Years ago I wrote for the fun of writing. I worked third shift and left chapters hanging around the plant. Anonymously. It brought an expected lesson. People started leaving notes regarding the characters, did they work, have spouses, or red hair? There were also comments on conflicting information in different chapters. I wanted people to buy into my story, but errors were keeping it two-dimensional. I worked harder at keeping on track with the nuances of character’s personalities and the landscape of my story.
Eventually I wanted to know the character like a friend, or if it’s the bad guy, well enough to protect myself from them. Consider Carol, a 5’4” case of walking nerves with crinkly hair and green eyes. She likes her coffee black, gin, and sequins in her glass frames. She doesn’t date blond guys because of a jerk when she was sixteen. Good start. What else? Is she from the south, work as a defense lawyer, have a gutter mouth?
While I’m still toying with the premise of a piece, I’m listing characters. I get specific and might type out a 1000 word
descriptive to keep on file. I need to know these people enough so I’m not guessing how they’ll react. They still develop quirks along the way (and I keep track of those), but I can put the character somewhere confidently until I’m ready for them to move. Their makeup depends on their roots, education, how they interpret money, sex, danger. Even if I don’t know what they are going to say next, I know where their attitude comes from. This helps keep the voice of the piece the same throughout.
You’re walking through the bus terminal, you see the perfect descriptive for your piece. But you don’t know that person and can’t follow them around. Let yourself picture him in a scene, and with a little patience that personality will develop. It may lead to plucking a character from this book and dumping them into another, changing sex, or even evicting them away. If someone enters the field who has the potential of becoming a major player later, set them up. Character’s can go from being a friend to a bad guy on the strength of the bio. Get started before Chapter 1. It might change as you go, but when you’re ripping through a scene, you won’t have to stop and finesse someone.
Words are like babies, they are yours. Sometimes it’s hard to edit out or make changes. When you’re almost done you don’t want to go back and make all the changes because Paul needs to be fifty-four instead of twenty-four. Or worse then that, kill him off.
For me, it’s scary to get invested in someone who exists on paper via a #2 pencil, but I want to know these people closely. Surprise is good, being left hanging isn’t. I want readers to experience someone I have grown in words, and to welcome them with open arms. Or maybe run away as fast as they can.
Hi DonnaRae,
Loved your post!!!! Nice to meet you!!!!
Sherry,
Thanks for stopping by today. I enjoyed DonnaRae’s perspective – didn’t you?
Thank you, this is my first. I was nervous, but Debra made it easy.
Like this article. Thanks.
Pam,
Glad you enjoyed the article. It takes things from a little different viewpoint…
Thank you, book is out today, sleepless night!
Great article, DonnaRae! Sounds like the work you do on character studies pays off!
Nancy,
I agree. It definitely appears that the details DonnaRae elicits during her character studies may only appear as a word or two on a page, but define the character for the entire book or story. Debra
Look at this, someone I know!! Woowoo. Thanks for checking in on me.
Wow, I love how you left chapters lying around at your work. Such a fun idea, and it’s lovely that people responded.
Isn’t it wild that people responded. Do you think some didn’t recognize themselves?
I did it over a period of two and a half years, and nobody knew it was me. Especially the boss who was the lead in the gopher story! I’d hear them gossiping about who was who.
I enjoyed your post, and I love imagining you leaving draft chapters anonymously in random spots for fellow workers to find.
Glad you stopped by…. random drops to me sounds hilarious. Can you imagine some faces when they read the draft chapters?
It was salve after I’d had a bad day with some particularly nasty employee! You don’t have to be malicious to get your smacks in.
Fun and interesting post, Donna Rae. It’s all about the characters, isn’t it? Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Appreciate you stopping by….agree, it is all about the characters…
Thank you Debra for having me, and thank you for being so gracious when I was clumsy.
The only thing clumsy was my cutting your head off on the home page (still working on that with the web people). The post was great and it got good response here and on Facebook. Good luck with everything.