Susan Rivers's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-characters"
Letting the Characters Have Their Say
Building a primary character is a difficult process to describe to someone who is not a writer, mainly because the process is so intuitive. But if I try to look at it analytically, I estimate that crafting a character in a novel is about 45% imagination, 40% lived experience, 10% researched detail and 5% the character's own input.
The character's own input, you ask? Don't you mean your input, masked as the character's?
A licensed therapist would no doubt disagree with me and schedule me for an emergency appointment when I answer that NO, I definitely mean that the character herself (himself) is steering her own course in the story.
Here's how it works for me: while I don't outline in the traditional sense, I do make notes on the key story elements I want to cover, I identify the key message or theme, and I often have the final scene of the novel sketched in vague terms, as a destination I'm aiming for.
Additionally, if I'm clear on the story I'm telling (always useful before launching into a full-length book), then I'm just as clear on the primary characters, with a protagonist in mind, an antagonist, some very basic notion of the climactic scene and the protagonist's obstacle or problem described in general terms. In other words, I try to have some form of working structure into which I can fit and connect the fragments of writing that begin to be generated, in a trickle initially, but eventually come pouring out in a torrent.
The funny thing is that once I'm on my way with the story, having provided essential exposition, established the setting, introduced the main characters, and started the ball rolling with the igniting incident (identifying the problem or issue that's going to move us toward the climax) -- or about 30-40 pages in -- the characters begin to move out ahead of me. It's as if they are complete enough at this point to be guided by their own desires, motives and values, and they will sometimes intercede if I try steering them in a direction they believe to be false.
For instance, I have a very clear recollection of my heroine, Placidia Hockaday, determining her own direction as I was drafting The Second Mrs. Hockaday. In my notes, I had anticipated that she would be somewhat susceptible to the flirtatious charms of her step-brother-in-law, Floyd Parris, while her new husband Gryffth was gone fighting the Civil War. I felt that as a 17 year-old, she would be fairly easily misled by someone as sophisticated and solicitous as this older man. However, I had not counted on Placidia's steely resolve, nor the intensity of her feelings for Major Hockaday. She told me quite plainly that allowing herself to be seduced by Floyd was an absurd choice for her to make, and that I better reconsider it! I did, and the novel was much more satisfying for Placidia's knowing herself so well.
Now I have learned to trust my characters' input in the process of novel-writing, and was firmly guided from the start by the disparate types who share their story in the novel just completed. I let them chart their courses, providing guidance while trying not to stifle self-discovery. Together we completed a journey that feels genuine and inspired.
The character's own input, you ask? Don't you mean your input, masked as the character's?
A licensed therapist would no doubt disagree with me and schedule me for an emergency appointment when I answer that NO, I definitely mean that the character herself (himself) is steering her own course in the story.
Here's how it works for me: while I don't outline in the traditional sense, I do make notes on the key story elements I want to cover, I identify the key message or theme, and I often have the final scene of the novel sketched in vague terms, as a destination I'm aiming for.
Additionally, if I'm clear on the story I'm telling (always useful before launching into a full-length book), then I'm just as clear on the primary characters, with a protagonist in mind, an antagonist, some very basic notion of the climactic scene and the protagonist's obstacle or problem described in general terms. In other words, I try to have some form of working structure into which I can fit and connect the fragments of writing that begin to be generated, in a trickle initially, but eventually come pouring out in a torrent.
The funny thing is that once I'm on my way with the story, having provided essential exposition, established the setting, introduced the main characters, and started the ball rolling with the igniting incident (identifying the problem or issue that's going to move us toward the climax) -- or about 30-40 pages in -- the characters begin to move out ahead of me. It's as if they are complete enough at this point to be guided by their own desires, motives and values, and they will sometimes intercede if I try steering them in a direction they believe to be false.
For instance, I have a very clear recollection of my heroine, Placidia Hockaday, determining her own direction as I was drafting The Second Mrs. Hockaday. In my notes, I had anticipated that she would be somewhat susceptible to the flirtatious charms of her step-brother-in-law, Floyd Parris, while her new husband Gryffth was gone fighting the Civil War. I felt that as a 17 year-old, she would be fairly easily misled by someone as sophisticated and solicitous as this older man. However, I had not counted on Placidia's steely resolve, nor the intensity of her feelings for Major Hockaday. She told me quite plainly that allowing herself to be seduced by Floyd was an absurd choice for her to make, and that I better reconsider it! I did, and the novel was much more satisfying for Placidia's knowing herself so well.
Now I have learned to trust my characters' input in the process of novel-writing, and was firmly guided from the start by the disparate types who share their story in the novel just completed. I let them chart their courses, providing guidance while trying not to stifle self-discovery. Together we completed a journey that feels genuine and inspired.
