Rachna Gilmore's Blog

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TIP -- COLOURING OUR CHARACTERS

There are so many ways to develop and come to know our characters. Sometimes, oblique, odd questions can bring flashes of insight so the character comes into focus, clear and fully formed with  shades of intangibles that somehow bring them to life.

Here are some random and tangential questions to ask – in no order of importance. You’ll probably think of others.

– What colour of clothing does your character best like to wear? What colour suits her/him best?

– What colour does your character normally wear? Why?

– What colour are the walls of your character’s bedroom? The bedclothes? The main rooms of the house?

– If your character were a colour, what would it be? (We’re not talking skin colour here.)

– What’s the colour of your character’s mood at the start of the story? At several points along the arc as the tension develops? (There’d better be some tension, and if there isn’t, back to the drawing board!) And at the end?

– What colour food does your character best like to eat?

– What colour explodes in the mouth of your character when she/he eats her/his favourite foods?

CHARACTER VS. PERSONA

What is the difference?

The persona is what your protagonist projects, what image she cultivates and how she wants to be perceived. The character is what drives her inside; it's what she lives with, or faces in the dark of the night.

An analogy might be this: the outside of a car is the protagonist's persona. What's inside – the engine – is the character. It's the engine that moves a car forward.

Does your protagonist have a flashy sports care exterior, and a wimpy two cylinder engine? Is it a rough and patched car body, with a steady and reliable engine? Is it a shiny car, with strong, wild force inside? The permutations and combinations are endless.
     
So what's inside your protagonist? What's her true character like? Once you know that you'll know what she's likely to feel, think and do. You'll know how her actions will move the story forward. But it's also what's inside – the character – that determines in part the kind of persona he/she feels the need to cultivate and project. Sometimes personas are cultivated to compensate for inner character vulnerabilities and weaknesses. So many possibilities...

WHAT'S IN A NAME? Part II

Finding the right name for your character can  be elusive and sometimes it seems you'll never find the one that fits best. Here are some tricks to try:

If you're absolutely stuck and can't unearth your character's name, the chances are you don't know your character well enough for him/her to reveal his/her name to you. Find out more about him/her, and then try again.

Another useful trick is to acquaint yourself with your character's parents. Why? Because it is the parents who usually name their children. If you know the parents, who they are, their personal values and habits, their conceits and preenings, their failings and fears, who they admire and who they abhor, their hopes...you will know what they're likely to name their kids.

Sometimes names just appear when you need them and you simply need to be awake to the possibility. Serendipity opens doors when you're searching. I recently found a name written on the sand on a beach in P.E.I. for a character whose name had eluded me. I tried it out, tentatively at first, and to my delight, it fit.

Here's another way of finding your characters' names: soak your subconsious with the thought of locating that name before you go to sleep. Maybe you'll dream up a name that is right. Maybe you'll wake just knowing it.

If you're not certain of your character's name, or even if you are, be sure to say the name out loud. Is it a name that fits your character? Sounds like your character? Is it easy to say or difficult to utter, awkward to roll off the tongue? The musicality of it needs to be pleasing to your ear -- or perhaps not pleasing if that is what you're aiming for. 

Saying all your characters' names out loud will help you to spot inadvertent mistakes such as all of them sounding alike, or starting with the same letter, or ending with the same sound, or having the same number of syllables. Subsidiary characters names can be changed more easily, I find. Although at times I've found those difficult to change as well, if the character is adamant about it.

Saying your characters' names out loud is a great way, too, of finding a nickname. Nicknames often arise because the character, when a baby, couldn't pronounce her/his own name. That's how I came up with Nobby, for my character Zenobia in A Friend Like Zilla. Saying Zenobia out loud, and trying to figure out how baby might say it, helped me come up with Nobby, which fit my character just right. So right that she thinks of herself as Nobby and hates Zenobia. She is a Nobby, but not a Zenobia!

Another way to find nicknames is to unearth the traits and oddities your character displayed as a baby or a toddler. A nickname such as Speedy, for instance, might arise if a baby is particularly fast at crawling. Red, in my novel That Boy Red, got his nickname when he was a baby because his hair was red back then, although it no longer is. I'm not entirely sure how I came up with Gooley for Red's friend in That Boy Red -- it just came and it seemed right. But since his name is Graham, I suspect that he came by it because either he, or a sibling in his family, distorted Graham.

A last reflection: your characters do, of course, represent some aspects of you and your tastes. I like my characters' names to be spiced, to be unusual. Perhaps it's because my name is not the easiest to pronounce or to remember. It's an unusual name. It was an unusual name even in India, where I lived as a kid; I was plagued with mispronunciations even though at times I relished not having a common name.

Apparently it was an aunt who came up with my name -- I wonder if she had the sight? Rachna means creation, or literature.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? Part I

A question I am frequently asked is: "How do you name your characters?" A better, perhaps more accurate, way of putting it though, is: "How do you find your characters' names?"

There is a difference: naming your characters has a subtle overtone of author as god/parent, naming his/her creations. Imposing it on them. Finding your characters' names, though, implies author as explorer, uncovering, discovering his/her characters' names. Which is part of discovering, uncovering the character.

Sometimes it's easy. Your character arrives with a name that somehow cannot be changed. You may also have a clear sense of who your character is, the ins and outs, the earthy, fleshy, obvious and subtle details that make her/him unique. But sometimes you have a name that is absolutely right and yet only a shadowy sense of that character -- in which case the name can be a gateway through which you come to discover your character.

Scully, in my picture book, A Screaming Kind of Day, arrived full-blown with that name. As I re-worked the story I questioned that name, thinking it wasn't really much of a girl's name. I tried to change it, but I couldn't because Scully was her name. That kind of clarity is a gift -- no, no, I don't mean a gift I have, but rather a gift that is visited upon writers at times.

When I'm not lucky enough to have a character's name arrive with such clarity and immediacy, I hunt for it in other ways. A great way is to have at hand a good baby name book. I have an old one from when my kids were born. It has a host of names from a number of cultural backgrounds along with their meanings.

That's how I found the name Calantha, for the main character in my fantasy novel, The Sower of Tales. I compiled a list of possible names, tried them out aloud, pondered their meanings, and this one fit best. Although Calantha means "beautiful blossom" and my Calantha is not beautiful -- oh no, she is dusty, bumbling and plain -- the name fit her. Maybe because the novel is about a world where story pods exist, and so the flower-like connection fits. There's a lovely synergy that happens when you've located your main character's name. Although I hadn't consciously selected this name for its Greek roots, I found myself selecting other names that fit this world, and they all seemed to be of Greek origin too. Even the names I completely invented -- my favourite being Xenyss, the inept Seer in Calantha's village, and one of my favourite characters -- sound Greek.

I found Dilly by searching through the internet for Punjabi names. I had a good sense of who she was, my main character in The Trouble With Dilly  -- wildly imaginative, scatty, impulsive and erratic -- but I didn't know her name. I knew though, that her name would be a diminutive of a longer one, and so I wrote down a list of ones that I thought might fit. Dilbaagh seemed right, as it would clearly be shortened to Dilly. And Dilly was perfect for my character. At a school reading, when I asked what kind of person Dilly might be from the sound of her name, a boy replied, "Tangy." Dilly is just that -- tangy!

Finding Red's name in That Boy Red, was more of a challenge. The book is a middle-grade novel inspired by my father-in law, John's, anecdotes of growing up on a P.E.I. farm during the Depression. I knew I needed to write this as a work of fiction (see previous blogs for the whys and wherefores) so I had to find a name that fit my invented character. It was a slow, circuitous process, discovering my character; he needed to be fictional and not John, so I could be free to weave stories in and around him -- or perhaps let him show me his stories? I made a list of Scottish names and tried several. It wasn't until well after I decided on Red because it fit my imagined character (his real name is Roderick) that someone pointed out how apt it was for a fictional character inspired by my father-in-law -- because John had had red hair in his younger days. Red, now, his hair is brown --durrty bruhn, as Cat-less Granny, Red's grandmother, would say -- but still, that name fits him.

More tips on how to unearth your characters' names in my next blogpost on October 8th.

Character Development Tip -- The Body Repeats the Landscape

"The body repeats the landscape. They are the source of each other and create each other." Meridel Le Sueur

Lately I've been thinking much about landscape, having recognized anew how forcefully and viscerally my landscape is the north shore of P.E.I. There is something at an energy level that ties me to that landscape; it's where I feel most at home, most grounded.

When I discussed this with a dear friend of mine, the fine writer, Deirdre Kessler, she told me of a conference she'd attended in Tasmania, "Sounding the Earth." Australian Aboriginal people have long known this concept -- it has been discussed and celebrated in Bruce Chatwin's book  The Songlines . The essential concept is that the people and the land are one: we sing the land into being. What I hadn't understood until Deirdre followed through on this idea, is that the land sings you back.

The land sings you back.

The concept is so heart-stopping, so powerful, I lay awake the night after I heard this, expanded and lost in the beauty of the idea, overcome and humbled by the generosity of the land.

And I came to understand better my connection with my landscape. It's so visceral, it's so powerful, because the land has sung me back. There. In my landscape.

For years now I've collected rocks from the north shore of P.E.I. each time we visited. Small stones. It's been my way of linking solidly to my landscape. Of having a tangible presence of my landscape in my life.

So, how does this apply to writing and character development? Well, developing character is often a subtle process that leaps and darts beyond the obvious biographical data and information -- the facts -- that we accumulate about our characters. To know our characters, really know and understand their inner beings, their souls, we sometimes need oblique, tangential ways to slide in. Sideways glances.

So: what is your character's landscape? Where do they feel most at home? Where do they sing the land, and most importantly, which landscape sings them back, affirming their connection to that place?

When I thought about this, I knew that Red, my character in That Boy Red   lived in his landscape. It was the south-eastern part of P.E.I., where he was born and grew up. It isn't as connected to the ocean; no, his landscape is the gently curved farm land where he lives.

Dilly, now, my character in The Trouble With Dilly her landscape is in part the urban world in which she lives, a bustling, concrete city. But it's also -- and I don't know how or why I know this, I just do -- a desert. A desert with beautiful sculpted dunes, curving and shifting with the wind, and wide open skies. Dilly has never been there. Not yet. But that is her landscape too. I don't know for sure where this landscape is, just that it is her landscape.

For Calantha, in The Sower of Tales, her landscape is the one imagined in the book. It is the world I envisioned, which strangely enough, is much like the hilly landscape of Greece. When I wrote the book, I had never been to Greece. It was a librarian who loved the book who told me that the landscape I'd described was eerily like Greece. When I did go to Greece, I saw it immediately -- it was completely and utterly familiar as Calantha's landscape. But for Calantha, her landscape isn't just the plains in which she lives -- no, it's the top of the Eastern mountain, where the Sower of Tales lives.

So, who is your character? Where is her/his landscape? Is it where she/he lives, or is it somewhere else? Where does your character sing the land? Where does the land sing her back?

Where is the landscape that tugs and pulls through a fine, pulsing, unbreakable link so she must and will find it, and so she must go back?

AN INVITATION TO A BOOK LAUNCH

FOR THOSE OF YOU IN THE OTTAWA AREA:

You are cordially invited to the launch of my newest picture book, THE FLUTE, illustrated by Pulak Biswas, Tradewind Books.

WHEN: Saturday September 10, 2:00–3:30PM
WHERE: Kaleidoscope Books
1018 Bank Street, Ottawa

Please come and bring a friend.Bring several. Hey, bring a flute or two!

For more about the book, please see my website: http://www.rachnagilmore.ca/picture.html

TRUST IN SERENDIPITY

I love how the seemingly random events in your life can tie in so readily with what you're working on.

I love the coincidences that feed the characters we work on, the way we spot traits in people around us, just when we need to. 
Last month, while in P.E.I., walking the beaches, I found myself thinking intently about a character I needed to develop. Sometimes a character comes full-blown, and at other times, it's a slow uncovering, a slow discovering, to find the heart of that character. In this instance, I had a viscerally exciting sense of the plot -- one that made me tingle with delight -- but only a vague sense of  the character.

I've learned that it's best not to start to write a novel or story until I have a clearer sense of the character, because the character is what drives that story forward. If your character isn't true, the story will twist and distort in strange directions. If your character is true, pretty much all you have to do is follow her/him and write down what she/he does.

So as I walked the beach, I tried to give my character life, depth, warts -- tried to know my character.

And a name is so important. A name has to fit, to feel right on the tongue, to feel right in the gut.

On this day, I found some writing on the beach -- and oh, a name written there, that was just perfect for my character. I won't reveal what that name was -- if I talk too much about a novel when it's nascent, still so tenuous in my head, I tend to lose interest.

But I'm grateful for the serendipity that led me to the right name.

It's a wonderful reminder to be mindful, to be attentive to life, as it feeds the creation of art.

A Writer's Wise Words

Here's a website worth checking -- JANE YOLEN'S -- in particular her words for writers.  Wonderful words on the muse, on writing for joy, serendipity and much more.

SPEED VS. DEPTH

"The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb." Sir Walter Raleigh

I've been thinking lately about how we're getting faster and faster as a society. We do more, we write more, we talk more, we multi-task. If we don't multi-task we're considered slouches.

I sometimes wonder if this is just more sound and fury than substance. Is this noise and busy-ness, dizziness, really necessary?

I've noticed that people are doing things faster. But I don't think that necessarily means they're doing things better.

Take writing. Is there a real pay off to writing faster? If we skim the surface of a lot of things we can produce more, but is it better?

Sometimes you need to slow down to plumb the depths. You need stillness to allow the deeper parts of yourself, the deeper and more profound aspects of life to surface.

Perhaps I need to slow down. Do less. Think more. Be silent more. Write less, but write deeply.

Yes, write deeply.

Some Sage Advice ... Including on Promotion

Check out this blog, about the best and worst advice a writer, Michelle Gagnon, received. It provides a down-to-earth take on so many lunatic ideas about promotion, and also offers advice on what does work to sell books.

http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-and-worst-writing-advice-i-ever.html

What I loved best was the second comment below the post: "The only thing you have control over is your writing."

In other words write your best. That is in your hands. Don’t waste excessive energy trying to promote to the point of insanity/vanity – that’s what self-published writers do because they prefer to put their energies into promotion than towards perfecting their craft. Maybe because they’re better at it? So don’t squander valuable thinking space and time with activities peripheral to what does matter – the writing.

For what it’s worth, here is what Michelle Gagnon cites from a report as being the most significant factors in book purchase:

-Recommendation from someone I know
-The cover
-Saw on a bestseller list
-Reviews you've read in blogs/online forums
-Reviews you read in magazines/newspapers
-Prominent display in bookstore

Most of those are out of your control. What you can control is writing your darndest.