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As I’m writing this at almost 10pm, we’re coming up on the changeover from 41 days to the release of Kings of the North to 40 days (which, as anyone in our choir would tell you, at this time of year leads inextricably to “Forty days and forty nights…” (a Lenten hymn.)
And then…less than 40 days to release. At this point, I always get twitchy, edgy, worried. My brain invents disasters that will make this release not like any other release, but a total unmitigated failure. The drama that normally goes into the plot goes into my daily life.But it won’t be that way. We know that, right?
Instead of brooding and worrying and fretting and such, I’m going to chat about characterization of the non-major characters. Everyone (you, me, the neighbors) however humble, is the star of his/her own movie. Often privately, but still…we’re in our own POV and cannot help being center stage in our own life.
This means even the minor characters–even the ones who appear once to hold a horse or bring a loaf of bread–have an entire life outside the book. They have bodies with actual size, weight, coloration…and actual personalities with preferences and aversions and a past history, friends, families, enemies, jobs, etc. If I let them, they will take over the story. Once they realize they’re onstage, they want to talk to me (and you) about themselves. Some are quite interesting; others aren’t. Real fictional life, again.
Supposedly, it’s possible to have the very minor characters act like puppets–walk on, hold that horse, hand over that bread, and fade into the background without bothering the writer. But for me–and writers like me–that’s not what happens. I have to listen to them at least a little before they’ll come alive, even for their fifteen seconds of face time with a more central character.
These conversations are even more important with minor-but-more-than-fifteen-second characters. I have to know enough about them to present them as real…and the more time they have on the stage, the more I have to know (even though most of it never shows.) There’s a cheating, scheming, downright nasty shopkeeper in Kings, for instance (you’ll meet him fairly quickly.) I had to figure out how he got that way, why he had the kind of shop he had, why he was still open on a snowy evening, what pressures he felt he was under, before I could have him do what my plot daemon said he did. (The plot daemon sometimes sends me action without context and I have to go back and figure out why that happened. Sometimes the plot bombs explain.)
A minor character destined to become a major character within the same book requires careful handling to make that transition work. We know that in real life most people who end up important in a given setting didn’t start that way (for one thing, at some point they were too young.) Whether it’s physical heroism or moral/ethical heroism or incredibly intellectual or technical skill…people start on the sidelines and then work their way into a major role.
Typically, not everyone in the person’s surroundings recognizes the potential right away–some do, and some don’t. In books, unlike in real life, there’s a coterie of “onlookers” known as readers–who are eagerly trying to anticipate what the writer is about to do (and feel very pleased with themselves when they can say “I thought so!”) Ideally, the writer has made it just challenging enough so the reader gets several “I thought so!” moments of pleasure, and also gets some “Wow, I didn’t see that coming, but I can see now how it fits!” moments.
And the same is true of the characters in the book…some of them should catch on early, and be smug about it when they’re right, and some of them should be surprised, but agree that it fits.
Sticking to minors who stay minors, though: one of the things that takes me a lot of time (literal time–thinking and questioning time) is getting to know minor characters. They often come with a name I need to change (“Yes, you told me your name was Sam, but there are two other Sams in the book already, and we can’t have another one. You need to pick a name that starts with D, R, or V. How do you feel about Drake? No? Dave? Drew? Daniel? How about Rob? Robbie? Roger?…”) They may come proud of their hair color or skin color or incredibly skill at playing some arcane board game…but they’ve only got four lines in chapter five, and I need to establish their essence in a few phrases. Nobody knows that board game and there’s not space to explain it. Hair, eyes, skin…not strong enough to establish individuality.
You will have noticed I don’t do a lot of physical description. In some of my books, you’re never told what color eyes someone has. (How often do you think about what color eyes you have? Some people do, some don’t.) I use gesture a lot. I use dialogue. Individual decision; I’ve read books that used more physical description brilliantly. I don’t feel I use it brilliantly, but I’m good with gesture and the arrangement of words in speech.
Ideally, the techniques writers use to define and differentiate character make it easier for writers to remember that Sam-1 is a tall, lanky sharpshooter in the local militia, and Sam-2 is an accountant for a wool-importing firm on the other side of the mountains (easier still if it’s Sam and Arnold, but some names won’t budge.)
You-the-reader want characters who are cleanly defined and of the right amount of complexity for their role. Some of you would be happy to wander through the psyches of even minor-minor-minor characters, but most of you would not. As Gary the baggage handler holds up the story to tell you that he almost didn’t come into work today because his mother called him to say that her cat needed to go to the vet and her car had a flat tire and she always expected him to put her first but she had a bad leg and he couldn’t just let her suffer…while the protagonist is standing there with one foot in the air unable to walk on to the boarding lounge because Gary wants me, and you, to know all this as he stands there with protagonist’s suitcase and even the conveyor belt is paused…you get bored. With reason. (He didn’t have to pick her up because her neighbor, the schoolteacher who is off today because it’s a school holiday, just knocked on the d0or and kind Ms. Arbuckle offers to take her and the cat instead, and his mother wishes he’d fall for Ms. Arbuckle and Ms. Arbuckle for him, but they have never liked each other and never will. I know this, but you don’t have to.)
Comment by Kip Colegrove — February 10, 2011 @ 10:11 am
We don’t have to know it now, but we might later. Or we might have to know something that the invisible (to us) background has an affect on. It has to be a lot of work (time, energy, etc.) to weave the unseen tapestry to a sufficient density, but clearly we readers benefit. Thanks for sharing some of the process.
Comment by Leo — February 10, 2011 @ 4:51 pm
Well – considering i put this on order for the Hardback back in May (as soon as i was able to) and i’m also getting the Kindle edition for my fiance (i’ve got kindle edition and hardcover of oath also) i think you’ll receive a good number of people will be buying and enjoying Kings of the North. I know i will – and i’ve been following you since your very first book showed up on the shelves (and i’ve even bought that first large trade paperback and then the little hardcover and updated 1.99 edition) – and i like the Paksennarion series so much – i actually contacted the artist for your first series of books and had prints made and hung in my living room – i can provide pictures if you’d like. 🙂
Comment by Genko — February 10, 2011 @ 7:16 pm
Mine’s pre-ordered as well. I dithered around so long on Oath that finally someone bought it for me. I felt guilty enough that I figured I’d need to just go ahead and get this one on my own.
I remember Ursula LeGuin describing how much background she needed for world-building. The names of herbs and what they are used for, etc. She needed to have some idea of what rushwash tea tasted like, for example, and who likes it, and such like. I see similar kinds of details in the Paks books, redroots, oilberries, herbs in soaps. Sometimes I don’t really care about what the cattle look like and what women wear in a particular area that Paks is marching through. I did care about what Dorrin had to wear and what she had to go through to get court clothes. It’s so interesting to do that calculation about what readers will want to know about and what they won’t. And I suppose not all readers are alike, just to make things that much more difficult. We *try* to cooperate …
Comment by elizabeth — February 10, 2011 @ 11:14 pm
You’re absolutely right that readers aren’t all alike in which details matter to them and which are boring…or even how much detail they want, period, even in areas that do interest them. And yes, it’s tricky to figure out how to allow for the different readership.
Consider what the details show besides those details. No two people walking down the street have the same experience. A sees a front garden and thinks it’s pretty. B sees that it’s full of invasive non-native plants. C sees that all the all the flowers are in the same family. Which details the writer shows may well depend on which one is the POV character: A, who’s a gardener himself, or B, who is an urban ecologist encouraging people to plant natives, or C, who’s a plant taxonomist automatically cataloging family/genus/species for every plant she walks past.
In deep third person POVs, that character controls what the reader experiences in the scene. And thus the details given define and/or reinforce the characterization. Paks noticing the different breeds of cattle meant that she was still focused on farm issues–she noticed the cows and sheep because that had been her life. She doesn’t yet know how to notice many other things that later, she will.
Dorrin’s reaction to suddenly being in need of court costume reveals quite a bit about her. A different woman would have made different choices and worried more about different things. It was fun to think up what those court clothes would be like (looking through costume books of the approximate periods here, and then thinking “yes, but if…” but the point in mentioning them was to reveal both the society and the individual character.
Comment by tuppenny — February 11, 2011 @ 11:28 am
Having managed to slice not one but *two* fingers while making soup yesterday, I have been thinking about the difficulties that Kolya had with one arm.
Little things like trying to wash one hand without getting the other into the water are enough of a problem – dishes when truely one handed, let alone digging holes for her trees boggle my mind.
Comment by Mike D — February 11, 2011 @ 7:10 pm
Thanks for this and the comments.
For UK readers who have acquired a Kindle (like me) Sony or iPad since Oath of Fealty came out – consider getting the UK ebook version for the reread before Kings of the North is published in 40 days.
The price is currently almost as good as Baen – £4.49 or less and having both ebook and paper just as I have for all the other Paksworld books is very handy.
All Brits have pre-ordered Kings of the North (Orbit)I trust ?
As to a missing arm, Dag in Lois Bujold’s Sharing Knife series has lost a hand and indeed one-handed hand-washing gets its due mention.
Comment by elizabeth — February 11, 2011 @ 8:31 pm
OUCH! I hope you’re OK. I know what you mean about the inconvenience.
Kolya had the advantage, as a wounded veteran living in a military community (as Duke’s East still is, largely) and a basic farming community, of plenty of help. She did not have to dig all her own holes, nor does she do all the picking (climbing a ladder with one arm is possible. Climbing a ladder with one arm and picking apples is…possible but not wise. Friends have helped her devise a number of helpful tools in her house, so she can do more than she otherwise could. Her gift with growing things, especially apples, is valuable to the community so it all works out.
Comment by arthur — February 11, 2011 @ 9:54 pm
This Arthur. Oath of Fealty was and is great! Dorrin is a astounding character. When we find out what the Verrakai are screwing around with… UGHH.. truly awful! I wonder what Acrya is up to. She seems to have last been heard of in Oath of Gold, when she or her avatar shows up at Aliam Halveric’s place. It makes me wonder..
Comment by elizabeth — February 12, 2011 @ 10:14 am
Remember, it’s been less than half a year (book time) since Achrya was at Halveric’s…Oath of Fealty covers only a little more than a quarter year.
You will undoubtedly find out what other dastardly things she’s up to.
Comment by tuppeny — February 12, 2011 @ 2:41 pm
Even the minor tasks of living – dressing one handed, washing up,. cooking had ot require major rethinking on Kolya’s part.
My fingers are improving – finally remembered that the periodontist told me to use a cold teabag as a compress on mouth seeps. Something in the tea helps coagulation. Worked a treat on my finger.
Comment by elizabeth — February 12, 2011 @ 4:39 pm
True. If I wrote Kolya’s backstory that would be shown. But so far…not yet.
I’m glad your fingers are improving and hope they continue to do so. Don’t take any chances if you suspect infection or tendon damage.