Angela B. Macala-Guajardo's Blog, page 12
November 30, 2012
November 26, 2012
Backstory: The Art of Listening to Characters
Generating backstory feels like that proverbial chicken-or-egg question. And bearing that in mind, am I the chicken or the egg? I honestly don’t know.
I looked for some conversations I had on paper with a few of my characters years ago. Sadly, they are long gone. They were structured like an interview where I asked the questions and they told me all about themselves. It’s like an improv exercise for writers. But the thing is I know what’s going to happen to them next–well most things–and they tell me everything that has taken place before page one. My characters always know what I know, meaning their fate, however wonderful or challenging. I know they know these things. They also know I know they know these things. And even with all that knowing, they don’t try to mess up what goes into page one and beyond. They help me churn out a great story, steering us away from bad ideas/plot checkpoints, and guiding us along where the heart of the story really lies. It’s teamwork with imaginary people that exist only in thought.
Anyway, enough with forward matter. Let’s get down to backstory.
Each character I create is born with a purpose in mind, and a piece of me allocated to them. It’s kind of like divvying up my id, ego and superego, then giving them a life of their own. As I’m writing this blog, I’m realizing how personal character creation is. It’s all about me. I’ve tried to create characters fashioned after other people but this has yet to work for me. Sure I can incorporate looks and a personality quirk or two, and amusing events. For example, my great-grandmother once said to me, “Did you expect it to be cold?” I earned this quip after taking a bite of food and remarking with great surprise how hot it was. I have so many random memories, all of which influence my writing, and many of which will crop up in my writing. I’m a perpetual observer and listener, even though I may not listen in the way you intend me to. Sorry. Personality quirk. To put it simply but perhaps not clearly: my attention is layered.
So, bearing all that in mind, my characters do keep their secrets from me. My main antagonist from the trilogy I’m currently working on was the hardest to wrestle answers from. In fact, it took writing two books to figure out the core of his personal story. At one point years ago, I honestly sat down with him and tried to pry some answers out of him. Didn’t go over well. Just got a bunch of terse replies. This year I finally know a lot more, yet there’s still much to learn while I draft Determination. But that’s okay, that’s safe for the first two books. It’s kind of funny how I learned about him. Four other characters spilled the beans on him.
It’s a scary and dicey thing to write with characters you don’t know a ton about. I got lucky with Anticipation. I was able to keep going back and fix things as I learned more about my characters. I advise against my approach, to be honest. The deeper and richer the lore preceding page one, the deeper and richer the story the characters. Yes, I go back and learn the backstory, but it would have made my writing life easier to gather all that information.
Then again, maybe I’d be overloaded with information with no clue as to what the useful-to-useless information ratio is. As I draft, I realize what I need to go back and work out, what questions need answering. Like I said before, all my characters start around one core idea that comes from me. Take Roxie, for example. She’s formed from a wish, actually, a wish to be someone, some that people care about, someone important, someone that can make a difference in the world. Ironically, Roxie’s never spent energy wishing for these things. That’s something I learned by getting to know her.
This is my first ever sketch with a digital drawing program. It’s primitive, yes. I could have added shading to it but, after eight hours of giving myself a neck and headache learning how to create those basics, that was enough. Trust me, it’s not as simple as it looks when you have no clue what you’re doing.
November 19, 2012
The One Book Every Fantasy Writer Needs to Read
Correction: the list of books a fantasy writer should read had no end. That’s the honest truth for any genre. What I’m really getting at is a book strictly for fantasy writers, Diana Wynne Jones’ book called The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
This is a different kind of book, and I was guided to it by one of my writing mentors during grad school. It’s a dictionary of all the clichés found in the fantasy genre. While quite numerous, the book had me chuckling throughout. If you haven’t read much fantasy, you won’t find it as amusing, but if you have, you’ll probably nod, smile, and laugh as much as I did–more so if you’ve consciously avoided those clichés you saw cropping up in one book after another. Here’s an excerpt from pages 37-38 of my 2006 paperback version:
“CLOAKS are the universal outer garb of everyone who is not a Barbarian. It is hard to see why. They are open in the front and require you at most times to use one hand to hold them shut. On horseback they leave the shirtsleeved arms and most of the torso exposed to wind and WEATHER. The OMTs for Cloaks well express their difficulties. They are constantly swirling and dripping and become heavy with water in rainy Weather, entangling with trees or swords, or needing to be pulled close around her/his shivering body. This seems to suggest they are less than practical for anyone on an arduous Tour. But they do have one advantage. Female Cloaks usually add a wide frilly hood, male cloaks a wide plain one, and neither of these adjuncts ever gets blown from the head or lets water in round the edges. So at least your head is dry.
It is thought the the real reason for the popularity of Cloaks is that the inhabitants like the look of themselves from the back.”
“Tour” is the substitute word for “adventure” and OMT stands for Official Management Terms. Those two pieces of terminology and more are used to describe reading fantasy like advertising a vacation getaway. Really. Go read it. Go laugh a bit.
The first books I ever got in to were the “Harry Potter” ones, then came The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, followed swiftly by the Lord of the Rings trilogy and a bunch of books by David Eddings. Barring J. K. Rowling’s books, I began to notice an aggravating pattern in this overall wonderful genre: all the damn books model themselves after Tolkien’s.
Seeing as how so many authors have the Tolkien imitation thing covered, I made a point to write something as far from all that as possible. No modest-sized group of companions, no map at the front of the book, no mindlessly traveling all over that cursed map for some stupid magical object that ‘ll save the day, no relying on horses to get you everywhere, no inns, no money issues, no Medieval setting, etc. Instead I tried to draw from Tolkien and all his imitators wondrous worlds you wish you could visit, captivating races you wish you could either be or meet, and an intent to have an internal journey be that which must be traveled to find something within that will save the day.
From Rowling’s books, I constantly try and push myself to expand the limits of my creativity. Details, details, details! And backstory. I am a firm believer that the more details a writer incorporates into his/her writing, the richer the world that has been built from scratch. Just beware overloading a book with useless details. This is no easy feat to accomplish. Still, go nuts in the first draft, then take out what needs to be removed later. And as for backstory, I will have to dedicate a blog entry just to this subject. Coming up with a character’s backstory is something that makes me question my sanity now and then, makes me wonder if I have MPD or something, in a way.
One other thing I’ve learned from all my fantasy reading is that I most enjoy settings that are connected to our contemporary reality. I’m always aware of the difference between fantasy and reality. Human history is so full of myth and magic, and we humans have quite the imaginations. I often wish magic were real–not just to wave a wand and have problems disappear, but to see a real dragon, to be able to fly like Superman, move objects with a thought, etc. How cool would all that be? Yes, we’d have quite the slew of other problems to deal with, but still, I have yet to meet a fellow fan who at one point hadn’t wished that secret wizarding world from “Harry Potter” didn’t exist.
(This blog entry has been Dark Lord approved!)
November 16, 2012
Character Sketch: Aerigo, the Broken Warrior
Aerigo could have easily been the main character of the story. For a while I wanted him to be, but he patiently went along as he waited for me to help him fulfill his role, along with balance out his story without overpowering Roxie’s. So much of his backstory is relevant to the trilogy; his life has revolved around the central conflict. It’s easy to bog everything down with useless trivia that doesn’t progress the story or any of the characters. I have my work cut out for me once I start revising Hesitation. However, as I practice and progress with my craft, my storytelling is slowly getting better. I’m slowly learning how to better incorporate backstory without halting the forward action.
How Aerigo Came to Be
The Name:
Naming Aerigo took some time. He’d originally been called Virago, a name I thought I’d made up. After a year of getting attached to the name, a dear cousin of mine recognized the word and advised I give him a new one. My handy dandy Apple dictionary says “virago” means this: “a domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman; a woman of masculine strength or spirit; a female warrior.” Yeah, I ditched that name for him in a hurry.
I tweaked an Italian name to come up with “Aerigo.” I picked Italian just for the way the language sounds. Smooth, flowing, beautiful. I wanted a name for him that flowed, yet sounded strong and comforting when spoken/read.
Appearance:
When I first started this trilogy, I drew a blank on how to make Aerigo look. Do I make someone super handsome that the girl of the story will obvious fall in love with at one point? Do I have him look like my dream man (like I know what that looks like)? Do I have him look like a guy all the girls adore? Do I give him a more average appearance so people won’t envy him? What the heck do I have him look like?
I ended up having his past build his appearance, along with the role he plays. He’s quite muscular, but not too much muscle. His dangerous life demands he be the strongest one around and that can move his bulk with martial grace. He’s tall as well. I haven’t settled on an exact height since it doesn’t matter, but I always imagine him somewhere around 6’3″, a height people on average look up to, a height that will assure you that this person can protect you. He is a warrior and protector. Blue eyes were my favorite growing up. Now I have no preference, but that doesn’t matter. He’s clean-shaven both on face and scalp. He travels tons. Being spared having to pack hair products gives him one less thing to worry about on a daily basis. No beard or mustache is just his preference and, ahem, mine.
It turns out his appearance is strikingly similar a certain actor I’m going to leave unnamed. Funny thing is, I didn’t know he existed until a year after I started working on book one. You can make of that what you wish.
Personality:
Aerigo shares a lot more of my personality than Roxie does, yet he’s still his own person. He’s quiet and serious, trustworthy and compassionate, honest and driven. He lives for others, instead of for himself. Where he deviates from me is that he makes a good soldier. He’s been in several different militaries over the years. He’s also much more masculine (I’d hope). I’ve had several different men help me “de-girlify” him when my guesses at how a guy would behave are totally off. I can only figure out so much with being able to read minds.
Aerigo’s character arc is something I believe anyone can relate to. It focuses on matters of the heart. Hopefully readers will completely understand what he’s going through and/or has gone through in one way or another. His role in book 3 in particular is going to be very challenging to write, but I’m game for it.
November 10, 2012
November 9, 2012
Character Sketch: Roxie, Building a Strong Female Lead
Nine years ago, when I first starting working on this trilogy, I purposely set out to have a female be the hero of the story. All the way up to the present I’ve felt trepidation over this choice. A female hero (hate the word “heroine”)? A girl with some muscles? A girl that’s athletic? A girl being the main character of the story? What kind of nonsense is this?
As luck would have it, having a female lead is what agents want these days. After “Harry Potter” and all its imitators, the last thing they want is another young boy hero. They’re actually hoping writers will present them with books containing female leads. There’s hope for me yet.
How Roxie Came to Be
The Name:
Naming her was difficult. I needed an uncommon name, despite my desire to make up one for her. I couldn’t make one up since she’s from the U.S. Yes, people make up names for their kids in reality, but doing this for Roxie wouldn’t fit in the universe I’ve built. It would take away from her belonging to Earth and probably create confusion in my world-building logic. Hopefully I’m not confusing anyone with this explanation. Naming characters is just as involved as naming anything. It has to fit, has to have a ring to it that settles nicely in your gut when you say it aloud. I don’t know how I settled on “Roxie,” other than that I didn’t know anyone or have anyone in my family with that name. I do know that I needed something that sounded strong, yet girly. So there you have it.
Appearance & Age:
This part is a little embarrassing.
When I was eighteen and first started this trilogy, Roxie was eighteen. When I turned nineteen, I made her nineteen. When I turned twenty, so did she. When I turned twenty one, I decided it was time to leave her age alone. Twenty was a nice, solid number. Not old, but not too young either. Still, I ignorantly claimed my book was for YA audiences all the way up to grad school, where it was pointed out to me that, if it’s going to be YA, the main character cannot be any older than seventeen. Since Anticipation has a YA feel to it, I changed her age a fourth time. It worried me a little at first because of the love story aspect, but I’ve been able to employ my creativity to combat that. You’ll see.
Anyone who’s met me and read Anticipation already knows Roxie looks strikingly similar to me, athleticism, height, and all. It’s actually advised against making characters look like you, the writer. It makes it harder to give them a life and personality of their own. Well, this trilogy is my daydream. Mine. I can’t give you more specifics without giving spoilers. All I will say is that I’ll never make a character look like me again. Once suffices. I’ll be content after this.I’m determined to break away from the stigma that women must be these prissy things, and that only men can save the day.
Personality:
I took the liberty to make Roxie be a lot of things I would’ve rather been at her age. She’s a social bug, outgoing, and emotionally resilient. Yes, she’s had to deal with eyes that glow in response to certain emotions, but she’s never let this trait get her down. She’s always been determined to fit in and make friends. Her eyes have made her life extra interesting, but she’s come out stronger for it.
Her personality has grown up over years. She started out far too childish to the point where readers were having a hard time telling how old she was, which was quite embarrassing. There were a few more pockets of childishness that got weeded out during grad school, so all should be well. Now she has a maturity that is sometimes well ahead of her years, and the rest of the time that of which would be expected of her. She’s amicable, likable, and someone readers want to root for. There’s so much more to her, but then I’d be delving into her character arc.
I encourage you to leave me comments, along with pose questions. I enjoy responding to comments. This is a good spot to ask questions about Roxie, questions that don’t have room to be answered in the story.
November 1, 2012
Outlines are Back In
My attempt to not employ my usual outline strategy didn’t go over well. Took me three weeks to write a whole 17 pages. That sounds like a lot to many of you. For me, I can more than that in just a week, and that’s with my current time constraints. One night last weekend, I took down two pages of notes off the wall and converted a small portion of them into an outline. Five pages were hashed out shortly after. So now I have more of a clue as to how my writing brain works.
I’m stressing over writing book three, Determination. I know I’ll do well, but I have this fear that I’m going to do a terrible job of it, that the book will be disappointingly short and that it’ll lack a healthy story arc. I’ve never felt this way when writing before, so I’m doing a spectacular job of confusing myself with this unanticipated layer of stress.
My writing is one of the few remaining things I have faith in. I have learned a ton about writing in the past few years. My characters steer the plot now (not obvious in book 1), and my heart and soul go into every character I help bring into existence. This story will be good simply because it’s written from the heart, and I believe the trilogy will strike a chord with readers. In addition, there is a love story but, as my test readers are finding out in book 2, not a typical one. There are too many boy-gets-girl stories where it’s only a matter of time before the boy and girl get together. I’m not retelling that predictable tale.
A love story is woven into my trilogy because giving and receiving love are the two most powerful aspects of being human. A good example of what I find to be a satisfying fantasy story with a little romance woven in is Ilona Andrews’ urban fantasy Kate Daniels series. There are five books so far, and the sixth one his being fleshed out at the moment. The first book is called Magic Bites. This series is one of my favorites of all time.
The first two chapters of book three are done. Word count is at a modest 5200. I keep having two-second-long freak outs every time no loading bar pops up when I save my document. The ms is too darn short to warrant one for now. Don’t mind, blonde, air headed and absentminded me. In a bit of a nutty mode.
And one final thing to add: I hope to setup a website for myself sometime next year. In it I wish to include bonus content that doesn’t belong in the final versions of my books. If I do my job right, readers will look at the published work and not be able to imagine the story being told any better way, that there couldn’t possibly be huge chunks of content removed beforehand, etc. I have a few chapters from book one that might be of interest, and one particular chapter from book 2 that doesn’t progress the story or develop my characters one iota, yet should still be an enjoyable read. In addition to bonus content, I wonder if people would get a kick out of seeing rough drafts of mine from a billion years ago, samples of writing that are embarrassingly terrible. Might be a hoot, and might even be inspirational to other writers to keep at it.
