Labor Day: Recharging and Contemplating the Work People Do

As I was considering this post, my first thought was that I only have one Labor Day book. That would be Become a Construction Worker. But then I really started thinking.

One of my books is The Who. Not many people get to make their livings as rock musicians but that’s at least part of what these four men did. Who else might I be overlooking?

There are the people who design toys and those who come up with the images on wall paper, wrapping paper, and even fabrics.

There are people working in transportation who drive metro trains, maintain tracks, and even those who repair buses.

A few weeks ago I met a man who used to work for the St. Louis County Parks. He worked on historic homes, maintained riverside parklands, and even got to help work on a barn.

The most interesting combination I’ve ever encountered in one person was a chemist who, on the weekends, worked as a trapper of nuisance wild life. Another surprising one for me was the 83 year-old sensei who still teaches kendo. When I was about 12 I met a printer as in someone who ran a press. I don’t remember what to call the type of press but it was fascinating watching him squeegee on ink and do test runs. There were so many moving, spinning parts and then out would come a printed page.

This is all something to consider as we create our character and decide what jobs various people are going to do. A lot of books that I read include writers, librarians, and people who work in book stores. There are teachers and principals.

Now, if you don’t have a pressing deadline, I hope that you are taking some time to recharge here at the end of Labor Day Weekend.

–SueBE

Narrowing Your Cast of Characters

Last week I attended a webinar on writing fiction. One of the things that she mentioned is that having massive casts of characters is old fashioned and not something you see in modern books for young readers.

Wait! Wait!

I can hear your objections already. What about Harry Potter and the Hunger Games? There are so many amazing characters in both series.

And that’s true. You have Harry, Ron and Hermione. There are the twins, and Jenny, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Hagrid, Dumbledor, McGonaggal, Snape, Lupin and oh so many more. But as Mia Botha pointed out, they aren’t all primary characters. Think about it. Who is the main character in the Harry Potter books? Duh. Harry. And most adventures involve at most two other characters. Early on it is consistently Ron and Hermione. Other characters move forward as needed with allies coming and going, sometimes rather permanently.

I have to say this is a relief. In Airstream, I have two sibling groups for a total of six characters. For various reasons, all six characters are essential in that they play a part in the story. One has been strictly humorous and I’ve been thinking that maybe but maybe he needed to go. But Botha reminded us that one of the best ways to bring humor into a serious story is with a pair of comedic characters.

Yes, a pair. Just like Fred and George.

The key to having six characters will be to make sure that all six have a purpose. So far I have POV character, 2 sidekicks and a comedic character. One of my spares will become my second comedic character and the other will become a nurturing mother. This last one is technically a Jungian archetype but I think she’ll play well with the others.

The key to having six characters in play is to decide who will generally be in the forefront. Then I have to make sure that they each have enough to do while bringing the three remaining characters forward periodically. Now that I understand the part that each of them will play, this is something I can handle.

–SueBE

4 Tips for Creating Quirky Characters

Robert Asprin

I love quirky books which probably explains why I read so much speculative fiction when I was a tween and teen. I devoured Robert Asprin’s Myth series and Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Human characters, mythical characters and characters spun from the author’s imagination, quirky characters and the stories they populate are just so much fun.

Unfortunately, every now and then I’ll pick something up and find that I just can’t get into it. The plot sounds interesting and the characters are quirky but somehow everything fails to come together.

To avoid having this problem in your own story, keep these four tips in mind.

Part of the Story

For your story to work, there has to be a reason for it to be populated by quirky characters. They have to have a reason to be there. Quirk for the sake of quirk may be amusing at first, but eventually it stops working. Perhaps the quirky character is an obstacle to the main character. Or the quirky character may make a trait the main character has more obvious.

Douglas Adams

Why Quirky

There also has to be a reason for the quirkiness. It doesn’t have to be an individual reason. Perhaps everyone in a region, town, or family has a certain trait. Or, like the Joker in Batman, the behavior is a result of something that happened in the past. Knowing the why will make it all more meaningful.

Something in Common

Don’t just make the character quirky. Give the character a trait that the reader will identify or sympathize with. It could be that the person follows baseball. Or perhaps they are mourning a lost opportunity. It will all depend on what will click with your reader.

Redeeming Quality

Last but not least, give your quirky character a redeeming quality. Perhaps your character loves animals or wants to save the planet. Perhaps he works to fund books for poor schools or she donates to a soup kitchen. This is another way to link your quirky character to the larger world.

Quirky characters can be a lot of fun to read and to write. Just be sure that you create a character that has the depth needed to help carry your story forward.

–SueBE

Does This Belong in My Story? The Ultimate Test

Recently I read a post on Fiction University, “Learning from the Mistakes of even the (gasp!) Greats.”  In her post, Bonnie Randall discusses wading through a book by an author that she normally loves.  Unfortunately this time around the main character is endlessly, and needlessly, sarcastic.  He has a bad relationship with his son, but doesn’t care.  His back story includes the one that got away.

Sarcasm (humor), character flaws, and lost love aren’t always a problem.  But they are in this case because none of them propels the story forward.  Because of this, they get in the way and slow things down.

What then is the ultimate test?  When you are reviewing your work take a good hard look at subplots, scenes, characters, and character traits.  Do they somehow move the story forward?  If so, they can stay.  If not?  I’m sorry but they need to go.

Yes, even if you love that particular sarcastic jab or that atmospheric scene.  The only way that they can stay if is you can give them a deeper, more essential part to play.

Think about it.  You have to give your main character a flaw.  Perhaps she is annoyingly sarcastic.  Was she one of a dozen kids and she used this sarcasm to get attention?  Make sure the readers know this but then take it another step.  Make either her sarcasm or her insecurity something that gets in the way of solving the plot.

What about lost love or a lost friendship?  Again, go beyond using this in an attempt to make your character more interesting.  Instead go into how it impacts the current story.

Just dropping a character trait, backstory, a setting, a character, or a prop into the story without weaving it in makes for a story that feels cluttered.  If you weave it in, it becomes something that impacts the rest of the story when tugged.

Give it a try and see how it impacts your work.

–SueBE

Crowd Control: Working with a Large Cast of Characters

The first piece of writing I ever sold was a fictional rebus.  There were three whole characters.  In fast most of the fiction that I’ve written has had a relatively small cast.  This cozy I’m drafting is a different situation.

There is the main character.  There are her best friends, one from childhood and one new.  One of these women is married.  There are the other members of their church choir, the choir director, the minister, two police officers, a friend’s brother, two police officers, spouses to several characters…

I feel like I’m populating an entire planet! I know I have to keep many of them.  After all, I need my detective, her sidekicks and a host of suspects.  But really?  Can’t I get rid of about half of them?

So it was with some interest that I read K.M. Weiland’s post, 10 Rules of Writing Large Casts of Characters.  Weiland confirmed something that I’ve been suspecting – less is better than more.  That’s why I’ve already gotten rid of one cop.  And maybe a few more can go.

But first I need to see which characters I need to move the plot forward and to help build theme.  Once I’ve roughed these out, I can evaluate my characters looking for those that overlap too much.  Why keep two when only one is really needed to do the job?

Once I know which characters are essential, I  may have to finagle a few things to space out their introductions a bit more.  At this point, my main character meets 2/3 of the choir in the same scene.  That’s something like 8 people all at once that are also new to the reader.  Part of the issue here may be solved by doing something Weiland suggests and grouping characters with one character acting as the mouthpiece.  Altos.  Tenors.  Basses.

But until I can be sure which characters I have to flesh out and which can fade into the background, I need to rough things out.  Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

–SueBE

Cutting Characters: Are Your Characters Doing All They Need to Do?

Every now and again, I look at a character and think, “Is he doing enough or should I cut him?”  For the most part this revolves around whether the character moves the plot forward in some way.  Is this character’s contribution meager?  Than I look at whether or not I can combine this character’s role with another character. This is especially true of parents or siblings in a story.  Are two characters essential to get this job done?  If not, adios my character.  Perhaps I’ll see you in another story.

Then I saw a post by Stephanie Morrill about cutting characters.  Her rubric is very different.  To stay in the story, the character must:

Help the main character on their journey.  This is a lot like my “move the story forward.”  But for Morrill and her characters this is only the beginning.

Have a life of their own.  This character cannot be a satellite of the main character.  They must have their own problems.  Ooooo, I thought, perhaps these problems put them in conflict with the main character.

Come into conflict with the main character.  That’s right.  At some point, each and every character needs to conflict with the main character.  Otherwise the story is most likely to simple and straightforward, without enough tension.  And in real life, people really do come into conflict with friends and family members.

In a story for younger readers, this conflict doesn’t have to be huge.  In Jasmine Toguchi: Mochi Queen, an early middle grade series, her older sister always tells Jasmine she is too young.  Her cousin teases her.  In a young adult novel, this wouldn’t be enough but for an early middle grade novel it works.

So what do you do if your characters don’t accomplish these things?  You can still cut or combine characters.  Or you can make them more complex.  The choice will depend on you and your story.

–SueBE

 

Characters: Avoiding Group Think

Last week when my family visited the Smoky Mountains, we went to The Museum of the Cherokee Indian.  One area focused on the various perspectives Cherokee people had on plans for the Cherokee to leave their ancestral lands on go to Oklahoma.  The part that may surprise some people is that there were Cherokee speaking for removal, against removal until forced, and pro-combat.  There was no one voice.  They were not thinking en mass.

Throughout the museum it was emphasized that there was not one Cherokee response to the idea of sharing their stories, acculturation, moving, or whatever else they faced as a people. There wasn’t even on perspective within a family.  Nanyehi, or Nancy Ward, was a Beloved Woman who spoke against war.  Her  cousin, Tai-ya-gansi-Ni or Dragging Canoe was a respected war chief who wanted to join with the British in fighting colonists.

This isn’t meant to be a history lesson but I do hope that it shows you how complicated people are.  So often when we speak or write about a group of people, be they real or fictional, we tend to write about them as if everyone agrees on a variety of key issues.

I understand why this is tempting because reality is sloppy and hard to describe for a young reader.  But people don’t all agree even on key issues.  One person’s attitudes and ideas may even change over time.  It’s funny that when we speak about individual characters, we talk about growth and change.  But when we speak about a people we want things to be more clear cut.

Yes, some of the displays at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian were a bit confusing but that wasn’t their fault.  I didn’t have a strong enough base of knowledge to file away all of the information that I was reading.  Whoever created these exhibits did not talk down to museum patrons.  That’s something to keep in mind as we create our own characters and societies.

–SueBE

5 Minutes a Day: Working with Your Characters

I thought today’s post would be about creating your premise.  You know what they say about well laid plans and all that?   For some books, it might be possible to start with premise, but I feel like I need to get to know my characters first.

What types of characters might you have in your story?  Spend five minutes considering each character type and whether or not this type of character might have a place in your story.

Hero.  This is a no brainer.  Every story has a protagonist or hero.  This is the person at the heart of the story.  They solve the problem.  I’m beginning to shape my main character.

Villain. Not every story has a formal villain.  Sometimes a story is the hero vs nature.  But mine is a cozy mystery so there is going to be a villain.  I even know who it is.

Sidekick.  This character is close to the main character and may act as an assistant or sounding board.  Sometimes this character has an important skill that the hero needs to succeed.  There are two sidekicks in my story.

 

Mentor:  This character is older and wiser than the main character.  They often act as a teacher.  I haven’t decided yet if my story has a mentor but I suspect it might.

Trickster:  This character seems to work alongside the hero but always has their own goals.  A sidekick or mentor can also be a trickster.  In a mystery, a trickster often misleads the hero.  One of the setbacks in your story might be occur when your character is betrayed by a trickster.

Shadow Characters: These characters don’t actually appear in the story but have a huge impact.  It might be a family member who passed away before the story begins, someone deployed in the military, or someone who is incarcerated.

If you are getting ready to work on a new story, give these characters types some thought.  Consider what you already know about your plot.  Which character types have a part to play in your story?  Spend five minutes or so contemplating each character type throughout the coming week.

–SueBE

 

 

One Gay Character, One African American: Are you Just Covering Your Bases?

Recently, I read a post over at the Nelson Agency about the dangers of informing a first-reader at an agency or publisher that your manuscript has LGBTQ+ character or that it is diverse.  This particular reader said that when he read things like this in a query letter, he felt like the writer was going down a check list.

One gay character.  Check!

A trans character.  Got it.

Someone who is questioning.  Present and accounted for.

The suggestion is that, instead of stating this, you should just tell about your story.  If these characters are an integral part of it, the diversity will be obvious.

I can understand this request.  Diverse characters are fantastic but they need to belong in the story, and not like sprinkles on a cup cake.  They need to be part of the cake itself.

Back when I was a paid reviewer, I ended up reading tons of teen chick lit.  I’m female but I generally did not connect with these books written “for a female audience.”  For one thing, shopping is not my thing.  I do it to feed myself and avoid exposure to the elements.  But these female characters LOVED to shop.  And, to help them out, they all had a gay best friend.

He offered dating advice and fashion tips, often picking out the perfect shoes to go with that darling prom dress.  Oh, heaven help me.  This character was never key to the plot.  Never.  He was just there.  And gay.  Providing all sorts of essential diversity.

When you are creating your story, your plot should spring from the characters.  The characters shouldn’t be there just so that you can strike them off the list whether we are talking diversity of the racial, ethnic, religious, or LGBTQ+ variety.  It all needs to fit and work together instead of reading like that table of mismatched items at a yard sale.

Really.

–SueBE

 

Character Development: What Can Your Characters Do?

It isn’t surprising that writers frequently draw on themselves and their friends when they create characters.  Keeping that in mind, I guess it isn’t surprising than that so many characters, especially secondary characters like parents, are writers. But it does make me wonder when editors are going to start bouncing back writer characters as too common.

When you develop a character, brainstorm some of the things that you can do or have done.  Remember, leave writing off the list.  My own list of accomplishments would look something like this:

Jobs I’ve Held:

Nanny

Candy striper

Archaeological Illustrator

Research Assistant

Asst Scout leader

Editor

 

Hobbies:

Calligraphy

Dye cloth

Knit

Crochet

Use a bead loom

Free bead

Paint/houses and pictures

 

Cooking:

Bake a chicken in an earthen pit

Make bread from scratch

Cook down a pumpkin

Make butter

 

 

Household:

Re-assemble a pump (as in pump and cistern)

Do laundry using a wash board and water pumped from a cistern, heated in my great-grandmother’s kettle

Refinish furniture

Wire a house

Build furniture kits

 

Other:

Assist in digging a dry well

Make a pot from raw natural clay

Create a map from raw data

Assist in building a television from a kit — tube type obviously

Assist in installing a new car engine

Repack barrel bearings

Respool a fishing reel

 

 

This is definitely a more diverse list than my current primary job — writer.  Why not create a similiar list and use it the next time you develop a character?  You might also include things that your mother, father or grandparents could do.  That said, I’d have to do some serious research to make some of those skills available to my characters.  My mother was a top notch seamstress whereas I can sew on a button.  My grandfather was an army mechanic.  My father helped develop the ceramic tiles for the Space Shuttle.

–SueBE