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Posts Tagged ‘characters’

Backstory and Characters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is what I’m wrestling with right now.  THE IGNORED PROPHECY is intended to be the second in a series (of four, hopefully).  However, I very much want it (and all of them) to stand on its own.  That requires a very delicate balance.  I need to give the reader enough background to understand how the characters got where they are now, how they know each other and relate to each other, and establish the milieu all over again.  All without sounding like an info dump or slowing the story down too much.  Piece of cake, right?

It was easier in THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  I had a handful of characters, basically a nuclear family, with only one or two exceptions, to start.  All the other characters got introduced as my point-of-view character met them.  Simple.  Now, I’ve got all these characters–and I mentioned in an earlier post that there are quite a few–and I have to reintroduce them with enough information for the reader to go on with, but not so much that I stop everything every time a “new” character turns up.

Last pass, I clearly had way too many characters introduced in the first chapter.  Some of that was unnecessary.  Just because I know they’re there doesn’t mean they have to make and appearance.  I’ve cut that back.

I’ve added a little reflection by the main character to hopefully give the reader some understanding of how he got where he is now.  I’ve tried not to make it too long or an info dump, but only a reader will be able to tell me that for sure.

Now, I’ve still got to work in how the main character is related to various groups in the story and show a little more depth of the world-building.   Oh, and there are still several characters I need to do a better job introducing. 

This is nowhere near as easy as it sounds–and it never sounded easy.

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Critiques:Not Your Kind of Story

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on August 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

I’ve blogged about the importance of critiques before–both giving and receiving.  Some recent experiences have brought the subject up again.  I’ll probably have more than one blog on this topic.

The first subtopic of critiques is “Not Your Kind of Story”.  Sometimes, you read a story and know that it’s just not one you would have continued reading if you’d picked it up in a magazine or anthology.  If it’s a novel, it’s one you would have put back on the bookstore shelf or stopped after the first few pages.  It’s just not your kind of story.

In that situation, if I’ve agreed to do a critique, I will go ahead and read the piece.  I try to be up front about it in my critique and say right at the beginning that it’s not a story that appeals to me.  That doesn’t make it a bad story.  Very few stories are going to be universally liked.  And I appreciate it when a critiquer does the same for me.  Let me know right at the start that this just isn’t your cup of tea. 

With that out of the way, well, there are certain things a critiquer can still help you with, points of clarity or occasionally style that apply to all types of stories.  Things that can be hard to spot in your own work.  And I will still mention, if applicable, the parts of the story that just didn’t quite work for me–getting from point A to point B didn’t quite make sense or the ending didn’t feel satisfactory.  I could be wrong on some of those points because I’m not as familiar with the conventions of a subgenre I don’t read, so stating that up front is important.

It’s nice if you can include one or two things you like about the story anyway.  Usually there is something–a particular bit of imagery or an original bit of worldbuilding.  Something.  I’ve been reminded recently that I’m not always as good as I should be about remembering to do that.

What a critiquer shouldn’t do however, in my opinion anyway, is tell you that you should have written an completely different story.  Someone else should be the main character or the story should be about something else entirely.  Those aren’t helpful critiques.  They don’t apply to the story at hand.  Worse, those comments tend to cloud the critique and make it difficult to respond to the parts that might be helpful.  That really makes the whole process a waste of everybody’s time.

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Epilogues

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on August 8, 2010| 2 Comments »

I think I’ve posted before about my distaste for (and inability to write) prologues.  I usually don’t like epilogues much better.  However, I just finished writing the epilogue for MAGE STORM.  It’s an epilogue because it takes place almost a year after the end of the story, with really nothing filled in in between.

In this story, I just felt that the characters, all of whom had left some kind of trouble behind them at home, deserved a chance to go back and show everyone that they were okay, that they’d found, if not what they were looking for in all cases, what they needed.  And to discover that home wasn’t back there any more, but in the new place they were carving out for themselves.  So, I wrote an epilogue.

I tried not to rush it, which is usually one of my biggest complaints about epilogues.  They feel like the author is in such a hurry to finish up and tie up those last loose ends, a lot of important things get told instead of shown.  Hopefully, I didn’t do that.

Now, of course, I worry that I’ve gone on too long after the resolution of the main conflict.  Well, in a week or so I’ll start the second draft.  There’s always the chance the whole epilogue will end up on the cutting room floor, but I don’t think so in this case.

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Number of Characters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on August 4, 2010| 1 Comment »

Another thing I’ve noticed as I’ve written more novels, (finishing up the first draft of my fifth, now), is that I have fewer important characters.

My first novel, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE didn’t quite have a cast of thousands.  Not quite.  But there are a lot of characters and a fair few of them get at least a scene in their very own point of view.  Now part of this is probably inevitable.  There are six separate cultures in this world that interact to a greater or lesser extent.  And the main character ends up having something to do with all but one of them.  Now, if there are only three important characters from each culture (and some have more), that’s already eighteen important characters.  It’s bad enough that I had to draw up a genealogical chart for the main character’s family relationships when I started finding readers for the sequel, THE IGNORED PROPHECY. 

Not all of those characters have a significant part in THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  Some of the ones that were very important in the SHAMAN’S CURSE are barely supporting characters in THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  It makes me start to wonder if I need to try to reduce and combine characters in the eventual revision/rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

THE IGNORED PROPHECY has fewer important characters, but still quite a few because, well, because they were already there from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE

BLOOD WILL TELL really only has five important characters and about as many more supporting characters.  It also takes place over a much shorter period of time.  (THE SHAMAN’S CURSE covers eight years and even THE IGNORED PROPHECY covers almost three years.  BLOOD WILL TELL takes place in a little over six months.)

DREAMER’S ROSE also has only five important characters.  Come to think of it, they’re almost the only named characters in the story.  Not quite, but close.

MAGE STORM again has five important characters.  (I’m starting to see a pattern, here.)

Fewer important characters certainly makes for a tighter story.  And it’s a lot easier to write the synopsis.

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Single Point of View

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on August 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

MAGE STORM is the first novel I’ve attempted from a single point of view.  I’ve written short stories from a single point of view, of course, but never a novel.  It’s an interesting exercise.

There are so many places where I’m dying to let what another character feels or thinks into the narrative, and I can’t.  It’s strictly from the main character’s point of view.  If he doesn’t know it, I can’t write it. 

I’ve been kind of moving in this direction gradually.  THE SHAMAN’S CURSE had several point of view characters, not all of them actually important to the story.  Of course, I did need to let the reader know certain things that the main character couldn’t know about.  Then again, I wonder now how much of that I really needed and how much the reader could gather from events.  It couldn’t be told from a single point of view, but it could be reduced, I think.

THE IGNORED PROPHECY has fewer viewpoint characters and all of them are important in some way.  Again, some of them are needed or the subplots simply will not work.

BLOOD WILL TELL has six viewpoint characters, but probably three-quarters of the book is told from the viewpoint of either the main character or a second very important character.

DREAMER’S ROSE is probably eighty percent from the viewpoint of either Rose or Lerian. 

This is the first time I’ve ever attempted to tell a story this long from a single point of view, however.  It’s occasionally frustrating, but hopefully it also leads to a deeper connection with the main character.

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Immersion

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on July 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Well, so much for balance.  Once I got into BLOOD WILL TELL, I got caught up in it (again) and just went straight through.  I really, really love this story.  I believe in it.  Someone else will, too.  So, a bit more spit and polish on the query letter and the synopsis and off it goes again.

My expectation was correct.  Through the rest of the book, I have what I think is an appropriate level of immersion into the characters.  Deep penetration into the point of view at the emotional highs and lows, moderate throughout most of the rest, and narrowed to the immediate during escapes and fights.

What I have learned from this experience is that it seems that I have a little trouble getting into my characters’ heads right at the beginning of a story or novel.  It takes me a chapter or so to get comfy in there.  When I think about it, that doesn’t seem unreasonable. 

Now that I realize that, it’s something I can look for and fix on the second draft (when I’ve had plenty of time to get comfy), just like my writer’s tic of starting sentences with conjunctions.  So, the experience has been good.  Now I know what to look for.

As far as balancing some revisions along with the first draft work, my internal editor will have to be content with revisions to the synopsis for now.  Maybe after that, I’ll pick up revisions to that short story that’s been sitting patiently and waiting for me to get back to it.

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Openings

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on June 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

What is it with me and openings lately?  I had DREAMER’S ROSE starting with the main character sitting and waiting for something to happen.  It did happen, very shortly, but that’s still not a very exciting opening.  Not exactly riveting.  I’ve fixed that one.  At least now he’s preparing for something to happen.

Then what do I do?  I turn around and start MAGE STORM with the main character being bored.  Once again, something starts happening right away.  But, really, I have to come up with a better start than boredom.

MAGE STORM is based on a short story, which will basically be the first chapter.  But I wanted to make the opening more relevant to the YA audience.  I fell back on what I felt while doing similar tasks at that age.  That’s how it happened.  I really need to come up with something a tad more interesting, though, I think. 

Oh well, that’s what first drafts are for.  Make a note and move on.

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Point of View

Posted in writing, tagged , , on June 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

Update:  I’m approximately 90% done with the revision of THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  The good news is that I’ve found almost enough material to cut in the last few chapters to offset the added material.  I won’t need as big a pair of scissors on the next go through.  After this, it will still need one more pass for consistency and to look for places to increase the tension still more.  Then it’ll be ready for more readers.

Today’s topic: Point of View.  Up to now, I have always written in third person.  I try to get into close third person, meaning I’m in the head of one of the characters, as often as I can.  Some scenes don’t lend themselves to that, for me.  Some do.

The new short story that I’m sort of working on during revisions to the novel is different.  Early this morning (you don’t want to know how early), I went through and changed the thousand or so words I’ve written to first person.  I’m going to try that for this one.  A good bit of the story involves the main character not understanding the world she finds herself in and not knowing what’s going on.  Her confusion may work best in first person.  If it doesn’t, I can always revise it and change it back.

That creates a problem, though.  Since the main character doesn’t always know what’s going on, I’ve got a few scenes in third person omniscient to allow the reader to see, and understand, what’s going on.  I’m not sure whether I can pull that off.

This will be a new experience for me and a bit outside my comfort zone, but if you never try anything new . . .

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Reusing Milieus

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“Becoming Lioness” is set in the same world, and uses some of the same characters as THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  In fact, it’s based on an event that should happen in the fourth book of the series, if it ever gets that far.

The last set of revisions (which I finished this morning) were prompted by a couple of critiques and one comment.  It made me aware of just what a delicate dance it is to provide enough information, but not too much in a short story.  There are both benefits and drawbacks to using the milieu from two of my novels for a short story. 

On the positive side, all the world building was already done.  I know this world and these characters intimately.  That part was easy.  From at least one comment, I think the world came through as being much richer than my other short stories, probably because it is.

On the negative side, I know this world and these characters intimately, meaning I know way too much about them to fit into a short story. 

This last revision was mostly cuts, removing places where I had too much detail or backstory.  It might enrich the story, but it was killing the pacing.  Asking the question: does the reader really need to know that for this story to work?  I don’t know yet if I cut enough or too much.  In some places, I had to combine characters or even slightly alter events from the way they will be in the novel in order to make the short story better.

The next short story that I’m considering is also set in this world, based on an event from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  So the take-away lesson is: to really think carefully about what I put in.  Some hints at the backstory may serve to enrich the world.  Too much just bogs things down.  And I can’t let myself get too tied down to the way it happened in the novel.  I have to do what works best for the short story, first.

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Characterization

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on April 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I posted some time ago about setting SEVEN STARS aside.  I was just having too much trouble with it, which probably meant that I had something wrong or not fully formed.  So, I’ve just been allowing the ideas to come and jotting them down when they did, but not trying to actually write anything on this project.  I’m still not ready to go back to writing it.

The original story was from a novelette that I wrote and never liked much.  It didn’t feel finished, somehow.  So, I decided I knew enough things that could happen to these characters to make it into a novel.  I still think the story will work much better as a novel.  In the process, though, I switched the main character and it just wasn’t working.

This week, I had an idea that would enrich the ending and jotted it down.  And then, at odd moments, I let myself sort of roll it around.  This idea changes everything.  I think it’s part of what I was looking for and couldn’t find when I was too close to the project.  Not everything, not yet, but a good long step down the right road.

The implications of this idea will change the main character dramatically.  He’s going to be a lot less rational and in control and a lot more prone to anger for a large portion of the book.  That means I have to change where the story starts (something I’d pretty much resigned myself to, anyway) in order to show him before he lets his anger get the better of him.  Otherwise, he’s liable to be a pretty unsympathetic character, which is not what I want.  He’s going to be a lot more dangerous, this way, but I think that’s what the story needs.  One of the things the story needs, anyway.

It will also help with developing stronger antagonists and motivations for those antagonists.  They’ll have good reason not to like this guy.

This is definitely going to be a challenge to write, but that’s good.  He’ll be very different from any character I’ve tried to write before, especially as a protagonist.  You’ve got to stretch every now and then.  With this idea, I can actually feel enthusiasm for the project starting to build again.

But, before I even think about going back to SEVEN STARS, I want to finish the first revisions to DREAMER’S ROSE and hopefully get it ready for its first critiques.  Nobody but me has even seen it, yet.  And I’m starting to rack up notes for some significant revisions to THE IGNORED PROPHECY, too.  Maybe, in the meantime, some more story-changing ideas will come to me.

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