Category Archives: Character

It’s been said, and I’m sure you’ve heard it before, that all characters in a story have a bit of the author in them. Everything you write is colored by your personal preconceptions, observations, experiences, and random thoughts about life and your place in it. In a very real way, who we are leaks into the text whether we want it to or not. I don’t know if I’m the only one who has had this happen, but I find it interesting, and sometimes unsettling, when I realize something about a situation or a character is actually something about myself that I had not realized until I saw it on the page. In a very real way, our characters are our reflections, though sometimes distorted ones. Their experiences and reactions to those experiences are deeply colored by our own.

Now, this doesn’t mean that one could use a piece of fiction as a case study of the author. Authors don’t directly translate themselves onto the page. Most of the time this is an unconscious phenomenon.

In fact, this happens so often and with so little thought that it’s almost impossible not to write what we know. Our subconscious does it for us. When we need a scent, we pull one from memory. When we need to show an emotional reaction, we look at how our own bodies might feel in the same situation. If the character experiences something that we never have, we might find an analogous experience to inform what is on the page. While in most cases writing fiction is writing stories about other people, we cannot help but write about ourselves at the same time.

On some level, writing what you know comes without thinking. But notice the “without thinking” part.

The difficulty comes when we let our own experiences limit what we can and do show in a story. It’s extremely easy to fall back on our own point of view. For example, I find that my characters can sometimes be reserved, even repressed, about their emotions. As a result, I often find it difficult to push the emotional dial up to full for an explosive moment of conflict. That comes from me. I’m a pretty laid back person who doesn’t feel all that comfortable when people around me are really emotional. While I can bring tension, sometimes just bringing tension isn’t enough for a big scene. I’ve seen and heard about other writers who will actually skip hugely important scenes in their books because they themselves have no reference point, or their own beliefs or view of the world make it difficult to face what their characters have to do.

And of course, there’s that ever present failure when an author writes a gross generalization or something just flat out wrong that is deeply insulting to an entire group of people because said author didn’t look outside their own point of view.

For instance, I once knew a real young man whose personality was so over the top that he seemed almost like a caricature. At the time, I thought he’d make a great character in a book, but part of what made him utterly ridiculous was intrinsically bound to an entire group of people who are mostly not ridiculous at all. That character isn’t showing up anywhere in my work as a result. Some might think, to avoid this, one should steer clear of any type of character that is not like them. Sometimes this might be the right call, but limiting oneself to just the familiar often leads to boring characters and lackluster plots. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.

My point here is simply to be mindful of what is going into the mixing pot that is your story. Pay attention to those moments when a character trait or bit of setting or what-have-you relies a little too much on what you know. Look for those opportunities when something different can strengthen and deepen what you’re working on.

Who knows, your characters might rub off on you for a change.

Write What You Know or No?

February 1, 2016

Kristin Luna

Action & Adventure Author's Perspective Character Craft & Skills Ideas & Plotting Kristin Luna Reflection Suspension of Disbelief The Fictorians The Writing Life The Writing Process Writing Tools No Comments

All right, Mark Twain, sounds simple enough.

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard this sage advice: write what you know.

Our experiences help shape who we are and what we believe about the world, so they can be valuable veins to mine when it comes to writing. No one person in the world has had the same combinations of experiences as you. However, many have had similar combinations of experiences and have lived in the same time as you. That connection of shared, similar experiences can help engage readers and draw them in to your book. This is why the saying, “Write what you know, ” is so popular in writing circles.

But this advice isn’t the end-all be-all. Plenty of arguments can be made against it.

What if a physical handicap has limited the writer in combat experience, but the writer wants to write a medieval sword fight?

What if you’re a boring person? Do you just write about owning seven cats at one time because that’s what you’re familiar with? What not showering for three days does to the human body? Not clipping your toenails for three months?

While those topics can be very interesting and you should totally write about those, perhaps there is room for adding more information to your story even if you haven’t yourself experienced it.

This month, the Fictorians will discuss personal experience verses imagination: which

Okay, I don't even know anymore. — Okay, I don’t even know anymore.

is more important and where the two intersect. We’ll also consider how far you can/should/maybe shouldn’t go to experience what your characters experience. We’ll include some interesting experiences we’ve had, which may or may not include learning how to deal with post-combat stress, retracing Nikola Tesla’s footsteps, butchering our own meat, and breaking bones.

Later this month, we’ll get an exclusive interview with Fictorian Frank Morin, author of the series The Petralist.

Now we’re curious. In the comments below, please tell us how far you’ve gone to gain experience for writing!

Divining Character with Tarot

January 12, 2016

Ace Jordyn

Ace Jordyn Character Ideas & Plotting 1 Comment

You’ve written several stories and the characters are all beginning to sound the same. How can you mix it up without using the same old characteristics that are embedded in your subconscious?

Try Tarot.

It’s fun and it’s easy.

Although the exact origin of Tarot cards isn’t known, we do know that during the Renaissance the cards were designed to explore archetypal and psychological patterns. For example, death is an archetypal event because it exists in all cultures and a psychological event because of the changes in a phase of life, changing events or people in our lives ,or because of personal emotional changes. Tarot cards are meant to be read on all these levels.

There are too many cards to summarize their individual meanings and the book accompanying the set you use provides that information. The deck I’m using is The Mythic Tarot: A New approach to the Tarot Cards. It was designed with the images of the Greek gods because of their influence on Western society.

Let’s use the Celtic Cross and Sword Spread. The Cross Spread gives us information about the protagonist while the Sword Spread tells us what lies before our hero. Here’s how it looks:

The position of each card means something specific. There are books and websites which have reams of information on each of these aspects. This version has been grossly simplified for brainstorming purposes.

Now, we need a character and the story premise. Let’s have a hero who must save the world from an evil sorcerer. I know it’s been done a million times before but that’s why it’s a good example about how Tarot can be used to mix it up.

Allan, our hero, lives in the rural Midwest. Life on the prairies is hard but it’s a good community, strong with family values but there are things that make him miserable like his cruel father. The day before an old bookstore is torn down in the neighboring town of 500 people, Allan explores the derelict building and finds a book hidden in a wall. He opens the book, reads a verse out loud and unleashes a sorcerer. His best friend is a girl named Becky.

This exercise is in three parts:
A) What the card’s position means;
B) What the card itself means; and
C) What means for our character.

Cards 1–6 (Cross Spread) tell us about the protagonist.

1A) The Heart of The Matter
This card is the primary focal point for the hero. It focuses on a central issue or a major concern. It may be in the form of a dominant characteristic, a major influence or a basic worry.
1B) Five of Swords
With the capacity to create good or evil fate according to the strength of his beliefs or principles, the hero needs to face his limits to go forward. Doing so will allows him to accept his own destiny and to earn his right to manhood and eventual kingship.
1C) The Meaning
Allan has unleashed a sorcerer who is now on a rampage and that freaks him out completely. After having only read superhero stories and growing up in a rural community, he feels inadequate to the task of stopping the sorcerer. Allan needs to find and bolster his inner strength, overcome fears of inadequacy and step up to the challenge.

2A) The Opposing Factor or Adversary
Literally, as seen on the spread, that which crosses you. This is a contrary element, a complicating factor.
2B) The Hermit
The lesson of time and the limitations of mortal life – a lesson that normally comes with age and experience wherein the hero arrives at maturity, a deep respect for his limitations, and a firm sense of identity.
2C) The Meaning
Allan decides to do something because he’s the only one who can but he isn’t sure of himself, and doesn’t have the confidence to go it alone. For this reason, he seeks help from people he shouldn’t trust.

3A) Crowning Card/ Root Cause
That which hangs over the protagonist in the immediate present. It’s directly under the protagonist. It may be an unconscious influence, a hidden influence, or something from childhood. Whichever it is, it’s the source of the protagonist’s problem.
3B) Eight of Wands
Confidence and new energy is gained after triumphing over obstacles. A period of action after delay or struggle. Travel is implied.
3C) The Meaning
False confidence fills Allan’s head after experiencing a minor success. He now believes he can be the things his domineering father told him he could never be or do. Yet, his underlying fears and his father’s voice in his head undermine him.

4A) The Base of the Matter or the Immediate Past
Something related to the hero’s immediate past such as a belief, an event, an opportunity, a fear, a hope, or something resolved like a task, or unnecessary baggage. It may be an unconscious influence, a hidden influence, or something from childhood. Whichever it is, it’s the source of the protagonist’s problem. An unconscious motivation is brought to awareness.
4B) The Devil
The hero must face his own darkness must free himself by gaining knowledge by confronting all that is shadowy, shameful and base in his personality.
4C) The Meaning
This spread of cards continues to focus on Allan’s need to understand his inner self in order to conquer the sorcerer. There are several options. Will he face his own darkness through a dream or a situation the sorcerer has put him in? Will his untrustworthy companions betray him? Will they jeopardize a girl he secretly likes? What is that darkness? Had he done something that he perceives to be as cruel as his father, like pulling the wings off a fly?

5A) The Alternate Future
What could happen, a potential development. This card can also be used to determine aspirations or where trust is placed.
5B) Queen of Cups
Symbolizes the emergence of deep feelings and fantasies which may appear in the character of a woman who is may be either lover or rival. The woman may be mysterious, hypnotic or even seductive.
5C) The Meaning
Allan really likes Becky and she’s done nothing to deserve being held by the sorcerer. Allan finds he can dig down to do what’s right. Or, the sorcerer is a woman and he must overcome her hypnotic ways and again, he can only do that by facing and overcoming his sense of inadequacy.

6A) Future
What lies immediately in the hero’s future. It may be an event, a belief, a fear, a person, an event, an approaching influence, and unresolved factor which must be considered or even something to embrace.
6B) Seven of Pentacles
A difficult work decision must be made – continue with the project or do something new.
6C)The Meaning
Seriously? This card? We already know that Allan has to either overcome his beliefs about himself so he can move forward to be the hero he must be. Come on Allan – embrace your inner self! Actually, this card would fall perfectly in the scheme of the try/fail cycles. It’s the point where he must embrace his inadequacies, move forward and vanquish the sorcerer.

Cards 7-10 (Sword Spread) tell us what lies before our hero.

7A) Mirror
How does the hero see himself? This card reveals his temperament, his way of being or perhaps his self-image, how he presents himself, the idealized version of himself or a talent he can use.
7B) Three of Swords
Strife, conflict or separation, a painful state is necessary as blindness and self-delusion cannot continue.
7C) The Meaning
The Three of Swords says it all. Allan will face strife, conflict and pain because he’s not facing up to the realities of what haunts him and who he really is.

8A) From the Outside
How do others perceive the hero? What are their expectations, their view of the problem, the hero’s effect on them?
8B) The Lovers
Love makes people blind to their choices or actions so one must look carefully at his choices. It may mean making a choice between love and a career. It may mean a love in one’s life.
8C) The Meaning
His need for acceptance, even by the untrustworthy troop with him, makes Allan easily duped and keeps him from facing his fears and sense of inadequacy. This allows the group to take advantage of him for their own benefit and he suffers for that. He may have to choose between Becky (the girl) and the gang (vanquishing the sorcerer).

9A) The Guide or Hopes and Fears
What are the hero’s deepest hopes and fears? This card indicates how the hero will approach obstacles and opportunities.
9B) Ace of Cups
Ready for a journey of love, there is an outpouring of raw, overwhelming feeling. There is a potential for a relationship.
9C) The Meaning
He wants to be loved by his father, anyone. He wants assurance that he is not some horrid warped creature like his father, but a good person at heart.

10A) The Outcome
This card doesn’t mean ‘forever’ but rather tells us what the natural outgrowth from all the things we have divined about the hero. Everything leads to this point.
10B) Six of Swords
Insights smooth difficult times and insight and understanding and dignity and self-respect are maintained.
10C) The Meaning
I didn’t pull this card deliberately! But it is a story worthy conclusion. Insight, understanding and facing his inadequacies smooth the path for Allan who is now able to vanquish the sorcerer, save Becky and maybe even live happily ever after until the next villain appears for who knows what other demons the book holds?

This is a quick example of how Tarot can be used to develop a character. Authors also use Tarot to develop the plot. Mark Teppo’s book explains how he does that so check it out. Here are the two books I used to help divine this blog:

JUMP START YOUR NOVEL by Mark Teppo can be found here.
THE MYTHIC TAROT: A NEW APPROACH TO THE TAROT CARDS can be found here.

How to Sit Down and Write

January 7, 2016

fictorians

Character Ideas & Plotting The Writing Life 2 Comments

Guest Post by Stant Litore

Stant Litore
As is often the case with our characters, our own greatest strengths as writers can serve double duty as our greatest weaknesses—the very things that keep us from building momentum with a novel. For example:

Maybe You’re the Perfectionist

Perhaps your quest for perfection and excellence keeps you from churning out mediocre work but also prevents you from actually finishing a draft. Your own internal criticism chimes in too loudly while you write. If this is the case, you will need to find a few tactics for disarming your own worst critic.

Maybe for you this will mean a mantra. Or maybe you simply need a way to enter and stay in “creative space” or in the creative mood. I recommend finding a trigger—such as an object that activates your imagination, or a scene from a book that gets you thinking imaginatively, or a piece of music or kind of music—something that you can return to when it’s time to “be creative.”

To stay in that space, try headphones. I write with symphonic music playing. I have done that for so many years that now, like Pavlov’s dogs, I lock into creative space as soon as I’m alone with that music. You may need silence—in which case, consider the not insignificant investment of noise-cancelling headphones.

Give some thought also to where you write. While you can write anywhere—I have been known to scribble a scene on the back of a receipt on my car dashboard while stuck in traffic—you might also be well served by establishing a routine place that you make into a creative space, a sacred space. Just as a monk goes to a cell and stares at an image of the Virgin Mary in order to enter and remain in a state of contemplation, you might create your own space and ritual to enter and stay in a state of creativity.

It doesn’t have to be extravagant. If you have a room of your own that you can convert into a study for writing, that’s great, but for years I did all my writing on a tiny, round dining room table in a cramped dining room in a small apartment. I put the kids to bed, popped on my headphones, and had at it. Not an ideal writing space, but I did what I could to make it mine, for those few brief evening hours. A small owl statuette served for a symbolic reminder of past travels and past creative moments. The symphonic music turned on my imagination. And I took a moment to clear from my space whatever made it not right: dirty dishes, stray paperwork, etc.

Do the same with whatever space you have available: find a way to make it sacred to your writing, even if only for brief periods.

Or Maybe You’re the Artist

Maybe daily perfectionism isn’t your particular curse. Maybe for you, your love of imagination and beauty makes you hesitate at some point mid-process, because the first draft looks like a pale betrayal of your original vision for your story.

Other writing instructors have called this phenomenon “Tolstoy Syndrome,” the unspoken, subconscious belief that if your first draft doesn’t look like a masterpiece (like War and Peace), then you have failed and you should stop. Of course, Tolstoy’s own first drafts were a mess, too. A first draft is just that: a first draft. A place to start. For most writers, the real work is in revision. Accept that first drafts are awful, and do them anyway. If you never start, you’ll never finish. That sounds like a platitude, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

When you get that feeling that your work is but a pale imitation of your vision, and that feeling starts to get in your way, do this: Take out a sheet of paper. Close your eyes a moment (unless you are driving, in which case go home first, and then try this; we are mad storytellers, you and I, but we needn’t be lunatics) and imagine your character mid-scene in some moment of your book that is closely connected to what you love about your story. Then open your eyes and write. “Free-write”—write without permitting your pen to leave the paper or your fingers to leave the keyboard. Free-write for ten minutes without stopping. It doesn’t matter if what you’re writing in those ten minutes is good, or even if it belongs in the story. Just write the middle of that scene that so appeals to you. I wrote an Inuit character once—twenty years ago, as a very young writer—and as I worked on his story, at intervals I would look at what I’d done and feel defeated. I suffer from Tolstoy Syndrome. To deal with that syndrome, I kept returning to a scene where my character was out on the tundra, his breath visible on the air, his face greased against the bite of the wind, his spear heavy and reassuring and solid in his hand, and the air full of the reek of caribou. I must have written that hunt twenty times. And each time I wrote it, I recovered the magic of my story, the wonder of it, the appeal that drew me to this character and his story in the first place. When you feel yourself failing your vision—because first drafts generally do exactly that, and that’s okay—find a way to step back into your vision. When you are standing in the midst of your vision, you are strongest; you are happiest. So go there for a while before you return to your actual manuscript, and write and revise from that place in your heart, from that country in your imagination. That can give you a restorative burst of energy.

This is also how you break “writer’s block”; if you’re in a place where no ideas are coming, step aside from that place for a few minutes and free-write a scene that is close to your heart. If the engine of your imagination is running cold, this is one way to heat it up!

The point is: with perseverance and discipline, you can do this. As Koach learns in The Zombie Bible, the only lasting impediments are those we shore up in our own hearts. You may have shored up some of your own. Have courage and knock them down.

This post is an excerpt from Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget.

About the Author:

Stant Litore is the author of the series The Zombie Bible, which retells history (and the Bible) as a series of encounters with the restless dead, as well as The Ansible Stories, in which twenty-fifth century Islamic explorers become trapped in alien bodies on alien worlds. Litore has been featured in “The Year’s Best New Sci-Fi” at NPR (March 2014), as an Author Success Story on the Amazon.com homepage (November 2013), and in Weird Fiction Review and SF Signal. Litore lives in Denver with his wife and two daughters, where he is working on his next novel.