Sarah E. Morin's Blog, page 7

Speed-Dating with My Characters: Results

So you’re probably wondering, how did speed-dating with my characters go?

Fascinating, weird, fun, and very very informative.

In case you missed my diabolical scheme in my last post, my boyfriend and I came up with a roleplaying exercise to help me get to know my characters. I printed about 100 speed-dating questions from the internet. He randomly asked me questions from the list, which I answered as my main characters. We meant to go for 7 minutes max, but Sausha, my extroverted character, just wouldn’t shut up. I even had my cell phone recording and timing us, but hey, she’s hard to control.

We held out speed-dating session at a garden at my Alma Mater, Butler University, because it happened to be halfway between our two other events from the day. Which meant all this playacting was happening in public, in a gazebo.

Have I mentioned I have an extraordinary boyfriend?

I don’t think a lot of people overheard us, though. The person most surprised by my first entrance, as one of my two main characters, Dwyn, was probably my boyfriend. I tried to change my voice and body language to fit her. He looked at me like, “Uh, who is this?” But he’s a talented actor and director so he rolled with it.

Here’s a clip.

https://sarahemorin.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/dwyn.mp3

Keep in mind this is an early sketch of the character. I wasn’t worried about anachronisms or slips in language or accent so much as tone and personality.

One of the most helpful things to me was not rehearsing ahead of time. That’s why I printed 100 questions, so I would never know which question was coming. And my boyfriend was good at improvising follow-up questions, which kept me on my toes. In a real speed date, I would have asked him more questions back. As it was, with the emphasis on me, it forced me to keep the pace lively and not overthink. Sometimes I was surprised at what come out of my mouth, or how it came out.

I learned, for example, just how resentful and isolated Dwyn is. Her mother overprotects her because of a medical condition that causes severe bruising. I may have to, in future sketches, lighten Dwyn up a little- or a lot. But this is early Dwyn, at the start of the book, and her character will grow.

I also discovered Dwyn whispers and murmurs a lot. She is a character who never leaves the palace, therefore she perpetually uses her “indoor voice.” When I processed the recording through a sound editor, the wavlengths in the audio file were very small. She also sits very limply. And she lies. It was hard to figure out when to tell my “date” the truth for the sake of recording the answer, and when to disguise my true thoughts as Dwyn might. She doesn’t want anyone to pity her, so I probably confessed more on my date than Dwyn really would have.

After 7 minutes I walked away, shook my limbs out, and reentered the gazebo as Sausha, Dwyn’s twin sister. Right away I noticed how differently they moved. Sausha stomps across the floor, in a hurry. Dwyn clicks in her formal shoes, every movement deliberate and measured. You can hear the difference just a bit in the recordings.

https://sarahemorin.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/sausha-1.mp3

At this point a bride in a full white gown peeked into the gazebo with a photographer and asked if she could take her wedding day pictures there.  Turns out 3 different bridal parties were taking pictures in the gardens that day. That’s what you get for doing crazy shenanigans in a flower garden on a Saturday in June!

My boy friend, Sausha, and I headed for a shady bench to continue the conversation.

https://sarahemorin.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/sausha-2.mp3

This is not the entire speed date (I edited a bit for clarity and time). But in editing Sausha, I noticed how much bigger her sound waves are than Dwyn. She’s loud.

Final speed-dating test: which character would get asked on a second date? My boyfriend very wisely said he preferred the author. But then both of us agreed that right now Sausha is more likeable than Dwyn. Dwyn has some real jealousy issues, which is part of the plot, but I will have to do something to redeem her character as we progress. In Waking Beauty, this was a comment several social media reviewers made about Brierly. “She was hard to like for the first half of the book, until I understood her/she began to change.” I personally love stories of the redeemed brat (see Edmund Pevensie and Eustace Scrubb in Narnia), but I also found the social media comments useful: glowing when they were glowing, but the suggestions for improvement were fair.

I loved how loud, frank, and friendly Sausha was. I enjoyed inhabiting her. My boyfriend and I both got the sense she is not as funny as she thinks she was, although she is fun. I found I kept smacking my boyfriend on the arm to emphasize points. The real me kept me from putting as much force in it as I sensed Sausah would have. But as my boyfriend said in analysis, “I got the sense if you ever crossed her, she’d kill you.” Yup, Sausha can be cheerful – and even egotistical – because everything has always gone her way. She takes her privileges for granted. What will happen if that place of honor is ever taken away?

Well, you’ll have to read the book.

I am going to repeat the exercise in about a month. I expect Dwyn will change more than Sausha will in the interim.

Want to try speed dating with your characters for yourself?

It’s fun and a great brainstorming technique, and will make your friends and loved ones think you are crazy. Give it a try! Try the speed dating questions I used. They are already spaced for you to cut into strips, put in a jar, and draw out randomly. Let me know how it turns out!

 

 

 

 

 

Some images on this page courtesy of artur84 and phaendin at freedigitalphotos.net.

Speed-Dating with My Characters

Ok, don’t think I’m weird. I’m going speed-dating with my characters.

 

I blame my boyfriend.

“How’s the writing going, honey?”

“So-so. I have the outline all done, but the characters aren’t talking to me yet.”

At this point, a normal boyfriend would question my sanity. But I don’t have an ordinary boyfriend. I have an extraordinary one.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I can’t hear their voices. So I can’t just throw them into the scene because I don’t know what they’ll say, how they’ll react. I’ve never had this before. I need to bond with them, get to know them before I take them out on the town, you know?”

“You could go speed dating.”

He was joking. But my brain said, “Yeah! I could!”

If you aren’t familiar with speed dating, it’s a modern matchmaking phenomenon. Large gatherings of speed daters are paired up into couples. You have 3-10 minutes to ask each other questions. At the end of the time a bell rings and you change partners. You have a minute between rounds to grade each other and make notes. At the end of the evening, you exchange contact info if you like.

I have never been speed dating, but some of my friends have. It sounds fascinating. You must make the most of your time. And if you don’t hit it off, you move along, no harm, no foul.

After cruising a few too many speed dating sites tonight (most of them British, don’t ask me why, except maybe dating in a British accent is always attractive), I have come up with the following speed dating plan:

I google “speed dating questions” and print off the lists from a few sites.


I cut the questions into separate strips and place them in a jar.


I find a willing victim to play the part of my “date.”


I make nametags for all my main characters, and maybe a prop.


I arrange a room with a table and chairs and place my willing victim in one of the chairs.


When I enter the room, I will introduce myself as one of my own main characters.


We start a timer for 7 minutes.


My “date” asks me questions drawn from the jar.


The timer rings and I leave. My willing victim has one minute to write down a few words about what they thought of me.


I come in as my next character.

My goal is not to overthink but to go with my first impulse. I also want to respond with the body language, tone of voice, level of confidence, and expression I feel is appropriate for the character. Basically, I am in character for the entire date. I will be making up some stuff as I go along. In fact, I think anachronistic questions will be to my benefit. Ask a medieval fantasy character what songs are on her playlist right now? Her favorite cartoon character? Why not? It gets me thinking outside the box, and more about personality.

At the end of the evening my date and I will compare notes. If any versions of my main characters were just not working, we’ll ditch those. I’ll agree to see the best versions of my characters again—on the page, of course.

I’ll let you know how it works!

 

 

Who to love: Hamilton or 1776?

I am allowed to love both Hamilton and 1776, the musicals?

Why certain-LEE.

But I am torn because 1776 had a major influence on my teen years, and inspired me to write my own musical about women’s rights. I love Hamilton’s rapid wordplay, commentary on immigration, and accessibility to modern audiences. But I worry, when I talk to my youth at work (who can -and do – break into long passages of Hamilton at the slightest provocation) that while they will gain respect for Hamilton’s contributions they will lose all respect for other founding fathers (namely John Adams, one of my favorites). The only character who comes off looking at least okay in both musicals is George Washington.

I suppose it can’t be helped. 1776 is told from John’s POV, and Hamilton from…well duh. And they were both opinionated, flawed, ambitious individuals. They weren’t exactly in sync with each other.

 

Both musicals, ironically, deal with the question of the main character being forgotten to history.

In 1776, John Adams predicts that Benjamin Franklin and Washington will be credited for the Revolution.

“Franklin smote the ground and out sprang—George Washington. Fully grown, and on his horse. Franklin then electrified them with his magnificent lightning rod and the three of them—Franklin, Washington, and the horse—conducted the entire Revolution all by themselves.”

 

John Adams

 

And the entire musical of Hamilton ends with the Song “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.”

 “Every other founding father gets to grow old.

Every other founding father’s story gets told.”

 

And throughout the musical, we hear “You have no control who tells your story.”

Alexander Hamilton

 

So today, on Independence Day, I guess I would just hope we look at the Revolution as an event that didn’t involve just one or two “great men of history” (or even “great women of history,” thank you very much Abigail Adams). The Revolution took the lives of thousands of complex people, their stories, dreams, and flaws interwoven into history. Some, nameless, perished on the battlefield of war or public opinion. But all deserve our attention on this day.

Yes, yes, I hear you saying, “Sit down, John.” I climb off my soapbox. Happy Independence Day, all! Go celebrate with fireworks – and maybe a musical.

Christy Awards Announced Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a big day. The Christy Awards will be announced at 4pm EDT Monday on the Christy website. And Waking Beauty is a finalist!

 
What’s a Christy Award?

The Christy Award is designed to:

Nurture and encourage creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview.
Showcase the diversity of genres.

I’ve been excited by these awards ever since my favorite living author, Karen Hancock, wrote about it on her blog. She made the finalist list 5 times and won 4, for the Legends of the Guardian King series and Arena.

How did it get the name “Christy?”

Because of one of my favorite books, Christy, by Catherine Marshall. Over 10 million copies of this book are in publication, so you may have heard of it. You may also be familiar with the TV series from the 1990s. I watched this show in my formative teen years, shall I say – religiously? But the book is better. It gives a nuanced portrait of Cutter Gap, a poor but proud community in the Appalachians in the early 1900s. Christy, a naïve but determined schoolteacher, tries to help the children of the community. She makes a lots of mistakes with her bull-headed approach, but her love for these people teaches her valuable lessons about perseverance, faith, friendship, tragedy, and love.

The entire list of 2016 Christy finalists is on their website.

I want to give a shout out to the other finalists in the Visionary Category, because hey, Christian spec fic is my thing!

What happens when you live longer than you wanted to?

Parvin Blackwater wanted to die, but now she’s being called to be a leader. The only problem is, no one wants to follow.

The Council uses Jude’s Clock-matching invention to force “new-and-improved” Clocks on the public. Those who can’t afford one are packed into boxcars like cattle and used for the Council’s purposes.

Parvin and Hawke find themselves on a cargo ship of Radicals headed out to sea. What will the Council do to them? And why are people suddenly dying before their Clocks have zeroed-out?

Book Two in the “Out of Time” series.

Nadine is one of my Enclave sisters. I’ve met her, she’s super-nice, and her series is GREAT!

What if you met your twenty-three-year-old self in a dream? What would you say?

Brock Matthews’ once promising life is unraveling. His coffee company. His marriage.

So when he discovers his vivid dreams—where he encounters his younger self—might let him change his past mistakes, he jumps at the chance. The results are astonishing, but also disturbing.

Because getting what Brock wants most in the world will force him to give up the one thing he doesn’t know how to let go . . . and his greatest fear is that it’s already too late.

I have not read Five Things yet, but the premise sounds fascinating!

What if the sleeping beauty refused to wake up? 

The rescue wasn’t going at all how he planned. Prince Arpien intends to gain a throne and the sleeping beauty’s heart with a single kiss that wakes her from the evil fairy’s curse. But kissing the princess is only the beginning of a series of unforeseen obstacles: man-eating bugs, deadly spindles, talking lapdogs, and fiery pickles. The sleeping beauty is the biggest complication of all.

Princess Brierly is beautiful and Fairy-Gifted, but also…daft. After one hundred years of sleep imprisonment, Brierly refuses to believe this rescue is anything more than a tantalizing but doomed dream.

Arpien is drawn to the vibrancy beneath Brierly’s indifferent exterior. Can they reclaim her kingdom? Do they dare trust in the Prince of the old tales to help them battle the evil fairy who cursed Brierly? What is the price of waking beauty?

That’s mine, of course! I am so honored to be included in this list.

This next one is not in the Visionary category, but the Young Adult Category. R.J. Anderson is also one of my Enclave sisters, so I wanted to include her wonderful book!

The last time Timothy broke a rule, he got suspended. But when he defies the faery empress, it might well get him killed.

Timothy Sinclair doesn’t believe in faeries—after all the hardships he’s suffered since his missionary parents sent him away to boarding school, he’s not even sure he still believes in God. But when a tiny winged girl named Linden bursts into his life and begs him to help save her people, the skeptical Timothy finds himself drawn into a struggle against a potent evil that threatens humans and faeries alike.

With a deadly pair of hunters on their trail, Timothy and Linden flee across country, drawn by the legend of a white stone that could be the faeries’ salvation. But the dangers that await them test their courage and resolve to the limit, threatening to tear their unlikely partnership apart. And when it comes down to one last desperate battle, they and all the people they love will be doomed unless Linden and Timothy can find the faith to overcome…

I wish all the Christy finalists the best and thank them for giving me scads of good material to read.

My Sediments Exactly

Cruising the web this week, I found my new favorite internet typo:

“My sediments exactly!”

This little gem appeared in the comments section of a blog post. Two days later I cannot remember what the main article was about, but I am still chortling about the sediments.

For the record:

sediment – the matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid. The dregs. Examples could include pebbles, silt, or sand.

 

sentiment – a feeling, opinion, or attitude

 

image by Prawny at freedigitalphotos.net

I can only assume our well-intentioned commentator intended the latter. When I see things like this, the little Grammar Patrol imps in my head turn on the siren in their Grammar Patrol car and hunt down the perpetrator. However, today I am enjoying thinking of ways I can legitimately incorporate this new phrase into my day.

 

While swimming in a river:

“Ew! Don’t put your feet down! It feels gross!”

“My sediments exactly.”

 

image by Yongkiet at freedigitalphotos.net

“Honey, it’s time to clean out the fish tank.”

“My sediments exactly.”

image by PANPOTE at freedigitalphotos.net

“Stir the sweet tea a bit longer. I still see sugar on the bottom.”

“My sediments exactly.”

image by tiverylucky@freedigitalphotos.net

 

What are some of your favorite easily confused words?

As Miss Manners would say, “Let’s clean up our language, gentle readers.” And those are…

Collaboration is a Hoot

Last night my friend KK and I attended First Friday at Nickel Plate Arts. The evening was also the opening reception for a new exhibit: Creating Indiana Together, which focuses on collaboration in our creative community. I’m pleased to say one of the collaborative works on display involved me and two of my favorite creative ladies: Alys Caviness-Gober and Sue Payne!

Alys is my NICE buddy (we co-founded Noblesville Interdisciplinary Creativity Expo last year, which invites artists of any medium to make pieces inspired by classic literature). And Sue is the beloved spinning team mentor for my youth at Conner Prairie. We have collaborated on getting young’uns to spinning practices and outreaches for years! But this was my first time working with Sue on an artistic project of our own.

It was Alys who proposed we three join forces. Alys is so magnetic and bubbly – I just can’t say no to her! (And I really didn’t want to say no – I love these ladies.) Her idea was these we each create a piece in our favorite medium about owls, connecting it to how the love of art is passed through families. Our title:

Through An Owl’s Eyes: Generations

Sue was already an owl devotee. I have wanted to steal several pieces of her owl jewelry for years. But I especially love her adorable textiles owls, which she crafts from wool and other materials. She was recently juried into the Hamilton County Artists Association for her textiles artistry.

I had to keep reminding myself not to touch the art, because I really just wanted to pick one up and cuddle it. And don’t you love the wise old owl here with the glasses? Sue’s husband John crafted those spectacles.

I love Alys’ distinctive painting style – her colors and textures. Of course there is purple! (Alys’ signature color is purple. She even wears purple glasses.) She captured the whimsy of a family of owls–which afterward she realized could be stand-ins for her own family!

Sue and Alys had their pieces completed well before I finished my poem. But this proved a great advantage, because I truly let their work inspire me, especially the colors and the whimsy. My great challenge was trying to figure out how to write about the love of art being passed down through families of owls, when owls (to my knowledge) do not paint, sew, or tat. It all started to come together when I thought about how some artistic people I know, the slightly otherworldly kind who wear long colorful peasant skirts and dangling earrings, are called “strange birds.”

I also thought about a recent visit with my musician dad. We both play the euphonium, and it’s not uncommon for us to wax eloquent over the difference between conical bores and cylindrical bores. We must seem like strange birds, too!

I jotted down some puns, word-images, and phrases. But it was actually the frame that determined the form of my poem. I wanted five floating stanzas, each with five lines, and the title in the middle. Would you believe I found the perfect frame at Meijer -a family tree for the owls to hang out in?

 

Sorry for the glare! Here’s the poem:

STRANGE BIRDS

 

They call us strange birds,

But weirdness is a family value in this

eccentric flock of artists,

these friends of Harry Potter and Athena.

this nerd bird herd.

 

We are the artists who haunt the night hours.

We hunt for the succulent word,

that particular shade of moonlight,

swoop in to nab

the original idea.

 

We are the artists who are born with farseeing eyes

and piercing vision.

We are not afraid to stare life head-on,

or blink, look again,

and swivel our heads in directions no other would.

 

We are the artists who ruffle feathers,

who question why and what if and WHO.

Our lyrics encompass a musical and harsh vocabulary.

We hoot, screech, whistle, bark, growl, hiss.

Some call us wise, some quirky, some scary.

 

We are the artists who hole up when others scurry.

We nest in our own introversion.

But when the canvas of the sky is blank and black,

we paint it with our wings

in spirals.

 

And here’s what we all look like together:

Hey, we match! I love it. Isn’t it great how three very different artists can complement each other? (And later, compliment each other. We met up at the reception and each voted the other two the best in show.)

I can’t wait to work with these ladies again!

The evening also featured music by McHalo and other great collaborative pieces. “Six in the City” was one of my favorite projects. Artists divided a picture into six pieces. Each artist painting a section, and the finished product was all six segments joined together.

KK and I tried our own hand at painting while we were there! The idea was to depict how we feel about Indiana. KK is amazing at color matching. I am hiring her to decorate my house one day. I was going for sunsets and the Hoosier Heartland. It’s been years since I picked up a paintbrush. I found it even more relaxing than an adult coloring book. I think I got more paint on my palette than my canvas, though.

Creating Indiana Together will be an exhibit at Nickel Plate Arts through the end of April.

Audiobook Review: Eight Great Fairy Tales Rewritten from a Christian Perspective

Meet the guy who put the Christian back into Hans Christian Andersen. Author Doug Verner retells eight fairy tales, most of them well-known, as Christian parables.

I was charmed by this tiny audiobook (about an hour in length). Each fairy tale lasts 5-8 fast-paced, entertaining minutes. Just long enough to catch the drift of the story and the author’s new twist on the tale, without feeling bogged down.

Reader Nadia May is a pleasant and upbeat narrator. I have heard voice actors who put a greater variety in their characters’ voices, but I find nothing to complain about in her brisk, cheerful, and at times tongue-in-cheek interpretation. She makes me feel like I’m in the school library, cozily tucked up on my carpet square by my favorite librarian.

Image courtesy of iosphere at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

I was dismayed to find Verner’s work has not found nearly the attention it deserves yet. True, the parallels are not subtle, nor are they intended to be. They are allegorical, where one thing represents another almost 100%. So much of whether you enjoy these stories will depend on how you feel about allegories and Christianity. If you are a fan of Paul Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, you’ll find much to admire about these illustrations of the Christian journey.

Plus, these fairy tales have a touch more whimsy thrown in. “Little Red Righteous Hood?” What a delicious pun. The parody of The Princess and the Pea mirrors Hans Christian Andersen’s original so closely it’s rather brilliant how the author finds new meaning in the old tale.

 

So far I have not been able to find this work in any kind of written format, only audiobook. Seems a shame because I could envision a Sunday School teacher reading a piece aloud over a period of eight weeks. Or picking five favorites and featuring one a day for a VBS week, possibly having the kids act it out.

But it would be a mistake to limit these stories to children. Like Narnia, the adult who reads these fairy tales will find more depth in them, because she has more life experience. Take the retelling of The Gingerbread Man. In Verner’s version, he’s the “Runaway Man,” a backsliding Christian. The sing-song retelling has some of the resonance and tenderness of the parable of the Prodigal Son. The characters chasing the Runaway Man are now his parents, his Sunday School teacher, and many others who care about his welfare. And the crafty old fox who offers to carry him across the river? Oh, guess who that is! I could see an adult class taking on one fairy tale each week and then discussing the real-life applications.

Image courtesy of posterize at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I hope more listeners discover Verner’s work, and that he expands these delightful tales into other formats. They could lead to entertaining introspection on the Christian life.

Fantasy Release! This Peculiar Magic

So excited for my friend Jenny Kalahar! Her latest book, This Peculiar Magic, was just released!

I wanted to put that exciting news out there first! Now, since I have the privilege of knowing this fabulous author, I want to give you a wee bit of personal story.

I met Jenny by means of coffee. Her husband Patrick, a talented poet, attended our Noble Poets meeting a little over a year ago. We are a small group of community poets who gather at the Noble Tea and Coffee Company in downtown Noblesville, Indiana, every 3rd Tuesday and provide feedback on our poems. Think of Starbucks but waaaaaay homier. The baristas are friendly and even know my weird order when they see me (diet caffeine-free Coke with sugar-free white chocolate syrup, no ice. Don’t judge me).

Anyway, after I read my poem, Patrick told me, “You and Jenny should meet. You have a similar whimsical style.”

And boy, was he right! When Jenny came next time to join our group, her humorous poetry (yet with a depth) really appealed to me. The first line of her own writing I heard her utter was, “No, we do not have a dinosaur.” I was hooked. Though slightly saddened by the dearth of dinosaurs, which I had never thought to mourn til that moment.

She also comes up with word-images that really stick in your head. Like one about a shut-up room where the dust is made of old-lady skin flakes.

I should mention Jenny and Patrick and founding members of their own poetry club, the Last Stanza. Any club name based on a pun is automatically awesome. They also run a rare and used bookstore, The Story Shop. And Patrick sometimes performs as Edgar Allan Poe.

You should read this book because Jenny is a vivid and humorous writer, but also, if bias can be allowed, because she is a really sweet lady!

Jenny has released multiple poetry collections and novels. Check out her website.

 

  

 

 

 

Nickel Plate Arts Author Showcase

I’m headed back to one of my favorite venues for local artists, Nickel Plate Arts! This time, I’m hanging out with some great fellow/sister writers in the community. We’re each giving a short talk about a subject that will inspire YOU! (Think a mini TED Talk. Super-mini. Like instead of a TED Talk maybe it’s a TE Talk, but still fantastic.) I’m excited to be inspired!

Free on Kindle today – Dauntless

Oo, I’ve been watching and waiting for this to come out! It’s Bethany House, which publishes some of my favorite Christian fiction. And if I am reading the Robin Hood vibes right – yea! I have not read it yet but looks great! Free today on Kindle.

 

 

She looks spunky, right?

Where Legend and History Collide,  

One Young Woman Will Fight for the Innocent

Born a baron’s daughter, Lady Merry Ellison is now an enemy of the throne after her father’s failed assassination attempt upon the king. Bold and uniquely skilled, she is willing to go to any lengths to protect the orphaned children of her former village–a group that becomes known as “The Ghosts of Farthingale Forest.” Merry finds her charge more difficult as their growing notoriety brings increasing trouble their way.

Timothy Grey, ninth child of the Baron of Greyham, longs to perform some feat so legendary that he will rise from obscurity and earn a title of his own. When the Ghosts of Farthingale Forest are spotted in Wyndeshire, where he serves as assistant to the local earl, he might have found his chance. But when he comes face-to-face with the leader of the thieves, he’s forced to reexamine everything he’s known.

 

 

Congrats, Dina Sleiman! Can’t wait to read this!