So, thanks to Lyla at Read By Flashlight, I discovered The Great Blogging Experiment with enough time to participate in it!
The prescribed topic is Writing Compelling Characters, which, I think, is a beautiful topic.
Much has been said on various blogs and in all sorts of books concerning what makes a character compelling. There are some things that certainly help make a compelling character, and while I agree with many aspects, there is a part of me that rebels at formula.
I think that in many cases, a better question to ask is why we dislike certain characters, often without a solid reason for doing so.
My belief: we hate these characters because we suspect that underneath all the description, the character isn't a real person.
I'm not talking about the author. The author is certainly real, but is the character that the author has written real to the author? Does the writer believe that this character could very well exist, and is a valuable and interesting person? And most importantly, does the author not take that fact for granted?
We love characters either because we believe they could exist, or because we wish that they did.
Yes, characters can be unbelievable, but they have the unbelievability that real people have. Have you looked at real people recently? Have you noticed the people in your own life who, when it boils down to it, are unbelievable? We admire great and compelling characters for much the same reason we admire great and compelling people: because they have the audacity to exist as themselves.
But there's another step between real characters and compelling characters. There are some characters that are perfectly believable, but we still hate them because we feel these characters latching onto us with greedy fingers and pulling at us, sucking up our attention and our enthusiasm like a sponge, with no recompense. Yes, we hate them because they give us nothing. We read to gain. We are willing to sacrifice our time and attention with the understanding that we will get something in return. A compelling character is one that accepts the reader's sacrifice, and gives back even more than what was expected. More heart, more interest, more honesty, more of that audaciously thrilling reality -- so that even when the book is done, we remember the character as if they had been in the same room with us.
This isn't an exhaustive guide, of course. But I believe this is the starting point.
"But words are things, and a small drop of ink / Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces / That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think." ~Lord Byron
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Friday, September 24, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Writing Meme: Character Ages [5/30]
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
A lot of my youngest characters appeared in stories that I wrote before I started writing my ‘official’ novels – and since there are more than seventy of these stories that are only a couple of pages long each, I am not counting them.
My youngest character is Sarie, the six- or seven-year-old girl who was an important character in Tears for the Silent Lands. However, she is blessed with the gift of insight and is much more advanced mentally than a lot of girls her age, so writing her character was not exactly like writing a typical young child.
Everlyse from Enchantress is next at fifteen. She is the age I was when I wrote the story, and I based much of her character and circumstances in life off of my own.
As for my oldest characters, all of the Keeper characters in Evanescent Moonlight are multiple thousands of years old. Aside from them, Mirriae from Tears for the Silent Lands is 500 years old by the end of the story.
Considering ‘youngest’ and ‘oldest’ by the time of creation, Byeron and Faeryn from The Prophet of Aenerowaye come first (they were both born about the same time). Byeron is tall, broad-shouldered, and blonde, while Faeryn is a short, slender teenager with wavy hair down to her knees. Yes, they both are about as Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu as they sound.
And the most recent character… from an ‘established’ novel, Leiss from Evanescent Moonlight was the last character to have significant details finalized, and I’m still not sure about his name. Now, there is the secret and rather embarrassing detail that I took a little break from EM and randomly started a different story about an evil sorceress named Estella and her crazy pregnant sister, but I’m sure it’s not going to last very long and for goodness’ sake don’t tell anyone about it!
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View the complete list of questions
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A lot of my youngest characters appeared in stories that I wrote before I started writing my ‘official’ novels – and since there are more than seventy of these stories that are only a couple of pages long each, I am not counting them.
My youngest character is Sarie, the six- or seven-year-old girl who was an important character in Tears for the Silent Lands. However, she is blessed with the gift of insight and is much more advanced mentally than a lot of girls her age, so writing her character was not exactly like writing a typical young child.
Everlyse from Enchantress is next at fifteen. She is the age I was when I wrote the story, and I based much of her character and circumstances in life off of my own.
As for my oldest characters, all of the Keeper characters in Evanescent Moonlight are multiple thousands of years old. Aside from them, Mirriae from Tears for the Silent Lands is 500 years old by the end of the story.
Considering ‘youngest’ and ‘oldest’ by the time of creation, Byeron and Faeryn from The Prophet of Aenerowaye come first (they were both born about the same time). Byeron is tall, broad-shouldered, and blonde, while Faeryn is a short, slender teenager with wavy hair down to her knees. Yes, they both are about as Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu as they sound.
And the most recent character… from an ‘established’ novel, Leiss from Evanescent Moonlight was the last character to have significant details finalized, and I’m still not sure about his name. Now, there is the secret and rather embarrassing detail that I took a little break from EM and randomly started a different story about an evil sorceress named Estella and her crazy pregnant sister, but I’m sure it’s not going to last very long and for goodness’ sake don’t tell anyone about it!
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View the complete list of questions
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Saturday, September 4, 2010
Writing Meme: Firsts [4/30]
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
Since in my mind I had two first novels... can I talk about them both?
My first attempt at a novel (when I was about nine or ten years old) was called Return to Romelia. It centered around a girl named Leslie who was transported by a unicorn though a magical portal in a diamond to the fantasy kingdom of Romelia, where she discovered that she was the long-lost eldest daughter of the king and queen, and that she must save the kingdom. The main reason I quit was because I couldn't figure out how on earth she would do that (and because my young mind finally realized how cliche it was). I decided at that point that while I had some talent for writing, I didn't have enough talent yet, and until I had a good idea, I should give up trying to write fiction.
So I did, for the most part (even though the whole time I was sneakily scribbling the first pages of novel wannabes). I didn’t entertain any serious novelist thoughts, though, until I joined Homeschoolblogger and found a whole host of teens my age who were writing their own novels – and who were doing a pretty good job! I congratulated them on their success in comments I left, but secretly I burned with jealousy and found myself wishing that I had a novel I was working on. So I waited impatiently for a good idea to come around.
Even so, the beginning of my second ‘first novel’ came unexpectedly. It was right after I’d finished my schoolwork for the day, and I was messing around on my parents’ old laptop and decided to start writing a random story. But that random story became more interesting as I typed it – a man lying hidden watching a road and thinking he must warn the king of something, and a princess who longed for adventure and was vaguely troubled by things she saw in her own life? I had to find out more.
The man became Byeron, a prophet who condemned the savage religion that enslaved the kingdom, and the princess became Faeryn, a girl who risked her father’s anger to free Byeron, on the condition that he would take her to meet this God he spoke of. I put in the story everything I wanted – mountains, forests, dragons, elves, nymphs, and even a great battle at the end. Faeryn embodied all the things about myself that I liked, but she was also everything that I was not. Mary-sue? Yes. Cliché in many ways? Yes. But I loved that story, and even though I often wince when I think about the faults, I still look back on it fondly. The colors and contours of that world felt so vibrant, and I could see everything clearly in my mind’s eye – more so than most of the novels I’ve written since then.
I never finished The Prophet of Aenerowaye (generally abbreviated POE, from the days when the last word started with an E. The spelling kept changing). That’s fine with me. The novel would have been a misshapen behemoth, and in any case, I learned all that I could from it. It did make it to 68,000 words, which is not a bad number at all (and more than my current WIP has at the moment). Sometimes I entertain thoughts of using the world that I created, or maybe taking one or two aspects of the story for use in some later work. Old stories are wonderful places to hunt for ideas to steal and reuse.
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View the complete list of questions
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Since in my mind I had two first novels... can I talk about them both?
My first attempt at a novel (when I was about nine or ten years old) was called Return to Romelia. It centered around a girl named Leslie who was transported by a unicorn though a magical portal in a diamond to the fantasy kingdom of Romelia, where she discovered that she was the long-lost eldest daughter of the king and queen, and that she must save the kingdom. The main reason I quit was because I couldn't figure out how on earth she would do that (and because my young mind finally realized how cliche it was). I decided at that point that while I had some talent for writing, I didn't have enough talent yet, and until I had a good idea, I should give up trying to write fiction.
So I did, for the most part (even though the whole time I was sneakily scribbling the first pages of novel wannabes). I didn’t entertain any serious novelist thoughts, though, until I joined Homeschoolblogger and found a whole host of teens my age who were writing their own novels – and who were doing a pretty good job! I congratulated them on their success in comments I left, but secretly I burned with jealousy and found myself wishing that I had a novel I was working on. So I waited impatiently for a good idea to come around.
Even so, the beginning of my second ‘first novel’ came unexpectedly. It was right after I’d finished my schoolwork for the day, and I was messing around on my parents’ old laptop and decided to start writing a random story. But that random story became more interesting as I typed it – a man lying hidden watching a road and thinking he must warn the king of something, and a princess who longed for adventure and was vaguely troubled by things she saw in her own life? I had to find out more.
The man became Byeron, a prophet who condemned the savage religion that enslaved the kingdom, and the princess became Faeryn, a girl who risked her father’s anger to free Byeron, on the condition that he would take her to meet this God he spoke of. I put in the story everything I wanted – mountains, forests, dragons, elves, nymphs, and even a great battle at the end. Faeryn embodied all the things about myself that I liked, but she was also everything that I was not. Mary-sue? Yes. Cliché in many ways? Yes. But I loved that story, and even though I often wince when I think about the faults, I still look back on it fondly. The colors and contours of that world felt so vibrant, and I could see everything clearly in my mind’s eye – more so than most of the novels I’ve written since then.
I never finished The Prophet of Aenerowaye (generally abbreviated POE, from the days when the last word started with an E. The spelling kept changing). That’s fine with me. The novel would have been a misshapen behemoth, and in any case, I learned all that I could from it. It did make it to 68,000 words, which is not a bad number at all (and more than my current WIP has at the moment). Sometimes I entertain thoughts of using the world that I created, or maybe taking one or two aspects of the story for use in some later work. Old stories are wonderful places to hunt for ideas to steal and reuse.
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View the complete list of questions
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Forums, Memes, and Writing Revelation
Yes, I confess that I am madly in love with numbered lists.
1. Thank you so much to everyone who commented with advice about Inkpop. I decided that instead of joining it, I would join Nathan Bransford's forums. The experience has already been wonderful. I have been able to talk with other teen writers who are completely serious (and who don't use chatspeak or internet slang!), and visit their awesome blogs. So many of the discussions are helpful, and when I do end up participating, I feel like I'm practing for being a professional adult writer instead of languishing in the teen world.
2. I've complained in recent posts about how poorly my writing was going. Well, last night changed a lot of things. I made my first attempt at drawing Joremn (the main character from Evanescent Moonlight), and it didn't turn out too bad, for a first attempt. (I've decided that unless you're a genius, it's impossible to draw a picture of your characters that looks just like you imagined them to be.) And then later that evening when I sat down to write, I wrote 700 words and enjoyed writing them!
This is huge for me. I had confessed to my journal that it felt like it had been months since I had actually enjoyed my writing. For so long it has been a drudgery, merely cranking out words whenever I could work myself up to it because without a climbing word count, I could never finish the novel, and thus never be free. But last night, I rediscovered the joy in it. I walked away from the computer to get ready for bed, and found myself thinking about the next bit of dialogue and how to describe my character's eyes. I had to dash back to the computer to get it down.
I think three things contributed to this: one, I downloaded Q10 on sunday.
(We interrupt this blog post for an impromptu promo: Q10 is one of the most helpful writing programs I have found. It takes up the entire screen so that you can focus on your writing alone, and it keeps constant track of your word count at the bottom of the screen. The best part is that it is completely free! Now, back to the post.)
Two, as soon as I sat down to write, my mom told me that she needed to use the computer, so I had ten minutes to write (as it turns out she got a phone call so I got to write for longer). This gave me a time limit and motivated me to get my fingers moving whereas I might have just sat staring at the screen if I had all the time in the world. And the third and most important thing was that I had been reflecting on the characters and how much I loved them. It just goes to show that good fiction is all about characters: the more you try to write a story independant of characters you love, the harder it is.
3. In other news, both Hannah and Mariella have both stolen the writing meme off of me (which I think is totally awesome -- if you want to read their answers, scroll down to the bottom of the writing meme page and you'll find the links to their posts).
1. Thank you so much to everyone who commented with advice about Inkpop. I decided that instead of joining it, I would join Nathan Bransford's forums. The experience has already been wonderful. I have been able to talk with other teen writers who are completely serious (and who don't use chatspeak or internet slang!), and visit their awesome blogs. So many of the discussions are helpful, and when I do end up participating, I feel like I'm practing for being a professional adult writer instead of languishing in the teen world.
2. I've complained in recent posts about how poorly my writing was going. Well, last night changed a lot of things. I made my first attempt at drawing Joremn (the main character from Evanescent Moonlight), and it didn't turn out too bad, for a first attempt. (I've decided that unless you're a genius, it's impossible to draw a picture of your characters that looks just like you imagined them to be.) And then later that evening when I sat down to write, I wrote 700 words and enjoyed writing them!
This is huge for me. I had confessed to my journal that it felt like it had been months since I had actually enjoyed my writing. For so long it has been a drudgery, merely cranking out words whenever I could work myself up to it because without a climbing word count, I could never finish the novel, and thus never be free. But last night, I rediscovered the joy in it. I walked away from the computer to get ready for bed, and found myself thinking about the next bit of dialogue and how to describe my character's eyes. I had to dash back to the computer to get it down.
I think three things contributed to this: one, I downloaded Q10 on sunday.
(We interrupt this blog post for an impromptu promo: Q10 is one of the most helpful writing programs I have found. It takes up the entire screen so that you can focus on your writing alone, and it keeps constant track of your word count at the bottom of the screen. The best part is that it is completely free! Now, back to the post.)
Two, as soon as I sat down to write, my mom told me that she needed to use the computer, so I had ten minutes to write (as it turns out she got a phone call so I got to write for longer). This gave me a time limit and motivated me to get my fingers moving whereas I might have just sat staring at the screen if I had all the time in the world. And the third and most important thing was that I had been reflecting on the characters and how much I loved them. It just goes to show that good fiction is all about characters: the more you try to write a story independant of characters you love, the harder it is.
3. In other news, both Hannah and Mariella have both stolen the writing meme off of me (which I think is totally awesome -- if you want to read their answers, scroll down to the bottom of the writing meme page and you'll find the links to their posts).
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Writing Meme: What's In a Name? [3/30]
3. How do you come up with names for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
Coming up with names is one of my favorite aspects of character and world creation. When I have time for it, that is. So many times I just want to go ahead with my writing, but I’m hung up with having to name this character. Usually I have to pause while I come up with a decent enough name, telling myself that I’ll fix it later. Most of the time I can’t get around to finding a better name before the temporary name starts to stick, so it’s better for me to do it right the first time.
Here’s my system for completely made-up names: I choose sounds and letter combinations that convey a certain feeling (at least to me), and then I try combining them. For example, here are some feminine sounds that I favor:
Another thing I do (particularly when I’m trying to come up with a guy name – I’m not as good at coming up with masculine sounds) is go to Rinkworks’ Fantasy Name Generator and generate a couple of dozen names (or so). There are bound to be a few that look promising, and after a little tweaking (and sound stealing), I almost always end up with a few good names.
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View the complete list of questions
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Coming up with names is one of my favorite aspects of character and world creation. When I have time for it, that is. So many times I just want to go ahead with my writing, but I’m hung up with having to name this character. Usually I have to pause while I come up with a decent enough name, telling myself that I’ll fix it later. Most of the time I can’t get around to finding a better name before the temporary name starts to stick, so it’s better for me to do it right the first time.
Here’s my system for completely made-up names: I choose sounds and letter combinations that convey a certain feeling (at least to me), and then I try combining them. For example, here are some feminine sounds that I favor:
- riel
- lyn
- ae
- etta
- v
- Vettalyn
- Lynariel
- Lynetta
- Aelyn
- Ettariel
- Vaeriel
- Lynaev
Another thing I do (particularly when I’m trying to come up with a guy name – I’m not as good at coming up with masculine sounds) is go to Rinkworks’ Fantasy Name Generator and generate a couple of dozen names (or so). There are bound to be a few that look promising, and after a little tweaking (and sound stealing), I almost always end up with a few good names.
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View the complete list of questions
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Thursday, August 26, 2010
I think it was Authorial Indecision, in the Closet, with a Bad Haircut.
And now, because I cannot think of a single topic worthy of an entire blog post, how about a bombardment?
1. I would like to join Inkpop. I need to ask permission of my parents before I can join any site (family rules), and I know that if I asked I would most likely get a yes, but I've put off posing the question.
Why? Whenever I visit the site and browse the forums, I wish I was a member.
But at the same time, I don't feel ready yet. For one, I don't have a story that's in good enough condition to post on there. And for another, I want to be sure that I'm not jumping into something that ends up being a drain on my energy and doesn't add anything to my life. I've had enough of those experiences, and I want to break away from my habit of over-committing myself.
On the other hand, I would like to be involved on a site where I could exchange reviews and work on refining my craft without worrying so much about running into evil adult writers. (And no, I'm not talking about stalkers. I'm talking about adults with trashy minds who write what's in their heads.) At least with a teen-oriented site there might be a little more quality control than, say, FictionPress. (I have an account on there and was looking at getting involved, but as soon as I started posting on one of the forums, I looked around and realized I'd thrown myself into a crowd that might say adult things at any moment.)
So... I don't know. I'm still debating.
2. Meanwhile, I have my little Writing Conscience in the back of my mind jumping up and down and screaming, "FINISH EM!!!!" So perhaps my struggles in coming up with a brand-spanking-new story for Inkpop are deserved, since I'm being unfaithful to the story that really deserves to be worked on.
("Deserves," scoffs the inner editor -- or Inner Ed, as I like to call him. "Bah. What a misapplication of a perfectly good word. Or have you forgotten about the poor characterization, lack of description, contradictions, structural faults, boring chapters, unrealistic dialogue..." And on he goes. I can't wait for NaNoWriMo when I get to tie him up and lock him in my Trunk of Things To Be Stringently Ignored.)
3. Oh yes, EM? Going well, if you can say that about a story where the two main characters just lost their wits and got in a fight without my permission. Since from certain points of view character rebellion is a good sign, I'm taking it as such -- even if the 'good sign' does involve me hanging on for dear life and wondering where this is going to end up...
1. I would like to join Inkpop. I need to ask permission of my parents before I can join any site (family rules), and I know that if I asked I would most likely get a yes, but I've put off posing the question.
Why? Whenever I visit the site and browse the forums, I wish I was a member.
But at the same time, I don't feel ready yet. For one, I don't have a story that's in good enough condition to post on there. And for another, I want to be sure that I'm not jumping into something that ends up being a drain on my energy and doesn't add anything to my life. I've had enough of those experiences, and I want to break away from my habit of over-committing myself.
On the other hand, I would like to be involved on a site where I could exchange reviews and work on refining my craft without worrying so much about running into evil adult writers. (And no, I'm not talking about stalkers. I'm talking about adults with trashy minds who write what's in their heads.) At least with a teen-oriented site there might be a little more quality control than, say, FictionPress. (I have an account on there and was looking at getting involved, but as soon as I started posting on one of the forums, I looked around and realized I'd thrown myself into a crowd that might say adult things at any moment.)
So... I don't know. I'm still debating.
2. Meanwhile, I have my little Writing Conscience in the back of my mind jumping up and down and screaming, "FINISH EM!!!!" So perhaps my struggles in coming up with a brand-spanking-new story for Inkpop are deserved, since I'm being unfaithful to the story that really deserves to be worked on.
("Deserves," scoffs the inner editor -- or Inner Ed, as I like to call him. "Bah. What a misapplication of a perfectly good word. Or have you forgotten about the poor characterization, lack of description, contradictions, structural faults, boring chapters, unrealistic dialogue..." And on he goes. I can't wait for NaNoWriMo when I get to tie him up and lock him in my Trunk of Things To Be Stringently Ignored.)
3. Oh yes, EM? Going well, if you can say that about a story where the two main characters just lost their wits and got in a fight without my permission. Since from certain points of view character rebellion is a good sign, I'm taking it as such -- even if the 'good sign' does involve me hanging on for dear life and wondering where this is going to end up...
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Writing Meme: Male or Female Characters? [2/30]
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
I don't think I can put a number on my characters. Counting both major and minor characters, each novel I've worked on has at least ten, sometimes more. That would put the number of characters I've worked with at more than 50. No wonder I can't keep track of them.
For me, the answer to the male/female question is full of irony. I love male characters: you can do more with them, and they pack a punch that you can't quite get with a girl character.* On the other hand, I'm not good at writing male characters, while I can write female characters pretty well. (I am one, after all.) The problem is that I don't come into contact with males frequently. (Aside from my dad, but there’s only so much you can learn when you only have ONE specimen to observe in detail.) Ever since I discovered just how effeminate I'd made my guy characters, I've been trying my best to fix the problem. It's difficult for a girl to ‘think man’ when she doesn’t know what exactly that means.
But now that my eyes are opened, I see many girl writers falling into the same problem. I think that female writers who don't have a lot of guys in their lives tend to believe subconsciously that at the heart of every man is a woman that needs to be emotionally liberated. It’s absolutely ridiculous, I know, but I believed it myself for a while. I have read so much fanfiction (even from fanwriters who are excellent at their craft), portraying guys having emotional breakdowns that mirror what a woman would have in the same situation. Granted, the writers had the decency to put the guys through a lot more to get them to break down, but the end result was still the same.
Girls, be careful about your guy characters, especially if you don’t know very many guys.
To everyone else, do you have any advice on writing guys? I am trying to garner as much wisdom on this subject as I can, because I respect mankind and want to portray them accurately.
*Note -- I am not trying to discriminate against anyone, but you cannot get around the truth: a woman can never be a very good man, just as a man can never be a very good woman. The two sexes are equal, but they specialize in different areas. And when I say that a female character cannot 'pack the same punch', what I mean is that there are some character roles that are better suited to men. We women get so used to dealing with emotion that in some ways, it doesn't mean as much. But when a man feels an emotion, it is rough-hewn and stronger. That's why when an author wants to get across the grave emotion of a situation, he will so often use a male character. Tears from a man tells the reader that this is real.
I don't think I can put a number on my characters. Counting both major and minor characters, each novel I've worked on has at least ten, sometimes more. That would put the number of characters I've worked with at more than 50. No wonder I can't keep track of them.
For me, the answer to the male/female question is full of irony. I love male characters: you can do more with them, and they pack a punch that you can't quite get with a girl character.* On the other hand, I'm not good at writing male characters, while I can write female characters pretty well. (I am one, after all.) The problem is that I don't come into contact with males frequently. (Aside from my dad, but there’s only so much you can learn when you only have ONE specimen to observe in detail.) Ever since I discovered just how effeminate I'd made my guy characters, I've been trying my best to fix the problem. It's difficult for a girl to ‘think man’ when she doesn’t know what exactly that means.
But now that my eyes are opened, I see many girl writers falling into the same problem. I think that female writers who don't have a lot of guys in their lives tend to believe subconsciously that at the heart of every man is a woman that needs to be emotionally liberated. It’s absolutely ridiculous, I know, but I believed it myself for a while. I have read so much fanfiction (even from fanwriters who are excellent at their craft), portraying guys having emotional breakdowns that mirror what a woman would have in the same situation. Granted, the writers had the decency to put the guys through a lot more to get them to break down, but the end result was still the same.
Girls, be careful about your guy characters, especially if you don’t know very many guys.
To everyone else, do you have any advice on writing guys? I am trying to garner as much wisdom on this subject as I can, because I respect mankind and want to portray them accurately.
*Note -- I am not trying to discriminate against anyone, but you cannot get around the truth: a woman can never be a very good man, just as a man can never be a very good woman. The two sexes are equal, but they specialize in different areas. And when I say that a female character cannot 'pack the same punch', what I mean is that there are some character roles that are better suited to men. We women get so used to dealing with emotion that in some ways, it doesn't mean as much. But when a man feels an emotion, it is rough-hewn and stronger. That's why when an author wants to get across the grave emotion of a situation, he will so often use a male character. Tears from a man tells the reader that this is real.
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