{"id":1054,"date":"2011-02-09T22:35:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T04:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2011-02-09T22:35:05","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T04:35:05","slug":"41-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=1054","title":{"rendered":"41, 40…."},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/em> 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.)<\/p>\n

And then…less<\/em> than 40 days to release.\u00a0\u00a0 At this point, I always get twitchy, edgy, worried.\u00a0\u00a0 My brain invents disasters that will make this release not like any other release, but a total unmitigated failure.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The drama that normally goes into the plot goes into my daily life.But it won’t be that way.\u00a0 We know that, right?<\/p>\n

Instead of brooding and worrying and fretting and such,\u00a0 I’m going to chat about characterization of the non-major characters.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone (you, me, the neighbors)\u00a0 however humble, is the star of his\/her own movie.\u00a0 Often privately, but still…we’re in our own POV and cannot help being center stage in our own life.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 They have bodies with actual size, weight, coloration…and actual personalities with preferences and aversions and a past history, friends, families, enemies, jobs, etc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If I let them, they will take over the story.\u00a0 Once they realize they’re onstage, they want to talk to me (and you) about themselves.\u00a0 Some are quite interesting; others aren’t.\u00a0 Real fictional life, again.<\/p>\n

Supposedly, it’s possible to have the very minor characters act like puppets–walk on,\u00a0 hold that horse, hand over that bread, and fade into the background without bothering the writer.\u00a0 But for me–and writers like me–that’s not what happens.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

These conversations are even more important with minor-but-more-than-fifteen-second characters.\u00a0\u00a0 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.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There’s a cheating, scheming, downright nasty shopkeeper in Kings<\/em>, for instance (you’ll meet him fairly quickly.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had to figure out how he got that way, why he had the kind of shop he had,\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 (The plot daemon sometimes sends me action without context and I have to go back and figure out why<\/em> that happened.\u00a0 Sometimes the plot bombs explain.)<\/p>\n

A minor character destined to become a major character within the same book requires careful handling to make that transition work.\u00a0 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.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Typically, not everyone in the person’s surroundings recognizes the potential right away–some do, and some don’t.\u00a0\u00a0 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<\/em> so!”)\u00a0\u00a0 Ideally, the writer has made it just challenging enough so the reader gets several “I thought <\/em>so!” moments of pleasure, and also gets some “Wow, I didn’t see that<\/em> coming, but I can see now how it fits!” moments.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Sticking to minors who stay minors, though:\u00a0 one of the things that takes me a lot of time (literal time–thinking and questioning time)\u00a0 is getting to know minor characters.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You need to pick a name that starts with D, R, or V.\u00a0 How do you feel about Drake?\u00a0 No?\u00a0 Dave?\u00a0 Drew?\u00a0 Daniel?\u00a0 How about Rob?\u00a0 Robbie?\u00a0 Roger?…”)\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Nobody knows that board game and there’s not space to explain it.\u00a0 Hair, eyes, skin…not strong enough to establish individuality.<\/p>\n

You will have noticed I don’t do a lot of physical description.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In some of my books, you’re never told what color eyes someone has.\u00a0\u00a0 (How often do you think about what color eyes you <\/em>have?\u00a0\u00a0 Some people do, some don’t.)\u00a0\u00a0 I use gesture a lot.\u00a0 I use dialogue.\u00a0\u00a0 Individual decision; I’ve read books that used more physical description brilliantly.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t feel I use it brilliantly, but I’m good with gesture and the arrangement of words in speech.<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

You-the-reader want characters who are cleanly defined and of the right amount of complexity for their role.\u00a0 Some of you would be happy to wander through the psyches of even minor-minor-minor characters, but most of you would not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 With reason.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (He didn’t have to pick her up because her neighbor,\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I know this, but you don’t have to.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,5],"tags":[22,62,107],"class_list":["post-1054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-the-writing-life","tag-characters","tag-craft-of-writing","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1056,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions\/1056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}