Posts Tagged ‘characters’

It’s time for another blog chain! Today’s question is brought to you by Sandra. She asks:

“Have you ever created a character different from yourself in some significant way, such as (but not limited to) different gender, race, ethnic group, religion, or sexual orientation? If so, what, if any, research did you do to portray these differences? Was this character a main character, secondary character, or walk-on? Did these differences have an impact on the story?”

I think this is a terrific question because it’s what readers often want to know first. They wonder if you are a character in the story, and if so who. In interviews I’ve conducted, I have often asked authors which of their characters they related to the most or which ones were their favorites. Often, the answers did not match. It used to surprise me, but the more I wrote, the more sense it made.

The first novel I wrote never got published, but it was a great learning experience. It was fiction but based on my family, and that’s where the problems came in. I was so concerned with getting events and characteristics right, that my creativity became stunted. Only when I began writing the chapters with a teenage MC, did things begin to click. Most of that story was made up. The teenager was based on me but there was enough fiction there for the story to flow. Of course, I was already 200 pages in, and to revise the whole book meant to rewrite it all, so I shelved it. However, I learned that creating characters was best. They could have some of my characteristics, but there had to be enough differences that I did not get bogged down in facts or voice or thoughts too similar to my own.

Alyssa in INCONVENIENT is stronger than I was in high school, but we think alike in some ways. I enjoyed writing her and wish only good things for her. She’s definitely a girl I’d have been friend with. But Lana, her best friend, was a blast to write. I started off despising Lana and her selfishness, but as her character evolved, I understood her motivations more, saw different sides of her, and had so much fun each time I got to work on her bad girl scenes. Maybe she wouldn’t make a good friend, but she’d sure be awesome to party with.

In my YA WIP, there are four MCs, and my favorite to write is a guy who is terribly misogynistic. This character is as far from me as I can get, but that’s probably why he’s so fun to write. I literally laugh out loud at some of the garbage that comes out of his mouth. And the thing is that I understand him. I don’t agree with him, but I get how he thinks and what makes him tick. I didn’t research jerks like this guy, but, yes, I have encountered men/boys who thought like him.

Then there’s my MG WIP. It’s about eleven year old boys. I’m not a boy; nor am I eleven, so yes out of character. However, my nephews are ten and twelve, so I know how those boys think. And I taught middle school for years. But I don’t rely on previous knowledge. I also give them additional quirks that are just things I think they’d do.

When I write, I write based on the story or voice that speaks to me. I don’t set out to base a character on myself–not anymore. It’s embarrassing to have yourself so naked out there. That’s what poetry is for. But I also don’t set out to create someone completely different from me either. I write and let the characteristics come together, let the character evolve, and if s/he is exciting for me to write, then I know I did something right.

How about you? What is your rule when writing characters? Do you try to create ones similar or different than yourself?

Check out what creative Christina said yesterday, and tune in tomorrow for sensational Sarah’s take.

When my mother and sister read drafts of INCONVENIENT, they told me their thoughts on plot, characters, and language. They told me what they liked and what wasn’t working. They also told me how the father character is just like my dad. “That is so him!” they both said. “But, you know,” said my mom, “when he reads it, he’s going to say that he’s not like that at all.” Ugh. Cringe. It’s not very hard to visualize that conversation with my father, and this is why he has yet to read any drafts of INC (um, that, and all the make-out scenes–yet another thing I don’t want to discuss with him).

The thing is I didn’t set out to base Alyssa’s father on mine. In fact, in the very early drafts, I didn’t want to deal with the dad at all. In one draft he was dead. In another, he was an absent father completely. However, as revisions continued, I realized (with lots of nudging from my writing group and readers) that the dad needs to be present and his reaction to the mother’s alcoholism explored, and with that his reaction to Alyssa. So then came the task of fleshing him out.

I needed him to be physically present but not emotionally so I thought of ways he could escape. Television seemed like a good outlet, the news too. I didn’t want him working close to home because he needed to be far enough away that he wasn’t available whenever Alyssa or her mom needed him. I liked the idea of a commute. So I put him in NYC. And I saw the character as meticulous, a little anal, wanting things to have their order and place. So I made him an engineer. All these things–on the surface–spell out my dad, who works in NYC, is an engineer, and loves watching the news, especially events going down in the Middle East. But is Alyssa’s dad mine? Nope. Do they have similarities? Sure. But my dad was around, my mom was not an alcoholic, and just because characters sometimes share traits of people does not mean they are that person.

I feel the need to get into this because people have been asking me about my characters since I began writing the book. The same is asked of my peers who write contemp fiction, especially “issue” novels. Some writers get insulted by the questions–like those asking are somehow implying that we’re not creative enough to make up our own characters from scratch. I don’t see it this way. I think people are just naturally curious and it’s also that thing of figuring out the writer, trying to make sense of the characters, discovering the hidden layers, what’s true, what isn’t. The part that bugs me–or puts me on edge a bit–is the idea of people reading my books and thinking this is how my life happened, this is who I am. With INC, for example, besides the dad comparison, the book is about a lot of what I know–the Russian-Jewish culture, the town that was based on the one I grew up in, the school mentality, suburbia. It’s natural for writers to write about what they know. To incorporate their own personalities and those of people they have met into their characters. But, usually, there is not one character that is us. In INCONVENIENT, the MC is not much like me at all, but there’s some of me in there, just like there is some of me in Lana, and even in the mom. Often, these incorporations are not even conscious efforts. The dad being an engineer? I know a lot about it. He could have just as easily been a doctor because I know about that profession too. The mom is a writer. Gee, wonder why? When we write, we want to make things interesting but if the books require little research, that’s a bonus. (And an added note–my characters rarely have siblings. And, it’s not because my sister and I don’t get along. We have a great relationship, thank you very much. Nope, it’s just because I don’t want to deal with additional characters. It’s terrible, I know. *hangs head in shame*)

I like writing contemporary fiction. I think there’s a big need for these kinds of books, and they were my favorites when I was growing up. I just worry that readers sometimes get too distracted from the book’s plot if they’re trying to solve the big “mystery” behind the characters’ true identities. Or, worse, make a running tally of what is not “true” or can’t/wouldn’t happen in the way depicted, as my dad did in some early drafts of manuscripts I’ve written. I mean it’s called fiction for a reason. As long as it’s believable, the towns don’t have to be exactly as they are in real life–same goes for the schools, carnivals, sayings, etc. Writers need to have some liberties.

A part of me is dreading those “What really happened?” questions about INCONVENIENT. I’ll let readers make up their own minds. Mystery is good for the soul. It breeds creativity.