
4. Age
5. Employment
6. Physical characteristics
7. Basic journey of the character (this is where I try to, at the very least, understand the internal and external conflict my character is going to face...from where they begin, and where I think they'll end).
And that's all I have as far as a "chart" goes, and these are more so I know who the people are they're going to be dealing with, and because I'm a character driven writer--knowing their journey is critical for me. That doesn't mean I know how they're going to get from point A to point B, because often I don't, but at least I know WHAT the destination is, if not the exact path to get there.
My next step (and I've talked about this before), is to write myself a letter from the character. Now, I don't do this for every character in my book--but I definitely do it for my hero and for my heroine.
Again, this probably sounds a little odd, but I simply open a new Word document, type: Dear Tracy: and begin to free write. Sometimes I'll end up with pages and pages of information (that I never would have thought of while filling out a chart), and other times it will just be one or two pages. Regardless, I'll always discover at least one or two bits of information about my character that I didn't know before. Sometimes this will alter the journey, sometimes it will bring it into clearer focus, and usually--it will help me understand WHY this journey is important to this particular character.
And...um...that's it. The rest of what I'll learn about my characters will happen as I'm writing the book. However, while I'm writing, I give myself free reign to write the characters as they need to be written, even if they don't follow suit with what I planned. For me, though, that's part of the magic of creating stories. I love it when things I haven't planned (or even thought of) happen on the page in front of me.
My process for character building is much more about learning WHO they are in the process of telling their story, than it is about deciding who they are before I've even begun. This process works for me time and again, but there is one thing I'll often have to change once I'm writing--and that's their names. If a character isn't clicking for me, the first thing I do is change their name. Often, the new name (for reasons I don't understand) will click, and suddenly whatever issues I'd been having disappear completely.
Regardless, my end goal is to write about characters I care about and to tell their story in their way. That's the only way I know how to bring them to life.
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