Bringing characters to life

There are some characters who are particularly appealing from the first page or the first scene.

When the TV show The Mentalist started, I was immediately drawn to Jane, the protagonist. I didn't think much about it in terms of character development until last Friday night when White Collar premiered. It struck me as I watched the character Nick Caffrey that he appealed to me immediately also.

What was it about them? Both are con men of sorts with a serious side disguised by an overtly mischievous side. Those characteristics made them entertaining to watch.

As a writer, I naturally thought about the fact that the writers of those shows were largely responsible for those wonderful characters. After all, they wrote the snappy dialogue.

The progression of my thinking about all this led me to wonder how, if I wanted to write a scene of either of these shows, would I describe the twinkle in the eye or the slight nod of the head that made those snappy lines snap? How could I adequately translate to paper the wonders of their acting?

After wondering about that made my head hurt, I realized that solving this dilemma would make a good writing exercise.

So.... here you have it. Your assignment is to study one character on a favorite show. Take down a few minutes of dialogue. Then, write the same scene as if writing it for a novel. Your assignment is to meld into the dialogue the movements and mannerisms of each character to bring the dialogue to life.

Don't do this just once. Repeat until you get a feel for your character inside and out.

Writing Fiction: Session 6 - Backstory

Before writing your novel, write or develop a detailed backstory. It's one of the keys to making fiction believable.

What is a backstory? Simply, it's the story of what has happened to your characters before they reach the first page of your novel and how all those past events of their lives have affected them. Without a backstory, you plop your characters into the current moment of your story as if that's the first day of their lives.

In the previous session, you wrote resumes for your characters. These list the schooling, work history, and achievements of each one. This information is vital, but it only gives you the framework.

The backstory for each character will fill in the details. A good way to write the backstory is to write a tell-all biography about each of your characters. Concentrate not only on what has happened to them but how they reacted and handled or mishandled the events of their lives. For example, does the character always withdraw from confrontation or does he/she charge through life with an attitude? Why?

You want readers to discover the depth of your characters from events in the book. By knowing the backstory, you'll be able to weave just enough of their history into the story, so your readers will come to understand their motives and anticipate their actions and reactions.

Don't look on devising the backstory for your characters as a chore. You needn't waste your best writing on this task. In fact, it's okay to devise your backstory in list form.

For example:

Let's say Don is one of your main characters. His backstory might contain some of these items:

• He was born in Samson, Michigan.


• His mother died when he was 7. His father was devastated and ignored Don's needs.


• Don felt he never measured up to his father's expectations; consequently, he learned to tiptoe around his father, so he wouldn't hear how worthless he was.


• Don took out his aggression on others by playing tricks on weaker kids throughout grade school.


• He received average grades in school.


• He didn't make the sports teams in high school.


• He rarely dated; he was rejected by Sally Simpson in high school in front of others on the bus and didn't recover quickly from that.


• He had a natural talent for piano... liked blues the best and would lose himself in music, playing for hours when his father wasn't home.


• He began to date in college and that opened a whole new world to him ... etc.

I imagine you can see where I'm going here. Basically, you make a list of significant past events and the character's reaction to those events. Having a detailed backstory solidly in mind will allow you to get to know your characters as if you grew up with them. When you know the details of each character's backstory, they will begin to take on a life of their own as you write.

In our lives, we all act or react in any given situation based on our history and how our past reactions worked for us. Your characters will do the same. They'll react based on the backstory (or in spite of the backstory if the character is trying to overcome the way he/she has operated in the past). Based on this, I imagine you can see how valuable a backsotry will be to your novel.

It may sound like a lot of work to develop a backstory for each character. However, you won't need the same amount of detail for all of your characters. Obviously, you need the most detail for significant characters. Minor characters may need only a paragraph or two.

A backstory is not only about your characters. In some stories you'll need a backstory about your setting, too. This will especially be the case when you set your novel in a fictional town. In order to maintina consistency, you need to develop the past events of your fictional town and how the people of the town reacted to them.

If your setting is a real town, your backstory is the history of the town. You'll want to have a working knowledge of that town. Your readers will be able to tell when you haven't done your homework. And... they will let you know when you get something wrong.

So, get started on developing backstories for your characters and setting. You'll be thankful you did.

Writing Fiction: Session 5 - Developing Characters (1)

When writing a novel, full-bodied characters will do more to add believability to your story than anything. They will bring your story to life. Your characters will jump off the pages if you know them inside and out. So, put some time and effort into getting to know the characters for your novel before you begin to write about them.

To get started, think back to when you were assigned to write a biography for English or history class. In order to do a good job and to tell that person's story, you needed to learn something about him or her. And, to really WOW your reader, it helped if you took some time to discover the good and the bad of your subject's life. Then you knew you could write from knowledge and write with authenticity and authority.

Writing fiction is different...and more fun. There's little to no research required. You have the privilege of inventing your characters and all their idiosyncrasies. In order to do so, develop a blueprint of what you want to know in order to build your fictional characters from the ground up.

I have a questionnaire I developed and use when I build a character. The questionnaire is too big to publish here, but it'll be in my upcoming book, Before You Write. When developing characters, I look into the following areas:

1. Resume. Write a resume about each character. In it include all the information you would put in a resume you might write when applying for a job. It should be a detailed sketch of the person's educational and work history and accomplishments. It provides the structure for your character sketch.

2. Physical Description. You may or may not ever describe your character to your readers, but it's important for you to be able to visualize each character in vivid detail. Some of the things to cover are height, weight, body type, hair versus no hair, hair color, eye color, etc. Those are the basics. It's important to write them down and keep them straight. You don't want to call your character a blond if she's a brunette.

Beyond this basic physical description, you'll want to get a clear picture of physical characteristics that set your character apart, such as walking with a limp, stubby fingernails from chronic nail-biting, the fact your character always wears a baseball cap because he is self-conscious about his bald head, the pendant your character wears always, etc.

3. Quirks. We started addressing quirks a bit in the previous section. The more detail you have in mind about quirks of your characters, the more real they will become. But don't go overboard -- too many quirks and your characters will turn into caricatures. A great example of a character with just the right amount of quirks is the way Jack Nicholson played his character in As Good as it Gets." He became Melvin Udall, that obsessive-compulsive character, and played his quirks with the exact amount of consistency needed. Not all characters need to be that quirky... subtle is often better.

4. Likes/Dislikes. Make a list of your character's likes and dislikes. What makes your character happy and what makes him sad or angry or embarrassed, etc. This list will help you know instinctively how your character will react to circumstances that arise in your novel. Also, list any allergies, chronic conditions, etc., your character might have.

5. Hobbies/Talents. Make a list of the talents your characters bring to the table. If your reader knows that your character works out or was a runner in high school, the reader will expect him/her to do well in a chase on foot. If your character is a good cook, it may add to your story that people drop in on her just to get a taste of her latest cookies. This may not add an integral point to your story, but it'll help to round out your character.

6. Shortcomings. What are your characters weaknesses? Often the weaknesses will make the story more interesting. You don't want characters who don't have any faults. That's too boring. Maybe your character never manifests the weakness during the story, but if your reader knows about it, you've added a potential problem to add a bit of tension to your story. It's always good to give the audience a reason to bite their nails during the book.

That's part one of character development. Get busy on your characters and in the next session we'll begin to weave your character sketches into a backstory.

Writing Fiction: Session 4 - Determining Themes

Themes/Motifs


We often think of the theme of a piece of fiction as a statement of the story idea. That's not necessarily what we're looking at here. Developing a theme or themes when writing fiction is not the same as developing an elevator speech to succinctly tell someone about your novel. Rather, a theme is what underlies your story idea. For example, your idea may be to tell the story of the relationship of a father and his son. The theme that runs through the story is not that the father and son have a relationship. It's the guilt or forgiveness or whatever emotion or underlying human quality drives that relationship. These aspects of the relationship -- these themes -- illuminate the meaning of it and add depth.


Some authors use opposing themes to enhance their writing. We'll see a good example of this if we examine the themes running through the movie It Could Happen to You with Nicholas Cage, Bridget Fonda, and Rosie Perez. The story is about a husband and wife who win the lottery. His (Nicholas Cage's) theme is generosity. He gives a waitress (Bridget Fonda) a 2 million dollar tip. His wife's (Rosie Perez's) theme is greed. She sues to get all of the money for herself. These themes, together, drive the story. Individually, each theme dictates the actions of the characters.


As a writer, the themes you develop will act much the same as your car's GPS system. They'll keep you on track and show you just where to go with your story. In addition to keeping you on track, the themes will help you determine what is important to your story and what can be left out.

So, before you write your novel, think about what themes you want to express through your story idea. For example, don't write a story about insecurity. Instead, write a story about a character who is insecure. If you create characters who care and who express aspects of the human condition, themes will evolve naturally. Watch for them and capitalize on them.


Once you develop a theme or themes, every aspect of your story will be formed by them. You characters, their actions and reactions, and your plot will be moved forward by your themes. Consequently, your readers will be moved by your story because it will show the depth of the human condition.

Writing Fiction: Session 3 - Choosing a Genre

Choosing a Genre

Before you begin writing fiction, you should determine which genre best fits your story idea. The quickest way to determine this is to check the upper, left-hand corner of the back cover of one of your favorite books. The genre is usually listed there.

In your study of your favorite books, you may have determined the parameters for writing a book of that specific genre. If not, you can obtain submission guidelines and genre specifics by contacting the publishers of your favorite books. Also, many writers for particular genres have formed organizations or associations to help them beat the publishing odds. Choose a local writing group or a national one as a source of valuable writing infomation.

There are sub-genres within many of the fiction genres. It's a good idea before you begin to write your novel, to determine the genre (and subgenre, if appropriate) because many of the publishers of genre fiction have specific guidelines for the books they will publish. For example, many have a limitation on the number of pages or number of words that make up the book. Others have specifications about what the plot can contain. For example, some will not consider a book with too much violence or too much sex; whereas others require a certain amount of violence or sex. It's best to do your homework on these issues to save you time and heartache later.

Here is a list of many of the popular genres and some of the writers' organizations you might find helpful. Where no link is listed, it'd be a good idea to contact the publisher for writers' guidelines before you begin writing.

Possible Genres:

Romance: This is one of the most popular genres. It may or may not surprise you that books in the romance genre make up most of the fiction market. When you think about it, this is not surprising since there is so much diversity within the genre and the writers in this genre are very well organized.


For example, the following are a few of the sub-genres of romance fiction:

• historical romance
• contemporary romance
• Regency romance
• Christian romance
• inspriational romance
• young adult romantic fiction
• contemporary series or single
• paranormal romantic fiction
• romantic suspense

For more information about romance writing, send for the guidelines put out by your favorite publisher or check out information provided by the Romance Writers of America -- the organization of romance writers.

Horror fiction: When you write horror, you conjure up fear in your reader. For that reason, horror can occur in any genre or it can be a genre of its own. The Horror Writers Association will give you a start in understanding this genre.

Science fiction and fantasy: These two genres of fiction are closely related and their organization is combined. It is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.

Mystery fiction: This could include cozies, police procedurals, who-done-its, etc. There are two major organizations for this genre. One is Mystery Writers of America and the other is Sisters in Crime.

Children's fiction and young adult fiction: This category includes everything from picture books to fiction for young adults. The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators is a large national organization for writers in this area. There are many local and regional chapters of this as well.

Christian fiction: The American Christian Fiction Writers is an organization that can provide you with information about writing in this genre.

Westerns: Western Writers of America is an organization of writers of Western fiction.

Historical fiction

Mainstream fiction: This is fiction that doesn't fit into any particular category.

Adventure fiction:

Drama

Comedy/humor

Thriller

New Age fiction

There may be many more genres. If I've missed one, please let me know. The important point here is to realize that before you start writing your novel it's important to first study the books like the one you want to write and then study the genre. With careful attention to these two things, you'll make the best use of your writing time by being on target from the beginning.

Writing Fiction: Session 2 - Novel Ideas

Before you begin to write your novel, you must dream up a winning story idea. Once in a while, writers pull ideas for their novels out of thin air. Rather than waiting for the fiction-writing muse to strike, give her a nudge.

To start the brainstorming process, think about the types of novels you enjoy the most. When you go to the bookstore, do you gravitate to the mystery section, the sci-fi section, adventure, romance, historical saga, horror, westerns, fantasy, or general fiction? Most often fiction writers have the easiest time writing in the genre they read and enjoy.

Once you narrow down a category or two, pick three or four novels by your favorite fiction authors of that genre. Take the time to read them slowly -- cover-to-cover. As you read, dissect them ... feel the rhythm of the story, note the balance of narration and dialogue, internalize the pacing. Can you find some commonalities among the novels in your genre? If so, make note of them for future use.

Reading several novels in this analytical way should clear a path for your book idea. Keep a notepad handy and jot down all the ideas (no mater how foolish) that come to mind. Put the list aside and keep reading. If you let those ideas for ferment for a while, one or more will eventually rise up to claim your interest to an extent that you won't be able to leave it alone.

That's your start. Fiction writers tell me, and I know from personal experience, that once an idea takes hold, it'll start to grow on its own. Don't rush this process in preparing to write your novel. Waiting for the right idea will make the writing process so much easier.

Writing Fiction: Session 1 - Introduction to Writing Fiction

Writing fiction is a little harder to define than non-fiction writing, but many of the steps to preparing to write overlap. For example, at some point:

• you'll want to develop an outline;
• you'll have to do some research;
• you'll want to keep track of people for an acknowledgements section; and
• you'll need to develop a note-taking system to keep your information in an orderly manner.

Before you do any of that and before you start writing fiction, you'll need to learn a bit about fiction and some of the ins and outs of writing it. Writing fiction, whether a short story, a novella, or a full length novel, is the art of telling lies. The longer the piece, the more lies you tell.

In order to gain and keep the attention of an audience, you'll need to put enough detail into your fiction writing to make your story believable without slowing it down. Plus when writing fiction, you need characters that ring true, pacing that keeps the story moving, and dialogue that brings your reader right into the conversation and into the story.

We'll work on each of these areas and more in the sessions to come on writing fiction. For now, start dreaming up your story.