41. The key to creating three-dimensional secondary characters

In previous posts I talked about several ways to flesh out your main characters, such as basing them on real-life people and fine-tuning your characters’ motivation. But what about secondary characters? For me, the main key to animating less-important characters is visual.

                                                 

Cut out pictures. This sounds like something you would do in grade school, but it can be helpful in writing a novel, especially one with many characters. Flipping through magazine ads may give you a hint. Once you see a photo that screams: “That’s Celeste!” it may also be easier to grasp her personality.

Think of famous actors who might play the character and then write for that actor. A colleague who has written a successful mystery confided that she was able to write an important secondary character only when she visualized a specific actress in the role. Once she had done that, she could also “hear” the voice, and the character became real to her.

Give your character a quirk. In Pandora’s Genes and its sequel, Pandora’s Children, several generals in the Principal’s army play a role in the story. To keep them straight in my mind, and also to help readers keep them straight, I gave each general a trait that was noted most times they appeared. For example, Ralf is elderly and has a stutter; Marcus dresses like a dandy and spends excessive time on personal grooming; while Eric, who in my mind looks like Hugh Jackman, is hot-headed and impulsive.

It is important to keep the quirks from taking over, or you can end up with a character who is nothing but a collection of tics.

Let the character’s appearance do double duty. The evil drug dealer in The Ptorrigan Lode is described as having a “patchwork face,” which I explain early on is the result of radiation burns. This gives us an idea of how he looks—and also how he has lived his life.

In another example, readers tell me that Ivory, the teenager who befriends Peej and Annie in Going to See Grassy Ella, is a very memorable character. I knew that I wanted her to be very different from the two sisters, and also to have an innocence about her. Ivory became real to me when I began to visualize her as a former student in one of my Freshman English classes, a very bright girl who dressed in what she thought was the height of punk fashion: ripped black clothing, hair dyed blue on one side, the other side of her head shaved; and multiiple piercings on her ear, nose, cheeks, and lips.

Next week I will answer some questions readers have sent or asked in these posts. Please feel free to ask anything you’d like to know, either about my books or about writing. Post a comment here, or email me through the link to my website.

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40. Finding a great opening line

Last week we talked about WHERE to begin a novel. Now let’s take a look at HOW.

In the beginning of your novel ideally you should introduce your main character, illustrate his or her central problem, and do so in a way that grips potential readers.

Here’s a great first line from the Kafka classic Metamorphosis that does all those things at once:

                                             

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.

This line also establishes the mood of the story—claustrophobic, dreamlike, and horrifying.

Here is a more mundane example from my young adult novel Going to See Grassy Ella. I had determined that my actual story begins when Peej and Annie, the heroines, decide to run off to New York City so Peej, who has cancer, can visit a faith healer. The first chapter shows them making that decision, along with the necessary background information. To draw the reader in, I decided to make an immediate reference to the most exciting (and comic) part of the novel:

“This is the true story of how my sister and I got kidnaped and broke up an international drug ring,” Annie tells us, adding, as a segue: “But it didn’t start out like that.”

Many novels begin with a  provocative sentence that raises immediate questions. I began Pandora’s Genes: He knew they had been expecting him. This raises the questions, “Who is HE?” “Who are THEY?” “WHY are they expecting him?”

Take a look at the classic opening to Catch-22:

It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.

This opening accomplishes quite a lot: it introduces the main character, sets up a number of questions readers want answered, and establishes the comic voice that Joseph Heller uses throughout the novel.

Here are more ideas to keep in mind for the beginning of your novel:

Know your genre. Mysteries, romances, and sci-fi each have their own conventions. The opening of a mystery often focuses on a crime; romances usually begin by introducing the lovers; and science fiction often throws the reader into the midst of a strange and provocative world.  From George Orwell’s 1984:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13.

Ask yourself, would *I* want to keep reading? If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track.

Don’t start with a prologue, except possibly for a sequel in a series. Readers tend to skip prologues—because they are looking for the action.

Use flashbacks rarely and sparingly, if at all. Again, readers will often skip them. I once read a student novel that started a flashback on the first page that went on for four chapters. By the time the story snapped back to the present, I was completely lost.

Don’t start out with a character sketch. That was how authors often began their novels in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but today’s readers don’t have the patience for it. Instead, drop in information as needed throughout the book, and SHOW us who your character is through her actions and words.

Technorati Tags: first lines of novels,writing techniques,1984,Metamorphosis,Catch-22

22. Novel writing: Trust your subconscious

The most important thing I have learned in forty-plus years as a professional writer is to trust my subconscious. Not only does it give me entire plots in dreams, it is apparently hard at work on my fiction even when I’m doing something else, like cooking or leading bird walks.

                                                     

In a previous post I mentioned that some writers of seemingly-intricately plotted works maintain that they never use an outline. I believe them, because I am quite sure that their subconscious does the intricate plotting for them.In that same post I showed how instead of a formal outline I jot down notes as ideas for the novel occur. Those ideas come from my subconscious, which is always several steps ahead of my conscious mind.

For example, my subconscious often plants things I will need later in a story. When I was writing Going to See Grassy Ella, my YA novel, I had Peej, the heroine, get motion sickness in a very early scene. At the time, I thought it was just a character point, but it turned out to be a crucial plot point later on, when Peej and her sister are trying to escape from kidnappers.

As far as I knew when I was writing Pandora’s Genes, Zach was not directly based on anyone I knew. But my subconscious may have known better, because thirty years after I had last seen him, an old boyfriend turned up in my life to thank me for writing about him. He had read the book, read the description of Zach, and concluded that I had based the relationship between Zach and Evvy on him. At first all I could think was, “You’re so vain I’ll bet you think this book is about you,” but on further thought I realized that he was probably, in part, right.  

In the case of The Ptorrigan Lode, my gritty sf novella, I knew in a general way that the protagonist, Jay, would be okay in the end,  but wasn't quite sure how that would happen, until it happened. Jay’s literal transformation was as big a surprise to me as it has been to many of my readers. It was like a light going on in darkness when I realized that my subconscious had been leading me to this denouement from the beginning of the story.

Here are three proven ways to enlist your own subconscious in your novel-in-progress:

1. Write down your dreams--especially if they contain vivid imagery. Even if those images don’t seem at first to connect to your novel, just writing them down will help to open a channel to unconscious processes.

2. Carry a notebook everywhere--or use your cellphone’s memo feature--to record thoughts as they bubble up. I’ve noticed that the more I do this, the more ideas occur to me. I think the subconscious LIKES to be noticed.

3. Spend some time daily in a mindless, repetitive activity like jogging, or meditate regularly. These activities will help you get your conscious mind out of the way and allow your subconscious ideas to surface.

Tomorrow: How to insert background information unobtrusively

Technorati Tags: The subconscious and creativity,novel writing

20. Basing fictional characters on real-life people

“Roman a clef,” which means “novel with a key,” is the term for novels and movies  in which actual persons and events are disguised as fictional.

The most famous movie roman a clef is Citizen Kane, whose protagonist was based on the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. A more recent roman a clef is the novel and movie The Devil Wears Prada, in which  Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue Magazine, is thinly disguised as the character Andrea Sachs.

                                 Anna Wintour        

Now I happen to believe that all fictional characters are based in some way on real life people even if the author isn’t consciously aware of doing so. After all, we all learn human actions and motivations from the people we know, starting with our family members.

Peej, the protagonist of my YA novel, Going to See Grassy Ella, is based on my real-life sister Margaret Jane. In the novel, Peej survives her cancer, unlike my sister. For me, creating Peej was a way of allowing my sister to live again.

Margaret Jane Lance

As a rule, it’s not a great idea to create characters that are too close to someone in real life. This is so for a few reasons. First, most obviously, if your novel is successful, you might get sued.

But second, basing a character too closely on someone real can limit you. The whole point of fiction is to create scenes and situations. If you base your character on Uncle Fred, you may second-guess yourself. “I really want Adam Stark to commit murder during a sky-dive, but I know that Uncle Fred would never do that!”

It is always tempting to use your fiction to settle scores, and I imagine that a large number of fictional characters were written for just that reason, even though we readers are never let in on the secret. I have done that myself on more than one occasion, especially in the young adult series novels I wrote as Lynn Beach. For example, a certain girl who bullied me in junior high school was strangled by a ghost in one of these stories. Just saying.

The bottom line is to so thoroughly disguise any real person you use for a fictional character that he or she will never make the connection. Or at least won’t be able to prove it.

When I was first working on Pandora’s Children, a casual friend  who liked Pandora’s Genes asked me to name a character in the sequel after him. By the time he asked, all the important new characters but one had already been named. The remaining character was a villainous serving boy, and I did name him after my friend. When my friend read the book, he was furious. It turned out he wanted only a heroic character to bear his name

Tomorrow, a special guest post by Kate Fowler Kelley, on how to live with a novelist.

Technorati Tags: fiction writing,creating fictional characters,basing fictional characters on real life people

15 Novel writing: Three ways to keep going when you’re stuck

There is an inevitable moment--and sometimes more than a moment--when you get stuck somewhere in your novel. For some of us, this happens in the first few pages. But it is more likely to occur later on, when you already have a story, you have characters you understand and care about, but you just... can’t... write.... another... word.

For times like these, I recommend the following tricks. I know they work, because I use them myself.

1.  Probably the easiest way to get un-stuck is to write a scene that you know you can do, even though it does not belong where you are chronologically. For example, in Pandora’s Children, I was stuck in the section where the Principal is recovering from his injuries but not sure what he will do next. This is because *I* wasn’t certain what he would do next.

At first I tried to solve this problem by inventing a diplomatic war with a leader to the north, but this did not fit either organically or dramatically. Since I knew what Zach was up to, however, I went ahead and started on the Road Men story. For some reason this jogged my brain, and I was able to move on to the Principal’s next actions, which included his attempts to improve long-distance communications in the District.

2.  A somewhat related technique that works particularly well if you are stuck near the beginning of the story is to write a scene or scenes that take place BEFORE the story begins. This can be very freeing, because you do not have to make this scene mesh with any other scene in the book. It can also be an excellent way to get to know your characters better.

I wrote many, many prequel scenes for the Pandora’s books. Some of them made it into the final publications, and some may turn up in part three. All of them gave me a better understanding of Zach and Will and the creation of the District.

3. If all else fails, my standby cure for writer’s block is to write one sentence every night before you go to bed. If you want to keep going beyond one sentence, that’s fine, and it’s common to find that sentence stretching into a paragraph or even a few pages. But the iron-clad rule is ONE SENTENCE EACH NIGHT. You aren’t allowed to go to sleep until you have done that.

I actually wrote most of the first draft of my YA novel, Going to See Grassy Ella, this way. I didn’t have it particularly plotted out until I was pretty far along in the story. But I had two characters I adored, with voices I was very comfortable with. So I wrote a little bit each night until I finally had most of a complete story and was able to finish the rest of the book relatively easily.

Tomorrow, another special Blogathon post, this one on my “second act.”

Technorati Tags: Cures for writer's block,fiction writing tips

8. Where in the world are we? The novel’s geographical and local setting

For those who haven’t read Pandora’s Genes, or who have read it but couldn’t get a fix on the location, it happens mostly in the area in and around Washington, DC. I have lived and worked in the Washington area, and always liked it, especially the historical buildings and the beauty of the surrounding countryside.

I never said directly that is where the book takes place, but dropped plenty of hints, including the fact that the area ruled by the Principal is known as “the District.” . A number of scenes take place in the Principal’s private office, which has “rounded walls.” Other parts of the White House are featured too. I needed to get a detailed map of the White House for some of this material.

Many scenes take place on the Mall, which they actually do call “the mall” in the Pandora’s books, and a crucial scene occurs at the Lincoln Memorial, which is described but not named. Zach’s and Evvy’s travels take place through Maryland into Pennsylvania and Ohio.

A scene from the Prequel that made it into Pandora’s Children takes place in the Metro. The Principal and Zach begin their final assault on the corrupt, evil President from a distant station across the river. The only identification that survives are the letters A SQUA. Which were on the sign for Virginia Square, the station near my parents’ apartment in Arlington.

Even though I was familiar with all these locations, I consulted maps, and even made a map to keep track of where my characters were at any given time. After writing my first draft, I revisited the Mall area to refine my descriptions, though I never did visit the White House (“the Principal’s Great House”).

I’ve made use of maps and personal visits for other books as well, most notably my YA novel GOING TO SEE GRASSY ELLA, which takes place mostly in New York City (where I lived for 20 years). After finishing the manuscript, again I went back and double-checked my recollection, especially for the area where the girls encounter the seedy Elvin Hotel.

Even though your work is fiction, it’s important to be as true to life as possible. This will give your made-up parts added credibility. Anything that CAN be checked, MUST be checked. Maps are easy enough to find and to consult. But what about fictional places? Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at keeping it all as real as possible.

Technorati Tags: Pandora's Genes Pandora's Children Going to See Grassy Ella Writing tips Fiction writing