By Dame Jackie
Before anything else, Dame Kaz has drawn the winner of her giveaway for Lili’s BETRAYALS (with a little help from random.org), and the winner is:
#33 Katherine, whose writing tip was: “Skip little details you’re unsure of and type up a note in brackets. Stopping to research each little detail will slow you down immensely and often they’re things you can easily look up and fill in later.”
Karen will contact you via LJ, as she noticed you have a blog there! And thanks everyone for entering and offering such great writing tips & NaNo support.
Short post this morning.
I’m about to begin writing the rest of RAGE, my second YA novel, which has sold to Harcourt Graphia (yay, yay, yay!!!) and is due March 1 (ACK). I have the prologue and the first three chapters, as well as the synopsis, so it’s not like I’m starting from scratch. The other day, I reread what I’ve written so far. And it hit me that I have to tap into a certain place for me to channel the main character, Missy.
Doesn’t that sound like a bit of magic there? “Channeling” a character? But that’s how it works for me. When I write in close third-person, I have to know how the character thinks. I have to know what she feels. I have to intimately understand her hopes, her fears, her dreams. And on top of all that, she has to drive the plot and be a character readers want to root for. “Write what you know,” the saying goes — but what if the character does things, thinks things, that you, the author, don’t? What’s a writer to do?
1. Before anything else, do your research. If you’re writing about, say, an anorexic teenage girl and you have never had an eating disorder, go read accounts from people who have or have had eating disorders. Yes, when you write fiction, you have been given creative license to Make Shit Up. (Yep, technical term, that.) But that doesn’t excuse a writer from trying to make the character, the situation, the everything as believable as possible. If you take the lazy writing approach (“I’ll just Make Shit Up”), you run the risk of pulling your readers out of the story the moment they hit a part that doesn’t ring true.
2. Get to know your character. Some authors journal as if they were the characters. Some fill out information sheets that detail things like physical characteristics, goals, motivations, etc. Me, I like to figure out what my characters do in their downtime — that is, if they’re YA protagonists, when they’re not in class. Missy, the protagonist of RAGE, is a goalie on the school’s varsity girl’s soccer team. And there’s a reason why that particular thing works so well for Missy — but that will come out in the story. A character’s hobbies and interests tell the reader a lot about the character. Jet, one of the two protagonists of BLACK AND WHITE, reads romance novels because she likes to believe in those happy endings, since, as she says, they so rarely happen in real life.
3. Allow yourself to make mistakes. This is the joy of the first draft: you can officially screw up. Remember: you can’t fix what you don’t write. So let it all pour out. When I was first writing the second chapter of RAGE, I was toying with Missy being in the school play. But after I got part of that down, it just didn’t feel right. So then I tried her on the soccer field — and it was perfect. Trial and error, baby.
What are some things you do to get to know your characters?
Related posts:
- Feast or Famine
- Confessions of a Contest Judge, Part 3: Thinking Like a Point of View Character
- What’s Your Process?
Tags: Contest, Jackie Kessler, Karen Mahoney, writing
I like to grab one of my online writing buddies and write some improvised scripts between us, chucking a few of our characters into a cafe or wherever and seeing what comes out. Gives the added bonus of helping you get a handle on their speaking voice as well.
I do a Q&A talk-show type thing, sometimes. Or, if I don’t have paper/a laptop, I imagine conversations between them and other characters. Or even, if I’m feeling particularly crazy or bored, I talk to them (in my mind, not out loud, ’cause that’s a bit scary). Very useful thing to do during maths lessons.
My MC uses a bow. So I picked one up, and discovered that archery is awesome. It certainly helps, besides just knowing the terminology (like fletching. I always thought they were just called feathers, but nope. Fletching) and you’ve got have muscles. But anyways, picking up some of the tools you characters are supposed to use helps. Just make sure your with a person that knows what their doing if your handling a dangerous weapon.
I’ve just started using a kind of database, sitting down and getting to know my characters; writing down info like: history, characteristics, looks, talents.
When I’m stuck with my MC’s I tend to sit down and talk to them, good job I do this in my head and don’t talkm out loud I might end up in a rubber room! LOL
I do several things.
I look at the world around me – who, or what type of person most resembles the character I am writing?
I pretend I am my character. What are my thoughts? Motivations? What do I do in my down time? What is my favorite food? Music? Flower? Hobby? Type of clothes to wear? How do I talk and interact with others? Am I the type of character who notices details, or am I solely focused on my goal?
It was recently suggested to me that I ‘interview’ my character. What an eye-opener that is! It gives a whole, new panoramic view of the character. I both pretend I am my character, being interviewed, and that I am the one interviewing my character. It really fleshes out the character, making it a more real, believable person.
Mine haunt me, chattering away in my head long before I ever have a plot to plop them into. When I drive alone, one (or more) usually fill up my SUV with their presence and talk to me. We visit. I learn about their history and why they want me to write about them. My problem is getting them to shut up long enough to let me write.
And if you get finished before March 1, Dame Jackie, you can celebrate my birthday with me!
I’ll count on it, Silver!
Ok, so I have a continued question and an answer to Jackie’s question. To get to know my main female character, I’ve been listening to what she has to say and do in different scenes that may happen in the book. Now, on to my question, what about your main male character? He plays an important role, but won’t come any where near trumping or probably even equaling my mfc. How do you wrap your head around a character that you won’t necessarily be telling a super detailed background on? Not to mention, he’s a guy and I do not think like a guy at all.
Karen asked: “what about your main male character? He plays an important role, but won’t come any where near trumping or probably even equaling my mfc. How do you wrap your head around a character that you won’t necessarily be telling a super detailed background on? Not to mention, he’s a guy and I do not think like a guy at all.”
Whether male or female, a character is a character, and thus there must be, in the words of Deb Dixon, a goal, motivation and conflict. I’d say that should be the first thing to figure out: what is his GMC? And then take it from there.
Congratulations on selling your second novel Kaz! WHEEE!!!