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Posted on Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:16 PM
Here are seven more questions to throw at your characters while you are speed-dating them. Pay close attention to the last three or four, because they will become important as you write. Your reader will forgive you eventually for forgetting that John's eyes are blue, not hazel, but they'll leave you if your character slouches in one scene and struts in another.
I should have taken the Mouse's advice when writing my current WIP. Because I hadn't thought through what her role would be in he story, one of my characters started out as innocuous and bland. Then, 200 pages later, she pulled the rug out from under one of my other characters in a particularly vicious manner, and her actions made no sense at all. I had to go back and re-write some of the beginning in order to make her final behaviors believable.
So ask your characters about these things and then use the mannerisms and verbal tics throughout the story.
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What beliefs do you hold most tightly? Which ones would you be willing
to carve on a rock?
•
What is your idea of a perfect day? Where and with whom would you spend
it, and what would you do?
•
What are your favorite expressions? Do you use the latest slang, or do
you show off your extensive vocabulary? Do you slip into a more pronounced
accent or dialect when you are excited? Do you have a verbal tic, saying “um”
or “uh” or “like” or ”you know”?
•
What does your posture say about you? Do you slouch, or hunch your
shoulders, or keep your arms crossed? Do you keep your eyes on the ground when
you walk? Or are your shoulders thrown back as a sign of confidence?
•
What about eye contact? Do you keep looking away, or are you giving me a
belligerent stare? Are you squinting at me or raising a skeptical eyebrow? Are
you avoiding eye contact because you are nervous or because you are bored? Does
your smile reach your eyes?
•
Does standing close to someone make you uncomfortable? Or do you
frequently reach out to make physical contact?
•
And what do your other gestures say about you? Do you play with your
hair or brush it back impatiently? Do you have a “twitch” or unconscious
mannerism? Do you pick at a hangnail, chew your lip, shuffle your feet, or bite
your fingernails?
We all send out signals with our
body language, and most of us are able to interpret those signals, if only
subconsciously. If your characters behave as real people do, your readers will
judge them accurately.
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Posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2012 7:10 PM
A current commercial features a couple in a speed-dating situation. He pulls out all his favorite pick-up lines and she destroys him by quoting from his own Facebook page. The ad is cute and funny, but it always reminds me of a suggestion I included in "The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese." Before you write your book, get to know the characters in your book by speed dating them. Here are some of the questions I suggest you ask:
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What is your name? Does it have a special significance to your family? Do
you have a nickname?
•
How old are you, and where were you born? Have you stayed in one
location or moved around? And if you have moved, at what point in your life?
•
What was your family like when you were growing up? Did you have
brothers and sisters, and where do you fall, age-wise, in the list of your
parents’ children? Are you still the responsible one because you were the
oldest? Or are you the forgotten middle child, or the spoiled youngest one?
•
Did you have pets as a child? If you could choose just one pet, would
you turn out to be a cat-person (independent) or a dog-person (eager and
friendly)?
•
Do you have a large circle of companions, or only a couple of close
friends? Have you moved in the same small circle all your life, or have you
reached out to meet new people? And how do you choose your friends?
•
What is your greatest strength? Your greatest weakness?
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What do you dream of doing? If you could be someone else, who would you
choose?
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Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2011 4:54 PM
Here are some of my rules for writing historical fiction. They may not apply to all writers, but they guide me in the choices I make and the kinds of research I do. Read them first. Then later this weekend, I'll show you how they helped me choose which of my diary copies would become my writing guide.
1. Be true to the time period.
Don't ever guess at the order in which events took place. Double-check dates and times so that you don't run a chance of turning a cause into an effect. There's a difference between saying that a man shot a dog because the dog attacked him, or that the dog attacked the man who tried to shoot him. In the first instance, we're dealing with a vicious dog; in the second, the man may be the one who is vicious.
If your story is about people who live in a particular time period, be sure you know the appropriate details of dress, food availability, household furnishings, modes of transportation, and social customs of the period. Also check details of local vegetation, climate, and wildlife habitats. Don't let your native of Oklahoma pull a salmon out of the local river.
If your story also involves actual political or military events, your responsibilities multiply. Your descriptions and discussions must reflect the facts as they were known at the time. Don't let hindsight lead you astray here. We now know that a pregnant woman who takes the drug thalidomide runs a grave risk of birth defects in her unborn child, but the doctors who prescribed the drug to cure morning sickness back in the 50s did not. Don't blame someone for lack of knowledge if that knowledge was unavailable at the time.
2. Be true to your story.
Most historians hate playing "what if" with history. No matter how many alternative universes you may describe, it won't change the one in which your events actually took place. What if Germany had won World War II? Maybe Hitler would have managed to turn the entire world population into blond, blue-eyed Aryans. Or maybe he would have turned out to be a really nice guy whose genetic experiments resulted in the cure of cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Or maybe he would have been hit by a bus and we would have discovered that we didn't need to fight that war after all. Now we're talking fantasy, not history. And while fantasy may be amusing, it doesn't increase anyone's understanding of anything.
Don't change the facts to suit your story. Change your story to make it fit the facts. The people who read historical fiction may be people who know the period well. Or, if they don't know much about the history, they are probably hoping to learn something from your story. It's foolish to try to hoodwink the first type of reader because they will just dismiss you as clueless. It's unkind to mislead the second type of reader, because you will be betraying their trust. Either way, you will lose readers, not gain them.
3. Most important, be true to your character.
If you are writing about a real person, you owe it to yourself and to her to find out as much as possible about her. Don't exaggerate her education or experiences. Work with her own life to make her struggles more understandable. Don't rely solely on gossip or what others thought about the character. Ask what she thought about herself. That's why diaries and personal letters are so helpful when you are trying to flesh out a character.
Judge the characters in your story only as you could have judged them in person. You must not criticize someone who made a well-considered decision simply because it turned out badly. You need to look beneath the result to discover the intention. Don't just blame Lincoln for not acting earlier to emancipate the slaves. You must try to understand what he hoped the Civil War would accomplish before you can judge his efforts. Before you judge a slave-owner, you must at least try to understand why he needed to have slaves in the first place. Only then can you start to examine his treatment of those slaves.
Finally, let your characters be real. Nobody's good and kind all the time. We all have thoughts and temptations we're not proud of. We all have weaknesses. At the other end of the scale, nobody's pure evil. The meanest boss may have a penchant for big-eyed puppies. A kid who terrorizes the neighborhood has a mother who loves him. The heartless mother will willingly sacrifice her life for her child. Don't try to gloss over the unattractive elements of your character's personality. If she's perfect, everyone will hate her by the end of the first paragraph.Your readers want real people -- people with whom they can identify, people they understand because they recognize them.
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Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2011 4:57 PM
Some time ago, I talked a bit about the resources I use to learn about the characters I’m getting ready to portray in historical fiction. I thought I’d pretty well covered the topic. But after this week’s discovery that the characters in my new book don’t really stand out yet as individuals, I’ve decided to think about the question in more detail.
 Most writing guides will devote a chapter or more to characterization. They offer good advice. Make the people in your novel believable. Avoid stereotypes, which are, by definition, boring. A chatty librarian is more interesting than a sternly silent one. And a neatly-dressed plumber might be fascinating simply because of what you don’t see when he bends over. Don’t force a character to perform super-human feats, unless, of course, you’re into writing fantasy. Reveal personalities a bit at a time. Don’t overwhelm the reader with lengthy descriptions at the very beginning. Let the reader get to know your characters gradually, in much the same way as you get to know real people in your life. But how do you do all that?
 One way is to imagine your characters in a speed-dating setting. Visualize each one sitting across from you. You have only a few minutes to decide if you like or distrust them. You’re taking notes, so that you can remember them later. Besides noting the usual hair and eye color, height and weight, ask each of them a series of questions. Make them sweat a little, and they may tell you a great deal.
1. What is your name? Does it have a special significance to your family? Do you have a nickname?
2. How old are you, and where were you born? Have you stayed in one location or moved around? And if you have moved, at what point in your life?
3. What was your family like when you were growing up? Did you have brothers and sisters, and where do you fall, age-wise, in the list of your parents’ children? Are you still the responsible one because you were the oldest? Or are you the forgotten middle child, or the spoiled youngest one?
 4. Did you have pets as a child? If you could choose just one pet, would you turn out to be a cat-person (independent) or a dog-person (eager and friendly)?
5. Do you have a large circle of companions, or only a couple of close friends? Have you moved in the same small circle all your life, or have you reached out to meet new people? And how do you choose your friends?
6. What is your greatest strength? Your greatest weakness?
7. What do you dream of doing? If you could be someone else, who would you choose?
8. What beliefs do you hold most tightly? Which ones would you be willing to carve on a rock?
9. What is your idea of a perfect day? Where and with whom would you spend it, and what would you do?
 10. Why do you dress the way you do? Are you usually neat or disheveled? Are you stylish or old-fashioned? Are you uncomfortable in a suit and tie — or in high heels and a fancy dress?
11. What are your favorite expressions? Do you use the latest slang, or do you show off your extensive vocabulary? Do you slip into a more pronounced accent or dialect when you are excited? Do you have a verbal tic, saying “um” or “uh” or “like” or ”you know”?
 12. What does your posture say about you? Do you slouch, or hunch your shoulders, or keep your arms crossed? Do you keep your eyes on the ground when you walk? Or are your shoulders thrown back as a sign of confidence?
 13. What about eye contact? Do you keep looking away, or are you giving me a belligerent stare? Are you squinting at me or raising a skeptical eyebrow? Are you avoiding eye contact because you are nervous or because you are bored? Does your smile reach your eyes?
 14. Does sitting or standing close to someone make you uncomfortable? Do you instinctively pull away from others? Or do you frequently reach out to make physical contact?
 15. And what do your other gestures say about you? Do you play with your hair or brush it back impatiently? Do you have a “twitch” or unconscious mannerism? Do you pick at a hangnail, chew your lip, shuffle your feet, or bite your fingernails?
We all send out signals with our body language, and most of us are able to interpret those signals, if only subconsciously. If your characters behave as real people do, your readers will judge them accordingly. .
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