It's that time of year again - when the world is suddenly full of novelists trying to get in fifty thousand words before the end of November.
I've participated in NaNoWriMo several times, and all but one made the goal (the year I didn't, I got the flu and lost my momentum). This year I won't be participating because I'm in the middle of too many other projects to have it make any sense for me, but here are a few tips for those of you who are giving it a go.
1) Have a plan. You don't necessarily have to have your entire story plotted out and outlined, but you should know where you want to end up. Much easier to get someplace if you know where that place is.
2) Don't worry about editing - that's one of the major rules of NaNoWriMo - no editing - just write forward. Keep going. Don't worry about what you've already written, you can fix that later. Keep the story moving forward.
3) Connect with other writers - whether you attend a local write-in - or just cheer on your buddies when they post their daily word counts. The added incentive of other people doing the same thing, and being able to see how you are progressing are great ways to keep you motivated
4) Don't fear writer's block. When you get stuck, just write through it. You don't know what to write? Describe what the characters are having for breakfast or the room they are sitting in. Don't worry if it is nonsense, it can come out later when you edit, but if you keep writing you'll find the story again. It's there, waiting for you.
5) Have fun with it!
Happy Writing!
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Thursday, December 6, 2012
PLANNING YOUR STORY: PART 1
PLANNING
YOUR STORY: PART 1
You think you have an idea for a story or book. But
it’s nebulous, fuzzy and feels just out of reach. You stare at the blank screen
or paper, depending on how you plan or write. Nothing happens.
We’ve all been there.
As I contemplated Nanowrimo this year I sat inside
those shoes. This was the third year I’d be working on the same story concept.
Each attempt had evolved into a different story. But none were the right one.
None had that spark. In fact, I couldn’t even finish any I’d started so far.
So I sought help. I read books and blogs and thought
hard.
Then the story began to coalesce into a real
plotline with protag and antag and all of the turning points and climax and and
and. I got excited. Finally the story was writing itself, almost, but at least
all of the necessary elements were there.
Now that I’ve finished my Nanowrimo with over 50,000
words by November 25th, and I’m into the climax of the story, I’m
finally pleased and excited to begin editing and polishing. I finally think I
got a good thing written that others will enjoy reading.
Isn’t that the reason we’re in this business?
So now you’re asking, “What did you ask yourself to
attain such magnificence?”
I’ll give you some questions to ask yourself in the
planning stages. These should guide your thinking and start the ball rolling.
They did for me.
PREMISE-This
gives you a clear idea of what the story is about:
·
What if?
·
What is expected?
·
What’s unexpected?
For me, it meant: What if Rayna didn’t have red
hair? (the cause of all her problems); What if she wasn’t a twin? (another
serious issue she faces) and so. What is expected? Rayna will hate the
restrictions of living in the Gestortium. Her red hair will cause problems.
What is unexpected? (this is harder to predict and I didn’t know until I
started writing the story)
So what became the PREMISE for my story after all of my thinking? This:
Hidden
away from society for her protection, Rayna is forced into her societally
expected role under duress and endangered by the very reasons she was hidden
while discovering the truth of her birth, who she is and what her future holds.
Next month, determining your BIG PLOT MOMENTS, aka turning or plot points.
Thanks to K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel
Rebecca
Ryals Russell, a fourth-generation Floridian, was born in Gainesville, grew up
in Ft Lauderdale then lived in Orlando and Jacksonville with her Irish husband
and four children. Due to the sudden death of Rebecca's mother, they moved to
Wellborn, near Lake City, to care for her father, moving into his Victorian
home built in 1909. After teaching Middle Graders for fourteen years she
retired and began writing the story idea which had been brewing for thirty
years. Within six months she wrote the
first three books of each series, YA Seraphym Wars and MG Stardust Warriors.
The world she created has generated numerous other story ideas including two
current works in progress, SageBorn Chronicles based on various mythologies of
the world and aimed at the lower Middle Grade reader and Saving Innocence,
another MG series set on Dracwald and involving dragons and Majikals. She is
finishing a YA Dystopian Romance which has been a NaNoWriMo project for three
years. She loves reading YA Fantasy, Horror and Sci Fi as well as watching
movies. Read more about Rebecca and her
WIPs as well as how to buy books in her various series at http://rryalsrussell.com You may email her at
vigorios7@gmail.com
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Another NaNoWriMo Conquered
I do it for the motivation and the challenge.
I also did it this year as a way to bang out the first draft of the third book in the Reality Ali series.
This is the fourth time I've reached my goal. One year I did not. That was partly due to getting the flu right at the beginning of the month, which threw off my momentum, and having a story idea I wasn't thrilled with.
So now what. I've written 50,000 words. I have a book, right?
Kind of right.
I haven't reached the end of the story yet - so I'm not really done. Which is fine.
But even when I reach the spot where I feel like I can say "The End" I won't be done. I'll be done with the first draft, which is like being done with the outline in a picture or the skeleton.
The next step is to put it aside and work on another project for awhile. That way when I come back to the manuscript it will be with fresh eyes. At that point I'll see what works and what doesn't work and I'll flesh out the story and the description and pretty much everything that makes a book something interesting to read.
So, it's not done yet.
But I still feel accomplished.
Also a bit humbled, because my fifteen-year-old daughter reached 50,000 words a couple of days before I did.
Reached any goals lately? Doesn't it feel great?
Thursday, November 8, 2012
60 Links to Writer's Resources
I found this amazing list at Galleycat, one of
my favorite writing sites and just had to pass it along. Even if you’re NOT do
Nanowrimo, the links here are terrifically useful and fun.
30 National Novel Writing Month Tips from 2012
Rebecca
Ryals Russell, a fourth-generation Floridian, was born in Gainesville, grew up
in Ft Lauderdale then lived in Orlando and Jacksonville with her Irish husband
and four children. Due to the sudden death of Rebecca's mother, they moved to Wellborn, near Lake City, to
care for her father, moving into his Victorian home built in 1909. After
teaching Middle Graders for fourteen years she retired and began writing the
story idea which had been brewing for thirty years. Within six months she wrote the first three
books of each series, YA Seraphym Wars and MG Stardust Warriors. The world she
created has generated numerous other story ideas including two current works in
progress, SageBorn Chronicles based on various mythologies of the world and
aimed at the lower Middle Grade reader and Saving Innocence, another MG series
set on Dracwald and involving dragons and Majikals. She is finishing a YA
Dystopian Romance which has been a NaNoWriMo project for three years. She loves
reading YA Fantasy, Horror and Sci Fi as well as watching movies. Read more about Rebecca and her WIPs as well
as how to buy books in her various series at http://rryalsrussell.com You may email her at
vigorios7@gmail.com
Thursday, November 10, 2011
NaNoWriMo May Not Be What You Thought
I’ve been quite surprised this year at the amount of buzz created over NaNoWriMo. Just a few years ago, when I first learned of it and got involved, you could canter that name around and no one knew what you were talking about. I couldn’t count the number of times I had to explain what NaNoWriMo meant and how you did it. Now there’s hardly an author around who doesn’t know what it is.
I’m also surprised at the number of writers who don’t get involved in it. I’ve heard things like:
--I don’t like to be pushed when I’m writing because I have a slow and steady pace.
--I don’t have an idea to start a book with.
--I’m already involved in writing a book and don’t want to start a new one.
--It’s too much hoopla for me.
The only thing I can figure from these statements is that those people don’t fully understand the purpose of NaNoWriMo. Let me explain a few basics about it and if you’re one of those who said something akin to one of the above statements, you can still get involved and make headway on a project. It’s never too late to join the fracas.
Firstly, NaNoWriMo’s purpose is to encourage daily writing skills and habit. That’s it. Totally it.
Secondly, there is NO rule anywhere (not that there ARE any rules) that states you must begin a new project/manuscript for NaNo. If you’re working on something, continue working—just count your words written for November—not the total for the project. It’s that simple.
Thirdly, you work at your own pace, whether you are a fast or slow writer. It doesn’t matter that you ‘promised’ yourself to write 50,000 words in a month—if you don’t make the goal, so what? It was set for you, by you. Besides, if you write daily for an hour or so, you’ll easily make the goal. I started late due to illness and didn’t write a word on Saturday because I was busy. Am I worried? No, because I’ve written 2000 words or more when I could and will continue to do so.
Fourthly, you don’t need a fully fleshed out story idea to start with. Choose some idea you’ve stored in a file and just start writing. Don’t worry about where it’s going or who the characters are or anything. Even if it turns out to be junk at the end of the month, the writing habit and practice is good for you. And you may just come out with a winner by accident. The story I wrote last November turned out to be junk, but I’m using some of the characters and ideas in this month’s story which is looking promising.
Lastly, you don’t have to get involved in all of the hype and socializing around NaNo. You don’t have to do anything more than sign up at NaNoWriMo and check in occasionally with your word count. Just challenge yourself and don’t worry about anyone or anything else.
It’s like eating broccoli—it’s good for you.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
And it's Novel Writing Month Again
I first participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2008. I had just signed a contract for my first book, and I was ready to launch into something new. Because I knew I would have both edits for my first book, and our annual Thanksgiving getaway sometime during the month, I really made sure to get lots of words in at the beginning of the month.
In fact, I got so many words in that I finished my 50,000 words in two weeks. A writing feat I have never since duplicated. During that time I wrote the complete first draft for my book Emily's Song, a time travel adventure, which I've just finished revising and am about to start shopping around to agents.
The following year, I was ready to repeat my accomplishment. I had an idea and was excited about starting, and then at the beginning of November I got sick with the dreaded Swine Flu. Being sick for a week knocked my momentum off, I lost interest in my story idea, and I didn't write a novel that month.
But, I'm not one to be discouraged. Last year I knew I'd try again. But, I couldn't start something from scratch. I had a book I was revising. And I needed to finish doing that, I was 30,000 words in on my revisions, and knew I needed to get to at least 80,000, so I let that be my NaNo goal, and I made it. And that book - Reality Ali, will be coming out next spring. So that's a definite NaNoWriMo success story.
And now November has started and it's time to enjoy the craziness of trying to write another novel. I've had an idea percolating, so yesterday I dug in and got started. We'll see what this year will bring (hopefully not the Swine Flu again. Been there/done that).
Do you NaNo?
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Rewriting During National Novel Writing Month
Please read the entry for Nov. 1, "Trust the Process", which has to do with rewriting as an integral part of writing. I found myself nodding and going "uh-huh!" all the way through the entry!
As sort of a continuation of that well-thought blog, I'd like to offer this quickie on a non-assigned day:
Several fellow members of our local Written Remains Writers Guild (WRWG) plus a few writing colleagues from around the country, have decided to do our own miniature version of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November. If you've never heard, NaNoWriMo participants pledge to try and write 50,000 new words on any one fiction project between Nov.1 and Nov. 30.
I've participated in most of the NaNoWriMos since 2003.
However, right now I have a total of -six- books that need revisions and additional chapters. Three of these six books are actually the three chunks or volumes which will make up the YA fantasy The Gryphon and the Basilisk. The remaining three manuscripts are stand-alones, but they are all fantasy and 2 out of 3 of them are also YA.
It would be ridiculous for me to beginning writing a new draft of something--like the WRWG people and most NaNoWriMo authors are doing this November, given all the revision work cut out for me. So, back in late October, I posted to the Written Remains Writers Guild that I intend to -revise- multiple pages of the Gryphon and the Basilisk. (Rather than creating a new 250 word page every day of this month as the Guild members are doing)
Let me explain a bit about the revision process I have before me. First off, G&B totals about 2 and 3/4 books as I said above. (I don't quite have an ending for the third volume.) Second, I wrote it in long-hand approximately 30 years ago. Eventually, I typed up those pages. And maybe almost 20 years ago, I scanned the typed pages into a file on my computer with a very buggy software scanning program.
The result? In places, the current version of the manuscript looks like I'm cursing at times. The scanning results are that bad. Many, if not most lower case l's came through as number 1's. And so on.
Even though my project doesn't align with the ongoing project of the Written Remains Writers Guild or with the rules of National Novel Writing Month, I've pledged to try to decipher and revise approximately 6 pages or 1750 words per day during the month of November.
Progress report:
My Mini-NaNoWriMo total for two days is 3578 words.
3578-1724 = 1854
(Nov. 1 1724 wds,which was 5 and a half pages) ... (1854 words for Nov. 2, or about 6 and a half pages today)
You can keep track of my progress--and maybe even cheer us all on--by going to Facebook and signing on the the group "How Many Pages Did You Write Today?, maintained by Ramona deFelice Long:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140478142641261
(which may or may not work in this format--please just search in FB for the group)
Go to "Scribblings" my personal blog, for updates about my humungous revision process of the Novel variously called The Gryphon and the Basilisk, or The Behemoth, or The YA novel that intends to eat Delaware:
http://tree-lady.livejournal.com/97551.html
Finally you might want to Google NaNoWriMo, to see how all of this started. I'm TreeLady on NaNo. I admit that this year I can't participate as NaNo directs, since I am revising and not creating new material. But, hey, I don't see any more half-finioshed manuscripts in "drawers". I think that 6 is my limit.
(This URL may work for NaNo: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/26133 )
Sherry Thompson, author of unfinished novels: G&B vols. 1,2,3; The Peace Bride; Marooned; Da Boid da Tree-Rat ;n da Loser.
As sort of a continuation of that well-thought blog, I'd like to offer this quickie on a non-assigned day:
Several fellow members of our local Written Remains Writers Guild (WRWG) plus a few writing colleagues from around the country, have decided to do our own miniature version of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November. If you've never heard, NaNoWriMo participants pledge to try and write 50,000 new words on any one fiction project between Nov.1 and Nov. 30.
I've participated in most of the NaNoWriMos since 2003.
However, right now I have a total of -six- books that need revisions and additional chapters. Three of these six books are actually the three chunks or volumes which will make up the YA fantasy The Gryphon and the Basilisk. The remaining three manuscripts are stand-alones, but they are all fantasy and 2 out of 3 of them are also YA.
It would be ridiculous for me to beginning writing a new draft of something--like the WRWG people and most NaNoWriMo authors are doing this November, given all the revision work cut out for me. So, back in late October, I posted to the Written Remains Writers Guild that I intend to -revise- multiple pages of the Gryphon and the Basilisk. (Rather than creating a new 250 word page every day of this month as the Guild members are doing)
Let me explain a bit about the revision process I have before me. First off, G&B totals about 2 and 3/4 books as I said above. (I don't quite have an ending for the third volume.) Second, I wrote it in long-hand approximately 30 years ago. Eventually, I typed up those pages. And maybe almost 20 years ago, I scanned the typed pages into a file on my computer with a very buggy software scanning program.
The result? In places, the current version of the manuscript looks like I'm cursing at times. The scanning results are that bad. Many, if not most lower case l's came through as number 1's. And so on.
Even though my project doesn't align with the ongoing project of the Written Remains Writers Guild or with the rules of National Novel Writing Month, I've pledged to try to decipher and revise approximately 6 pages or 1750 words per day during the month of November.
Progress report:
My Mini-NaNoWriMo total for two days is 3578 words.
3578-1724 = 1854
(Nov. 1 1724 wds,which was 5 and a half pages) ... (1854 words for Nov. 2, or about 6 and a half pages today)
You can keep track of my progress--and maybe even cheer us all on--by going to Facebook and signing on the the group "How Many Pages Did You Write Today?, maintained by Ramona deFelice Long:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140478142641261
(which may or may not work in this format--please just search in FB for the group)
Go to "Scribblings" my personal blog, for updates about my humungous revision process of the Novel variously called The Gryphon and the Basilisk, or The Behemoth, or The YA novel that intends to eat Delaware:
http://tree-lady.livejournal.com/97551.html
Finally you might want to Google NaNoWriMo, to see how all of this started. I'm TreeLady on NaNo. I admit that this year I can't participate as NaNo directs, since I am revising and not creating new material. But, hey, I don't see any more half-finioshed manuscripts in "drawers". I think that 6 is my limit.
(This URL may work for NaNo: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/26133 )
Sherry Thompson, author of unfinished novels: G&B vols. 1,2,3; The Peace Bride; Marooned; Da Boid da Tree-Rat ;n da Loser.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
More on Developing Characters, by Sherry Thompson
I was planning to write about Characterization for this Sunday when I discovered that Christine wrote about Character Building, last Monday (23rd). I thought about changing subjects but, seriously, Characterization is a huge and critical part of writing. So let’s see what I can do to supplement what Christine discussed.
I began telling myself stories when I was in elementary school, because I often couldn’t get to sleep at night. This went on for years. Each night, I would run through the story up to where I left off and then add to it. Occasionally, I’d get tired of my POV character—who was often myself—and try out my current story from inside someone else’s thoughts. When I did this, sometimes I found myself backtracking in my “plot” because this other character was more interested in something else that was going on, or because he or she had “arrived late” in the story and I was just plain nosy to see what she or he had been up to before walking on stage.
In the meantime, my best friends and I used to imagine time travelling—or more specifically time-snatching. We would choose someone from different historical periods and imagine ourselves as hosts and guides to them, while we showed them the wonders of 1950’s America. (blush) Poor, captive historical people! Most of the time, we tried to imagine how they would react to electric lights, television (B&W) or cars. In our view, they were always impressed.
After a while, we branched out into SF and began wondering what aliens visiting Earth would think of our world. For that, we had to come up with personalities for the aliens. Generally, the group opinion was that the aliens were not impressed with us, so this was a short-lived pastime. We went back to historical periods and resumed time-snatching.
Years later, specifically when I was in my early 30’s, I got the inspiration to write a fantasy novel—Seabird. I didn’t think about it when I started but it turned out to be a young adult book. What else was it going to be when the POV character was a teen still in high school? Cara was on her summer vacation at the beach when she was snatched to another world. At first, Cara had a lot of me in her and not much of anything else. Poor kid.
I had a few elements of my story in mind: I knew that she would be swept to Narenta after finding an intriguing seabird necklace in a boardwalk shop. That she would be told that she had an important role to play in the welfare of the Narentans. That she would absolutely refuse to fall in with the plans at first. And, finally, what terrible event would change her mind, and how the book would end. But I didn’t know much about her personality or interests, and very little about the people she would meet—with the exception of one of the villains.
I wrote for a few days and then ran dry. I prayed about it a lot. This story, though only scraps of a few plot ingredients and one character, was already important to me. Anyway, various thoughts came wandering into my brain, and a few of those thoughts reminded me of how I used to create characters when I was a kid.
I started again. Who would Cara meet? What would they be like and what would they think of her? What would she think of them? What was their place like? Was it like an historical period with which I was familiar? (Not so much to that last question: Narenta turned out to be a fairly alien alien world.)
While gong back and forth between each character’s reactions to the others and vice versa, I discovered all sorts of interesting things about the Narentans and also about Cara. For instance, she had reneged on a promise to stay home with her best friend and was carrying an unopened letter from her friend in her jeans pocket. She had a brother who was into SF movies. She had worked briefly at a stable and was a local champion at Quark Brigade. And had sort of a boyfriend but wasn’t really that interested in him. Aha! Where could I insert someone to be a romantic interest? And, hey, how come he didn’t like her at first? What was that about?
I hadn’t written for days. (I didn’t think of any of this as “writing”.) I was too busy having fun developing characters—like the various Narentans who would just assume that Cara had some kind of magical ability because some Narentans did. Or that she naturally knew how to ride a horse and use a bow. (Yes, to the first. Not even a little bit, to the second.) Cara wanted to go back to the beach—now please. Some Narentans were desperate for her to stay and rescue them, though they didn’t all agree on how she was to do that. Meanwhile the antagonists wouldn’t mind if Cara left but figured it was safer to kill her.
“Seabird” set the pattern for my characterization—and my plotting—from then on. I work out a skeleton plot and always—nearly always—make sure I have an end to the story. Then, I set the storyline aside. I begin with two or three characters and get to know them—beginning with the protagonist. I “learn” far more about them than can possibly fit into the story. I’m afraid I don’t use physical character sheets—I have the equivalent inside my head. When I can think of nothing new about a particular character, I switch to another one, usually beginning with how they react to the character(s) I’ve already developed. In the process of developing these interrelationships and everyone’s individual motives, juicy little nuggets pop into my head. Look at that! This guy plays a flute! That one’s a poet and a bad one, and his mother abandoned him when he was very young under tragic circumstances. I know the name of that person’s horse, and I know why his girlfriend gave it that name. And so on.
Eventually, I reach critical mass when it comes to the characters, and I go back to writing the story. Actually, by now, I already have some scenes scribbled down on index cards or typed up in Notepad files. My skeleton outline has put on a lot of weight, but still has room to grow. Developments in characterization don’t cease until I type “The End”.
---
Here’s a couple of my favorite and more bizarre characters, and how they developed.
Khiva the stoah, from “Earthbow”. Khiva is a sentient arboreal animal. She was supposed to be in just two scenes: In the first, she surprises someone who is secretly crawling into a window and in the other she fortuitously gets a different character out of a fix. Khiva is based on my experiences living with cats and watching squirrels. Plus she has the prehensile tail of a monkey—which was needed for the plot. And she’s a chatterbox-mostly for the fun of it. That was it for her—at first.
As I wrote more and more of Earthbow, it kept getting darker and darker. Not what I had planned at all. Earthbow badly needed comic relief. I thought about bringing in another human character or making one of my protagonists more self-deprecating, but neither solution seemed to fit.
Then I remembered Khiva. I went back and thought through her character in depth, realizing in the process that she really had more going on in her furry little brain than I had given her credit for. She hates her job as a plant-gatherer for a human herbalist. She, like most stoahs as it turns out, is very into equal rights for stoahs alongside the traditional “three peoples” of Narenta. She seems self-centered if you just listen to her chatter, but she actually has a soft heart for anyone in trouble or in pain. She’s a bit vain—not that I blame her with such great fur. And she’s addicted to rosehips. Before I knew it, she was threaded throughout “Earthbow”, essential to its plot, and promises to turn up in its sequel.
Bert-and-Marsha-from-Hoboken, from “Marooned”. (Or, how not to do it.) Now I ask you, do Bert & Marsha—much less Hoboken—sound like names from a fantasy novel? I wrote most of Marooned during National Novel Writing Month, a few Novembers ago. For those of you who know nothing about it, the object of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000+ words on one novel during the month of November. I had done some (legal) prepping for the challenge before November 1st of that year, by nailing down the characteristics and motives of my two principle characters. I was busily writing away one day (1667 words per day, minimum) when I realized that the protagonist needed to hear news from a neighboring village and, without telephones or computers, that meant I needed people to arrive on the scene and be eyewitnesses.
I was so rushed with trying to reach my NaNo quota for the day that I couldn’t take time to figure out names according to my naming conventions and I hadn’t a clue what the village was called. So, Bert & Marsha strolled into the village where the main characters were and announced they had fled Hoboken. I have never characterized on the fly so much in my life. Suddenly they had three children. (Or is it two?) Marsha started acting like a real dim supermom.
Bert refused to fit the role of dad. Argh! I backtracked and stuffed Bert in jail. Why? A nameless character had attacked my protagonist the previous day, and I still didn’t know anything about that person, except that they were now in jail. “Jailbird” became Bert. Combining characters solved that problem. Ah! Marsha had arrived from Hoboken to break Bert out of jail! Outstanding! Next thing you know, I realized that Bert was not who he professed to be. Poor Marsha! And like that. Whoosh! Rush characterization for a NaNoWriMo novel is so much fun.
Bert, Marsha, and Hoboken are all still awaiting their real names—but I do know a lot about them.
Sherry Thompson – author of Seabird, Earthbow – and most of Marooned.
---
Resources:
Fantasy Character Background Info (workform)
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/719846-Fantasy-Character-Background-Information
---------------------------------
Fiction Factor – Creating Characters (numerous articles)
http://www.fictionfactor.com/characters.html
---------------------------------
How to Create a Character Profile Sheet
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun98/lazy2.htm
I began telling myself stories when I was in elementary school, because I often couldn’t get to sleep at night. This went on for years. Each night, I would run through the story up to where I left off and then add to it. Occasionally, I’d get tired of my POV character—who was often myself—and try out my current story from inside someone else’s thoughts. When I did this, sometimes I found myself backtracking in my “plot” because this other character was more interested in something else that was going on, or because he or she had “arrived late” in the story and I was just plain nosy to see what she or he had been up to before walking on stage.
In the meantime, my best friends and I used to imagine time travelling—or more specifically time-snatching. We would choose someone from different historical periods and imagine ourselves as hosts and guides to them, while we showed them the wonders of 1950’s America. (blush) Poor, captive historical people! Most of the time, we tried to imagine how they would react to electric lights, television (B&W) or cars. In our view, they were always impressed.
After a while, we branched out into SF and began wondering what aliens visiting Earth would think of our world. For that, we had to come up with personalities for the aliens. Generally, the group opinion was that the aliens were not impressed with us, so this was a short-lived pastime. We went back to historical periods and resumed time-snatching.
Years later, specifically when I was in my early 30’s, I got the inspiration to write a fantasy novel—Seabird. I didn’t think about it when I started but it turned out to be a young adult book. What else was it going to be when the POV character was a teen still in high school? Cara was on her summer vacation at the beach when she was snatched to another world. At first, Cara had a lot of me in her and not much of anything else. Poor kid.
I had a few elements of my story in mind: I knew that she would be swept to Narenta after finding an intriguing seabird necklace in a boardwalk shop. That she would be told that she had an important role to play in the welfare of the Narentans. That she would absolutely refuse to fall in with the plans at first. And, finally, what terrible event would change her mind, and how the book would end. But I didn’t know much about her personality or interests, and very little about the people she would meet—with the exception of one of the villains.
I wrote for a few days and then ran dry. I prayed about it a lot. This story, though only scraps of a few plot ingredients and one character, was already important to me. Anyway, various thoughts came wandering into my brain, and a few of those thoughts reminded me of how I used to create characters when I was a kid.
I started again. Who would Cara meet? What would they be like and what would they think of her? What would she think of them? What was their place like? Was it like an historical period with which I was familiar? (Not so much to that last question: Narenta turned out to be a fairly alien alien world.)
While gong back and forth between each character’s reactions to the others and vice versa, I discovered all sorts of interesting things about the Narentans and also about Cara. For instance, she had reneged on a promise to stay home with her best friend and was carrying an unopened letter from her friend in her jeans pocket. She had a brother who was into SF movies. She had worked briefly at a stable and was a local champion at Quark Brigade. And had sort of a boyfriend but wasn’t really that interested in him. Aha! Where could I insert someone to be a romantic interest? And, hey, how come he didn’t like her at first? What was that about?
I hadn’t written for days. (I didn’t think of any of this as “writing”.) I was too busy having fun developing characters—like the various Narentans who would just assume that Cara had some kind of magical ability because some Narentans did. Or that she naturally knew how to ride a horse and use a bow. (Yes, to the first. Not even a little bit, to the second.) Cara wanted to go back to the beach—now please. Some Narentans were desperate for her to stay and rescue them, though they didn’t all agree on how she was to do that. Meanwhile the antagonists wouldn’t mind if Cara left but figured it was safer to kill her.
“Seabird” set the pattern for my characterization—and my plotting—from then on. I work out a skeleton plot and always—nearly always—make sure I have an end to the story. Then, I set the storyline aside. I begin with two or three characters and get to know them—beginning with the protagonist. I “learn” far more about them than can possibly fit into the story. I’m afraid I don’t use physical character sheets—I have the equivalent inside my head. When I can think of nothing new about a particular character, I switch to another one, usually beginning with how they react to the character(s) I’ve already developed. In the process of developing these interrelationships and everyone’s individual motives, juicy little nuggets pop into my head. Look at that! This guy plays a flute! That one’s a poet and a bad one, and his mother abandoned him when he was very young under tragic circumstances. I know the name of that person’s horse, and I know why his girlfriend gave it that name. And so on.
Eventually, I reach critical mass when it comes to the characters, and I go back to writing the story. Actually, by now, I already have some scenes scribbled down on index cards or typed up in Notepad files. My skeleton outline has put on a lot of weight, but still has room to grow. Developments in characterization don’t cease until I type “The End”.
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Here’s a couple of my favorite and more bizarre characters, and how they developed.
Khiva the stoah, from “Earthbow”. Khiva is a sentient arboreal animal. She was supposed to be in just two scenes: In the first, she surprises someone who is secretly crawling into a window and in the other she fortuitously gets a different character out of a fix. Khiva is based on my experiences living with cats and watching squirrels. Plus she has the prehensile tail of a monkey—which was needed for the plot. And she’s a chatterbox-mostly for the fun of it. That was it for her—at first.
As I wrote more and more of Earthbow, it kept getting darker and darker. Not what I had planned at all. Earthbow badly needed comic relief. I thought about bringing in another human character or making one of my protagonists more self-deprecating, but neither solution seemed to fit.
Then I remembered Khiva. I went back and thought through her character in depth, realizing in the process that she really had more going on in her furry little brain than I had given her credit for. She hates her job as a plant-gatherer for a human herbalist. She, like most stoahs as it turns out, is very into equal rights for stoahs alongside the traditional “three peoples” of Narenta. She seems self-centered if you just listen to her chatter, but she actually has a soft heart for anyone in trouble or in pain. She’s a bit vain—not that I blame her with such great fur. And she’s addicted to rosehips. Before I knew it, she was threaded throughout “Earthbow”, essential to its plot, and promises to turn up in its sequel.
Bert-and-Marsha-from-Hoboken, from “Marooned”. (Or, how not to do it.) Now I ask you, do Bert & Marsha—much less Hoboken—sound like names from a fantasy novel? I wrote most of Marooned during National Novel Writing Month, a few Novembers ago. For those of you who know nothing about it, the object of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000+ words on one novel during the month of November. I had done some (legal) prepping for the challenge before November 1st of that year, by nailing down the characteristics and motives of my two principle characters. I was busily writing away one day (1667 words per day, minimum) when I realized that the protagonist needed to hear news from a neighboring village and, without telephones or computers, that meant I needed people to arrive on the scene and be eyewitnesses.
I was so rushed with trying to reach my NaNo quota for the day that I couldn’t take time to figure out names according to my naming conventions and I hadn’t a clue what the village was called. So, Bert & Marsha strolled into the village where the main characters were and announced they had fled Hoboken. I have never characterized on the fly so much in my life. Suddenly they had three children. (Or is it two?) Marsha started acting like a real dim supermom.
Bert refused to fit the role of dad. Argh! I backtracked and stuffed Bert in jail. Why? A nameless character had attacked my protagonist the previous day, and I still didn’t know anything about that person, except that they were now in jail. “Jailbird” became Bert. Combining characters solved that problem. Ah! Marsha had arrived from Hoboken to break Bert out of jail! Outstanding! Next thing you know, I realized that Bert was not who he professed to be. Poor Marsha! And like that. Whoosh! Rush characterization for a NaNoWriMo novel is so much fun.
Bert, Marsha, and Hoboken are all still awaiting their real names—but I do know a lot about them.
Sherry Thompson – author of Seabird, Earthbow – and most of Marooned.
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Resources:
Fantasy Character Background Info (workform)
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/719846-Fantasy-Character-Background-Information
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Fiction Factor – Creating Characters (numerous articles)
http://www.fictionfactor.com/characters.html
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How to Create a Character Profile Sheet
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun98/lazy2.htm
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