Elements of Modern Storytellling: Character Development, by Stephanie Osborn

by Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

I suppose it's time for me to take my own turn on this topic. I've got quite a few books out there by now, with more coming, and I do have a great deal of fun playing in all these different worlds. The feedback I get from fans is amusing and thought-provoking by turns.

For instance, many people tend to actually forget that my version of Sherlock Holmes (as found in the Displaced Detective Series) is not a real person (at least in our continuum!). A couple of years back, right after the horrific movie theater shooting in Boulder, CO, one fan sent me an email (which seems to be the preferred form of fan letter these days). You see, the shooter's name was John Holmes, and she started off wanting to know if he was perchance kin to Sherlock, and if Sherlock was upset about having such a villainous deed in the family, or at least with the same name. She caught herself partway through, evidently, and modified the letter such that she wished she could ask him those things, but it was obvious that Holmes and Chadwick were real people to her.

Another, more recent, fan letter is one I excerpt for publicity purposes, with permission; it was simply that good. 

"It's like you took Holmes out from under a dusty glass dome in a shadowy Victorian parlor crammed with momentos[sic] and knick-knacks and gave him a new lease on life. Skye is cool too and their relationship helps make the multiverse a less lonely place."
~~Esther Willson, reader

And that was my purpose. While Holmes was so real during the time of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that, when The Final Problem was published, Victorian men and women went into mourning, over the years since, Holmes has become something of a stereotype, I'm afraid. You can go almost anywhere in the world and show someone a silhouette of a man with a hawk nose, a pipe, and a double-brimmed cap, and s/he will respond, "Sherlock Holmes!" I wanted to lift him from that stereotype, to make him live and breathe and feel and think again, for modern readers. (And yes, I did it well before either the BBC or CBS series, or the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. film franchise.)

Now, as to how I build my characters, it's actually fairly simple. The great actor and portrayer of Holmes, Jeremy Brett, was fond of referring to his process of disappearing into the character as "becoming." And as I've trod the boards of the stage some little bit myself, and use a similar technique, so I modified it for use in my writing. I search within myself, my personality, for some facet that fits the type of character I am looking to create. Then I use that facet as the foundation for the character, and begin to add to it. A quirk here, an eccentricity there, a flaw, a virtue, on and on. I weight the types of "bricks" according to what sort of character I'm building: a villain will have more flaws than virtues, and a hero vice versa. Experiences in their backgrounds (and yes, I tend to fully flesh out their personal histories, even if I never use them, at least for main characters -- because you never know when something in that history will be useful in a future book) may be imagined, or may be pulled from my own experience and modified, as appropriate. Intellect, etiquette, education, family, all are taken into consideration. And by the time I'm done, I have a character. 

But the character isn't really fully developed until I write him/her. There's something about recording a character's behavior that brings it alive in the mind's eye.

Now, you'll notice that I draw a lot on myself. But I should note that that's how I relate to the characters, just as we usually make friends of people that have something in common with ourselves. Even Holmes, who was created by a man who lived and died long before I was born -- because I recognize facets of myself, my psyche, the way I think, in the great detective. Pecadilloes we share, and the like. And I think this is what enables me to render him as a living, breathing human. It can be useful, in the circumstances, to simply think, "What would I do in this situation?"

"In this case the matter was simplified by Brunton's intelligence being quite first-rate, so that it was unnecessary to make any allowance for the personal equation, as the astronomers have dubbed it."~~Sherlock Holmes, The Musgrave Ritual

And so it is. Not that I mean it in an egotistical fashion; rather, I am trying to say that an ability to relate to the character in some way better enables me to adjudge what that character would do, say, or think.

I find it interesting to note that I have been accused of writing a "Mary Sue" in the character of Dr. Skye Chadwick. But in point of fact I drew no more on myself for her than I did for Holmes, and no one has ever called Holmes my Mary Sue. (It could be argued, in any case, that Watson was Doyle's "Mary Sue," if one really wanted to go there.) 

If there were ever a Mary Sue for me in my writing, it would have to be in my very first book, Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281. This book has two main characters, "Crash" Murphy and Mike Anders. Crash is a retired NASA flight controller turned author, and Mike is an astronomer. Sound familiar? It should, if you've read my bio. In fact if you were to take these two characters, merge them into one, and flip the gender, you would have a very close approximation to myself, saving only Crash's military experience. And in this case it was quite deliberate. That book hits very close to home for me in many respects, and even more so after the Columbia disaster occurred. Why should anyone be surprised to find that I based the main characters upon myself?

They grew beyond that, of course. I think if you are a halfway decent writer and have done your proper work, then that will happen. And at some point they become real to me, so real that it might as well be that they exist in another spacetime continuum. And for all I know, they do. 

So when I come back to a new book in the series, it's like going to visit an old friend. I delight in it, and hate it when I finish the book -- because that means the current visit has ended, and I have to go home. 

If I've done my job properly, when you read it, you'll feel the same way.

-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Elements of Modern Storytelling: Character Development, A Guest Blog by K. E. Kimbriel

By Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Today K. E. Kimbriel will be telling us a bit more about how to properly develop characters. Last week we saw how Dina von Lowenkraft used a series of questions to do that very thing, and I thought it was good, because my character development is rather more intuitive. What I mean by that is simple, and yet complex: How would this character act if s/he was a real person? Would he be grumpy over not getting his morning coffee? Would she be happy over that promotion, or dread the inevitable move to another city? Which is in itself a series of questions, I suppose, but far less formal and more...visceral.

So let's see what Kat Kimbriel has to say.

~~~

Kat:

Writers think a lot about characters.

We think about them in the abstract, and we think about those individuals who rent an apartment in our subconscious and start rummaging around, looking for utility hookups and how to arrange forwarding on their mail.  Sometimes they are just visiting for a few months or years.

Other times they move in and don’t check out until we do.

I ended up in the so-called genre areas for very specific reasons.  The foremost of those reasons is that I read for interesting characters dealing with a plot that draws me into a world.  It can be a version of our modern world, as when I read any of the excellent twists and turns on Sherlock Holmes (you can sample Laurie King, Carole Nelson Douglas, or Stephanie Osborn’s take on him just for starters).  It can be a left turn in our own worlds, contemporary or historical.  My Night Calls fantasy novels set in North America circa 1810 could fall into this category.  Laura Anne Gilman’s Retrievers or PUPI crime scene investigators are mystery-fantasies that are contemporary in nature.  Her New York is not our New York (or is it?) but we recognize much about it.

I also prefer SF and fantasy because sometimes you can get people to think about important things if you introduce them to the idea in a fantastic story.  There is subtlety and strength in metaphor. 

Lately I have been thinking about new ways to build characters.  I’m building a checklist of questions for your characters that I think might be a revealing place to start.  In the meantime, David Mamet has come up with several questions that can help you narrow down why a character is in your story.  I’m using them to help me with my next book.  (Yes, I am finishing the last one, no one panic!)

The questions are:

1. Who wants what from whom?

2. What happens if he (she) doesn’t get it?

3. Why now?

It’s very easy to get swept up in world building and character building.  Most of us have met at least one person who has binders and binders of notes about a world they are creating.  There’s a danger to too much of that work.  You get so enthralled with the condiments of your world, you forget about the main course.  Spices and crushed herbs add greatly to your story, and will help make it memorable.  (It is how you tell the story that counts.  There are almost no new ideas—only new combinations and slants.  When it’s unique to you, it will be unique to the reader, too.)  But where is the protein, the special fats that will give your reader sustenance?

Mamet’s questions get down to the heart of “what makes your character tick?”

Who wants what from whom?

Even the most altruistic people want something.  They want to be loved, appreciated, rewarded for work they have done, recognized for their efforts.  They want security, they want power, and they want wealth.  They want their children to be safe, well-educated, have good jobs, meet the right spouse.

You may (and should) have more than one thing going on in a story.  But you should have a dominant story line and a protagonist, and you should start there.  I’m a firm believer in “if the supporting story is coming on strong and the main plot is not, maybe you’ve chosen the wrong protagonist to carry the ball.”  It’s all right if the main plot is letting you get a handle on the supporting tales.  But if the main plot just refuses to show up?  It may not be time for that story—or the story your subconscious wants to tell may be a different story!

Who is tucked behind your forehead, telling you a story or perhaps lurking there, waiting for the opportunity to speak? What is so important that it begins to drive them through this portion of their life?  Is it something new that has dropped from the sky, and unlucky protagonist, she happened to catch it?  Is it an old fear or incident come back to haunt her?  Is everything good about to unravel in her life?  Or is a streak of bad luck about to end…and be careful what you ask for?

Who is on the other side of the equation?   Are they a willing participant in the story to come, or are they dragged along in the wake?  Are they willing to help the protagonist, or will they fight?

What happens if they don’t get it?

 

If you are writing character- and plot-driven fiction, “what happens” should be important.  This is not “if I don’t get the soufflé to rise, dinner is ruined” plotting.  This is, “If dinner doesn’t gel, the Venusian Ambassador may eat his attaché, thus an interstellar incident erupts in my home,” territory.   And the ambassador eating his attaché should be only the beginning.  When the ambassador later gives birth to a spanking new baby Venusian born with the memories of the eaten attaché, and people start plotting to place that infant in a position of power, you’ll know you’re not in Kansas anymore.

So you need a person who wants something, probably from someone or something, and you need consequences if your protagonist doesn’t get it.  If the McGuffin isn’t delivered by Friday, your heroine loses her soul.  Which vial is actually missing from the deep freeze at the CDC, and what happens if the microorganism cuts loose?  A tourist has been injected with an unstable explosive that will turn them into a human bomb within 24 hours.  And your lover is on the same plane (this could work for any of the three!).

It must matter to the protagonist—and you must make it matter to the reader.

Why now?

 

What makes story a novel?  One thing is that the story has a beginning and an end.  Good fiction gives you the illusion of both history and a future for your characters.  It’s hard to care about a symbolic everyman or everywoman, but if s/he’s written well enough, you will slot yourself into their life for a brief moment.  In a novel, you have the chance to observe or be someone else—just for a while.  You can sample more lives than you can ever live yourself, more adventures, more puzzles to solve, more thrills to experience—a book will take you anywhere you want to go.  If it won’t get you where you want to go?  Write the story yourself.

A story has a build to it, a rising action that must peak and ebb until the final rise into a climax and coda.  (Yes, it’s not your sneaky mind; there is an echo of foreplay and consummation to a good story.)  The best stories give you weight—they pin a tale to a place and time so that you can smell the street vended rolls, taste the hint of salt from sea water creeping into the water table, hear the free musicians outside the music hall, feel the river mist against your skin as you greet the pale dawn light.  A classic tale can be transported to another place and time, but the elements that make it riveting should be transportable with it.

What are usually transportable are the characters and their inter-relationships.  We recognize the scalpel of Sherlock Holmes’s intelligence, the brilliant madness of Professor Moriarty, the compassion and empathy of Doctor Watson, no matter where we drop them and how they look on the outside.  If their names are different we may still refer to them by those symbolic names, because we know their core, what they stand for—we know what they want and how they will respond if they don’t get what they want.  In their purest forms they become archetypes, and we use them to build new worlds.

You can diagram any decent story using these suggestions.  See if you can distill some of your favorites in this game.  With a series of books, you will probably find two “What do they want?” answers—what is their core response, why they are driven to go on, and why this particular adventure at this time.

With my character Alfreda Sorensson in Night Calls, Kindred Rites, and the forthcoming Spiral Path, we have a young girl who discovers that not only was she born of a line of great magic-users—she is one of the chosen.  It’s a calling, and a dangerous one—her mother apparently resisted the call.  But Allie sees it as Hobson’s choice—she must be trained, and there must be trained people to protect loved ones from being eaten by the Dark Side and its creatures.  The magic has bloomed; there is no time to lose.  In Night Calls, the sudden appearance of magic late, at 11, means they rush to get her into training, even as she is already attracting the attention of dark creatures.  In Kindred Rites Alfreda runs up against a family of sorcerers who think that an untrained child of power would be a good thing to add to their family tree.  Her kidnapping means now is the time for the tale.  And in Spiral Path, Alfreda has to learn ritual magic quickly to protect her from control by powerful entities.  That means joining the exclusive school of elusive Cousin Esme.

In my Nuala science fiction, I have characters who are dealing with crises of succession and war, of treason and skullduggery.  Men and women alike are trying to protect those they love and solve problems before those problems come home to roost.  In Fires of Nuala, a beautiful free trader (i.e. high end thief) named Darame has come to Nuala to help steal obscene wealth—but others have come to overthrow a government.  She is forced to help the surviving heir hang onto his power to prove the innocence of those she loves.   In Hidden Fires Darame has made a very good life for herself on Nuala.  She found the wealth she thought she wanted, but also the family she never had—and she plies her talents to protect them, whatever the cost to her.  She will protect them even when her own past catches up with her from an unexpected quarter.  In Fire Sanctuary the distant descendants of the previous books deal with intergalactic betrayal and war.  They have little time to protect themselves and consolidate their resources and power.  And there is a price for the support of unexpected allies.

Examine your favorite books.  Who wants what from whom?  What happens if s/he doesn’t get it?  Why now?

~~~

Fascinating that Kat and Dina both favor a questionnaire/checklist for character development, and of similar natures. Yes, I definitely think I need to put all these questions together and use them to help me make my character development even stronger. 

I wonder what I'll learn next week...?

-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Elements of Modern Storytelling: Character Development, A Guest Blog by Barb Caffrey

By Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

I'm pleased to welcome back Barb Caffrey, book reviewer, editor extraordinaire, and newly-published author of the delightful fantasy/romance/comedy/mystery genre-crosser, An Elfy On The Loose. Today she talks about character development, and she does so from a broad range of experience in literature.

~~~

Barb:

Without characters, you don't have a story.

I mean, think about it: Who'd remember the Harry Potter series if Harry Potter wasn't there? Or his buddy Ron Weasley? Or his other buddy, Hermione Granger? And that's just the good characters.

What about the enigmatic Severus Snape, the villainous Voldemort, or Harry's own uncle and aunt? Without them factoring into the equation, how would the seven books about Harry Potter interest anyone?

No, books are built on characters. It can't be any other way.

Even in a story where it's all about one man's struggle against the elements – such as Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea or the movie 127 Hours, the true story of hiker Aron Ralston (who had to amputate his own arm in order to survive) – you still must buy into the main character's dilemma. You have to care about Hemingway's old man. You have to care about Aron Ralston (as played by actor James Franco). Or the story doesn't make any sense.

And it's always been this way.

Consider, please, that Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were all about characters. The ones we remember best, such as the stories about the gregarious and lascivious Wife of Bath, are because the characterization was so strong, people just couldn't help getting sucked into the tale.

The biggest and most obvious example, though, is the Bible. There are so many memorable stories there – stories of Moses, of David and Goliath, of Samson and Delilah, of wise King Solomon, and of course last but certainly far from least, Jesus of Nazareth. Most of these stories have narratives we completely understand.

For example, Moses tells the Egyptian Pharoah that if the Pharoah doesn't let Moses's people go, Egypt will be afflicted. The Pharoah doesn't listen, Egypt gets ravaged, and finally after a great deal of suffering, the Pharoah tells Moses to take his people and go.

Mind, if this particular story wasn't in the Bible, we'd see it as a story of action, adventure, mayhem, perhaps even as fantastic...but it works predominantly because we believe Moses is a grounded, down-to-Earth person who's telling the flat truth at all times. We also believe the Pharoah doesn't understand who – or Who – he's messing with, so when the Pharoah (and by extension, all of Egypt) gets his comeuppance, the reader can clap and cheer. (Or at least want to do so, which is one reason why the Bible is among the best-selling books of all time.)

But there's a different Biblical story I'd like to discuss, and that's the story of Job. He's a guy who seemingly has it all at the beginning of his story, and is described as being both "blameless" and "upright." He has a good family, lots of money, lots of property, is well-respected, and has many friends. But because his life is so comparatively easy, Satan turns to God and says, in essence, "Hey, Job has it really easy. I bet he'd not be so good if he had nothing at all."

God's reply is to cause Job to be afflicted with a great deal of unnecessary suffering. Job has no idea why he loses everything, why his family suffers right along with him and most of them die – all he knows is that God has apparently forsaken him, when Job himself hasn't done anything at all to deserve this. And all but a few friends desert him, too – and the few friends left all believe Job must've done something to cause this, even if they don't know what.

Job, though, really is as good as God said he is. So Job keeps being himself, tries to help others, and while he's obviously and understandably upset at all the undeserved misery that's befallen him and his family, he doesn't lash out at other people.

Because of Job's exemplary behavior, eventually much is restored to Job, though Job never gets a true answer as to why this happened. Instead, God basically stays above the fray and says Job cannot judge God – and Job accepts this.

Now, why does much of this story work, even to modern readers who don't accept that a Deity figure would ever behave in such a peremptory way? Well, it's simple: We all know people who've suffered unnecessarily cruel things. We don't know why this has happened. Often, the ones suffering get hectored by their friends, the same as Job was, and that just adds insult to injury. And finally, we respect a man who has shown he truly is good, deep down, in all the ways that count – because anyone can be a good person when there's no adversity in his life.

But it takes a very strong person indeed to be good when everything's stacked against him.

In Job's story, we have two main characters – God, who we can't possibly understand, and who even says so. And Job, who we definitely do understand . . . so if we didn't buy into Job's character, why would the story of Job still be resonating millennia after it was originally written down?

Job's story in particular illustrates why characterization is so important. Because if you don't have someone memorable to build a story around (like Job, Moses, Harry Potter, the Wife of Bath, or my own Bruno the Elfy), what good is the story? Who will remember it? And why should anyone care?

So when you sit down to write, make sure your main character – whether he's human, Elfy, completely alien, Godlike, or many other disparate things – is memorable. Because without that, you can't possibly interest a reader.

~~~

Well, it seems appropriate at this point to simply say, "Amen"...

If you haven't read Barb's new book, An Elfy On The Loose, by all means, do so!


-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Elements of Modern Storytelling: Character Development, a Guest Blog by Dina von Lowenkraft

by Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Dina von Lowenkraft is the author of the excellent fantasy, Dragon Fire, released through Twilight Times Books. 

Some choices are hard to live with. 

But some choices will kill you.

 When seventeen-year-old Anna first meets Rakan in her hometown north of the Arctic Circle, she is attracted to the pulsing energy that surrounds him. Unaware that he is a shapeshifting dragon, Anna is drawn into a murderous cycle of revenge that pits Rakan and his clan against her best friend June.

Torn between his forbidden relationship with Anna, that could cost them both their lives, and restoring his family’s honor by killing June, Rakan must decide what is right. And what is worth living – or dying – for.

Today Dina talks about character development.

~~~

Dina:

Character Building

Character Creation and Development

One of the pleasures in writing is creating characters -- vivid, dynamic characters who come alive.

Character Building is a multi-layered process, interwoven with other aspects of writing. Although the spark for a character can come from anywhere -- an image, an event, a plot arc or even a theme one wants to deal with -- the actual process is one of on-going discovery as each character takes on a life of their own.

I’m a plotter but I like creative freedom. Or I could say, I’m a pantser but I like to know where I’m going. So the tools I often see for character building don’t work for me. I have never been able to fill out a ‘character questionnaire’ before writing a book because I always stop after a few questions -- my mind will have jumped elsewhere. However, when my agent sent me a 3-page character questionnaire so that she could better understand my characters’ motivations in a completed manuscript, I was able to sit down and answer every question without pausing to consider what the answer was. But I did not, contrary to what she said often happens, learn anything new about my characters. By the time I have written and revised a manuscript, my characters are very much alive for me -- even the secondary ones.

So how do I get to that point if I never sit down and write it all out? Essentially, character building comes in waves for me:

1. General idea of characters which then mixes with plotting: Who Are These People?

2. Deepening my understanding by writing a few scenes and doing some more detailed plotting before writing the first draft: What Do They Want?

3. Digging further into motivation and objectives while writing the first draft: How Do They Show What They Want?

4. Checking for voice and expression as I revise and rewrite to get to a second draft: Can They Live Outside My Head?

1. Who Are These People?

 

Whether a book idea comes from an image of a world, a situation, a feeling, a theme or a character trait, I always have a vague idea who my characters are in terms of gender, age, etc. At this stage, I go back and forth between the story idea and the characters involved, since each character’s identity juggles with the plot to define itself. For example, when I was creating the main character of DRAGON FIRE, a shapeshifting dragon named Rakan, I only realized after I began plotting that he had to grow up outside of the normal Draak family structure. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to fall in love with a human, since most Draak see humans as nothing more than animals to be exploited. So I adjusted his upbringing accordingly.

At a minimum though, to get a story idea fleshed out enough to know where it is going, I need to have a decent idea of age, education level, family structure, and attitude of the main characters.

Having worked out some of these basic details, I will usually start writing -- maybe just a few scenes here or there in the story, or sometimes backstory. This allows me to get to know the character better and gets me to a point where the real work in character building can start.

2. What Do They Want?

Once I have written a few scenes to get a better sense of who my characters are and how they react to one another, I then like to flesh out my plot. As I do this, I delve deeper into what my characters want.

Compelling characters have a strong drive -- whether it is physical, emotional or intellectual will depend on your story, and your character. But whatever the plot line, and whoever your characters are, there will be a goal, a problem to overcome and hopefully, a mix of internal and external needs that conflict with each other.

3. How Do They Show What They Want?

I don’t worry about getting all of the character details figured out before I write, just those that seem most relevant to the story/characters involved. But by this point I have a clear idea of each main character’s internal and external motivations. This is essential since emotional tension and conflict work together to drive the story forward -- and result in a compelling read.

As I write each scene, I think about each character’s motivation. Given what I have already determined, and what comes up as I write, their motivations should be clear. If they aren’t, I look first to see if I haven’t clarified that part of their personality/situation yet. If that seems clear, I look at the scene itself -- maybe it is a scene that doesn’t carry enough weight. Maybe something else needs to happen (or not happen) to increase tension or build more suspense. In other words, I will look at the scene to clarify its objective and make sure it helps bring my character, and the plot, forward.

4. Can They Live Outside My Head?

Once the first draft is finished, it’s time to revise. I know many writers who don’t like revising, but I actually find it is a great time for deepening characters. By this point, I know my characters well. I know where they are going and how they get there. As I re-read and revise, I check to see if their actions are in line with their internal motivation, if their voice is clear and unique and if the plot arc and the emotional arc come together at the end.

For me, Character Building is an on-going process that is in constant flux. Characters grow and develop with the manuscript, and as they grow, so does the potential emotional impact of their story.

Thank you for inviting me to participate in this fun series on craft, Stephanie!

Author Bio:

Born in the US, Dina has lived on 4 continents, worked as a graphic artist for television and as a consultant in the fashion industry. Somewhere between New York and Paris she picked up an MBA and a black belt. Dina is currently the Regional Advisor for SCBWI Belgium, where she lives with her husband, two children, three horses and a cat.

Dina loves to create intricate worlds filled with conflict and passion. She builds her own myths while exploring issues of belonging, racism and the search for truth... after all, how can you find true love if you don’t know who you are and what you believe in? Dina’s key to developing characters is to figure out what they would be willing to die for. And then pushing them to that limit.

Dina is repped by the fabulous Kaylee Davis of Dee Mura Literary.

website: http://www.dinavonlowenkraft.com/

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dina-von-Lowenkraft/551209381555837

Twilight Times YA & NA Books on FB: https://www.facebook.com/TwilightTimesYAandNAbooks

twitter: https://twitter.com/vonlowenkraft

goodreads book page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18043583-dragon-fire

pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/vonlowenkraft/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Fire-ebook/dp/B00ECNEZ6G/

~~~

Thank you for participating, Dina! This was very insightful. I find that you and I build our characters similarly, I think; but mine is rather more an intuitive process that might gain strength from using your questions to flesh them out better. Certainly by the time I am, say, five books into the series, I do know my characters! 

I look forward to hearing your comments on our next element!

-Stephanie Osborn

http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Elements of Modern Storytellilng: Character Development, A Guest Blog, Part 2 by Aaron Paul Lazar

By Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Today we continue a new take on developing characters:  how their tastes in the arts helps to form and shape those characters. My friend Aaron Paul Lazar spoke about this last week. This week he's going to finish up what he started. Have at it, Aaron!

~~~

Aaron:

Does Music Move Your Characters Forward?

Part 2

[copyright Aaron Paul Lazar, July 9, 2014]

Here's another scene from the next book in the series, book #3 in Moore Mysteries, entitled For Keeps. In this example, Rachel is trying to get Sam to open up to a new style of music, quite unlike his favorite, Ms. Fitzgerald. I also enjoy using my books to cross-pollinate my own series (see reference to Gus LeGarde's radio show in Sam Moore's book) and to give free plugs to writer friends whose books I want to promote.

In this segment, Sam has just come in from an unsettled meeting with the local coroner, who seems to have a crush on him, which makes him extremely unsettled.

***

From chapter 11, For Keeps:

“How’d it go, sweetie?”

Sam slumped against the doorframe. “Pretty much like you said it would. But it’s still damned uncomfortable.” a

“Oh, poor baby,” she said, patting the sofa beside her. “Come listen with me. Japanese Melodies, by Camille Saint-Saëns. They’re so pretty.”

Reluctantly, Sam shuffled to the couch and dropped beside Rachel. “Okay. Maybe for a little while.” Sam’s usual tastes ran to Ella Fitzgerald’s crooning and Duke Ellington’s band. But he tried to maintain an open mind as he slid close to her and slipped an arm around her shoulders. She snuggled into him and closed her eyes.

The cello and piano duet invaded the room, soothing and saddening Sam at the same time. The music glided into his heart, plucked at his emotions, and tantalized him. The piece Professor LeGarde analyzed was particularly evocative, with searing melodies that sounded mildly Japanese and Spanish at the same time. Sam imagined a Japanese tea garden with a flamenco dancer poised on an ornate bridge. The next time he saw Gus in Wegmans, he’d have to thank him.

When it was over, Rachel clicked off the radio with the remote and sighed, almost as if she were about to burst into tears. They sat for a few minutes in silence.

He finally broke the spell. “Wow. You were right.”

***

Music is an essential element throughout my three mysteries series. Matter of fact, Professor Gus LeGarde (of the ten-book LeGarde Mystery series) is the chairman of the music department at Conaroga University. He lives for music. He teaches daily. And in many cases, I try to further his development by showing his listening reaction, as well.

Gus’s first wife, Elsbeth, leapt to her death from the cliffs of The Letchworth Gorge four years before the first book in the series takes place. (Double Forté) One morning, he’s teaching an opera class and happens to be knocked for a loop when he realizes the parallels between the operatic story and his own life. Here’s the end of the scene, where Gus is speaking to a roomful of students, having played arias from Puccini’s Tosca for the past half hour.

***

“The opera ends when Tosca’s enemies approach. Overwhelmed with grief, she runs to the top of the battlement and soars into the air in a dramatic, self-sacrificing leap. Of course,” I paused dramatically and finished with a flourish, “she can be happy only in the afterlife, with her beloved Cavaradossi.”

I pointed the remote at the sound system and clicked the CD to the final aria in Act III. The students listened with wide eyes. The cloying, beautiful melody surged out of the speakers in the finale. From the expressions on their faces, I figured the entire class was imagining Tosca racing up the stairs to leap t to her death. Even Ronny Kuczynski sat with a pensive expression, his eyes cast down.

A feeling of melancholy wafted over me, catching me unaware. It stabbed me with growing pangs of depression. Familiar sorrow migrated into my throat and gripped me—hard.

I’d often related Tosca’s leap to her death with that of my wife, Elsbeth. Although it had been four years now, the pain of the loss still killed me. It felt like yesterday.

Pushing away the thought, I struggled to forget the vision of Elsbeth lying broken and battered at the bottom of the Letchworth Gorge.

She’d been so much like Tosca, with her own diva-like personality.

Exchange the battlement parapet in the opera for the craggy Letchworth Cliffs, and there was the appalling parallel. The vision of Elsbeth returned. I pictured her plunging from the cliffs, her white nightgown flapping around her as she tumbled through the night air.

The music ended, and a final thought hit me. It was true that an awful analogy existed between Tosca and Elsbeth, but there was one huge exception. Tosca leapt toward her love, whereas Elsbeth had left me, very much alive and very alone.

***

Here’s one last example of how using music in a scene might enhance the character development of a father Lady Blues: forget-me-not)

who’s just realized his teenage daughter had a hidden musical talent, on top of the uncomfortable knowledge that she is growing up too fast…way too fast. (From

***

Shelby nodded, stood up, and let loose, progressively relaxing and making use of smooth portamento passages, light vibrato, and musical sighs. I played from memory, watching as she added facial nuances to match the words.

Maddy tapped her toes on the floor, Joe stayed awake, and even Siegfried stopped to listen in the kitchen doorway, shushing Johnny and the twins.

Chills snaked down my spine.

What a gift she has.

I’d thought maybe musical theater would be her venue, since she’d been interested the previous year in trying out for shows at school. But something had changed in this sixteen-year-old child/woman. Long dark curls framed her delicate heart-shaped face. Her eyes, dark and long-lashed, closed periodically to squeeze every spark of splendor from the notes.

She stood barefoot in faded jeans and a soft yellow sweater, her young lithe arms gesturing to match the words.

Realization hit, and I fumbled the notes.

She isn’t a little girl anymore.

Smooth and engaging, she exuded confidence that scared the hell out of me.

I recovered, but felt unsettled for the rest of the night. We’d already dealt with Shelby’s boyfriends, had been horrified, worried, and traumatized like other parents, but somehow it hadn’t hit me.

Shelby’s a young woman now.

A shudder of fear ran through me. I remembered Freddie’s teenage years with a mixture of joy and horror. But now, did I have the strength to go through it again?

God, help me.

After saying goodnight to everyone, I pushed down the panic and followed Camille and the dogs up to bed.

***

There you have it.

Have you read books which included musical scenes that have affected you in the past? Have they deepened your knowledge of the characters? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this below.

But, before I go, I’d like to thank Stephanie Osborn for having me here today. And as always, it’s a great pleasure to talk about writing and books with all of you!

~~~

As always, lovely to have you, Aaron my friend!

Book 1 of the Sam Moore series is Healey's Cave, if you want to start at the beginning.

Also, Aaron has two new books out: Devil's Lake, a standalone romantic thriller; and The Liar's Gallery, the next book in the Gus LeGarde series. Buy them!

-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Elements of Modern Storytellilng: Character Development, A Guest Blog, Part 1 by Aaron Paul Lazar

By Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Today we have a completely different take on developing characters, and that is how their tastes in the arts helps to form and shape those characters. My friend Aaron Lazar will be talking about that, this week and next week. Let's get right to it, because I'm realizing that this is a really good technique, and one which I think I've used myself without being fully aware of it...

~~~

Aaron:

Does Music Move Your Characters Forward?

Part 1

[copyright Aaron Paul Lazar, July 9, 2014]

Yesterday I was listening to audiobook tracks from my second Sam Moore Mystery, Terror Comes Knocking, recorded by accomplished actor/narrator, Mr. Robert King Ross. Mr. Ross does a wonderful job representing Sam Moore in this book, and also has a great knack for dialog. In this scene, Sam and Rachel were listening to music together, and it brought them closer at a time of life when most sensuous moments had faded to memories because of Rachel Moore’s deteriorating condition with multiple sclerosis. The scene is a poignant moment for both characters, and it made me think about how music can be used to develop characters’ personalities, as well as emphasizing their complex backstories without dumping information on the reader. (Listen to sample here.)

As I drove along the highway headed in the direction of home, it struck me that writing about a character listening to a singer, or playing a piano, or being engulfed in an opera can be quite challenging. I love music (who doesn't?) and try hard to describe my own reactions to listening during some of these scenes. I also find that it can be an especially nice spot to insert a little poetry, for those of us who try not to be too flowery within the bulk of our prose, but who love describing flowers dripping down a stone wall or the heady scent of essential oils wafting through the air.

In chapter twenty of Terror Comes Knocking, Sam's wife Rachel just received surgery for two dislocated and fractured shoulders. (That really happened to my wife, Dale, a few years back...long story!) This segment describes their ride home from the hospital.

Let me know what you think of the musical aspect of this partial scene - and see if you can tell which aspects of my character(s) I intended to emphasize. Sam reveals a lot about his marriage and life with inner thoughts, and I find passages like this help to clarify the “character of ones characters.”

***

From Chapter 20, Terror Comes Knocking

Rachel closed her eyes. “How about some music? I just want to rest and listen to something nice.”

Sam nodded and leaned forward to switch on the CD player. Ella Fitzgerald was in the number one slot of his six-CD device, singing from "The Best of the Songbooks." He selected track three.

Ella’s velvet cream voice prowled over him, enveloping him with its sensual tones. He went limp inside and let the notes glissade, massaging his soul in sugary splendor.

He and Rachel had danced to these tunes in their youth. They’d seen Ella several times as teenagers. In ‘62, they’d seen her twice. His collection was extensive. He owned every song ever recorded by the jazz queen, including early works from her first recordings. The music trickled over him like soft rain falling on petals…molasses poured over pancakes. It reminded him of days gone by, particularly nights gone by. With Rachel. In their most intimate moments.

She remembered, too. She opened her eyes for a minute and slid a sideways glance at her husband. “You’re remembering, aren’t you, Sammy?”

Sam grinned, slow and lazy. He hadn’t felt like this in a long time. “Yeah… What times we had, hey, darlin’?” He dropped his hand from the wheel and touched her knee. The hospital gown had ridden up mid-thigh.

She laughed out loud. “Now don’t get any ideas, you devil.”

Sam shot a glance at her. The bittersweet knowledge of their life together now hit him hard. They hadn’t made love in years, probably wouldn’t, either. He had to make do with memories. Wonderful, passionate, amazing memories. He saw her in that light now, with her long dark hair rippling over her creamy white shoulders, her dark eyes smoldering, her fluttery fingers touching him in that way…

“Sorry, Rach. Can’t help it. You still drive me wild.”

Her eyes puddled, full of the stark knowledge that Sam accepted with equanimity. He exchanged smiles with her, patting her again. “We were blessed, weren’t we?”

She nodded. He plucked a Kleenex out of the dispenser and leaned over to dab her cheeks.

***

What do you think? Does listening to that music almost transport you back to Sam’s memories, too?

~~~

Part Two comes next week, with more cool excerpts from Aaron's books to illustrate how he develops his characters. Stay tuned!

[Book 1 of the Sam Moore series is Healey's Cave, if you want to start at the beginning.

Also, Aaron has two new books out: Devil's Lake, a standalone romantic thriller; and The Liar's Gallery, the next book in the Gus LeGarde series. Buy them!]

-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Elements of Modern Storytelling: Character Development, A Guest Blog by Ken Johnson

By Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Today we move on to a new element in the modern storyteller's tool kit: developing a character. But I've decided to let someone else lead off; Ken Johnson is a social scientist and what once would have been called a "loremaster," and he has chosen to analyze several of my own works of fiction with an eye toward how I created and developed the characters in them. We have had several interesting chats on writing and my philosophy and techniques, and he has taken them into consideration in penning what you are about to read.

~~~

Ken:

I truly think it is a honor to be asked by Stephanie Osborn to write something for her blog.  She is an accomplished lady who has done more in her lifetime than five men could.  To be even considered means that you have a voice with something to say.  Indeed, that is rather reaffirming in today’s world.  So, it should go without saying that I see this opportunity as being extremely important when she asked me to write on the topic of character development. 

As a culturalist (social scientist), I try to stay aware of how art, music, literature, and other “relics” of a culture’s “archaeology” are symbolic of their values, beliefs, social protocols, etc.  “Are all of the lead characters men, women, or mixed?” “What is the age range of the main characters?”  “What is their education level?”  “What percentage of diversity is shown in the characters?”  “What is the character’s nationality?”  Such questions must be asked and contemplated in order to best understand how the character represents a given concept and point of view. 

Being that I also do art (paintings on feathers), as well as fictional writings, I also have to appreciate the artistic and technical nuances that take place with not only how the character is created but also as to how a character develops.  “What is his back story?” “What drives her?” “Has his emotional past changed him physically?” These questions and more color what will ultimately be the characters in print. 

I remember some time back, while researching for a forthcoming book on monster allegory, asking Stephanie about how she comes up with her stories.  She explained to me that she has to envision the character both before and after the story she is actually writing.  As she told me, oft times there are entire stories that she knows about her characters which never make it to print only because she knows the character that detailed enough that she can finally write about them.   

Indeed, my research of accomplished authors has revealed this intriguing commonality as being the foremost trait of sophisticated character development.  If you do not know your characters then how can you write about them?  For instance, in a story I am wanting to write, I have pieces to a character’s story that I can see almost as if it is a movie in my mind.  However, just as I can see these scenes there are also gaping holes in the storyline that I cannot see yet.  So, I cannot write the story until I know my characters inside and out.  For the writer, this can be maddening at times because there are untold, and oft times unfinished, stories clouding the mind and yearning to be free.   

This is one reason why I often prefer short stories and novellas because they are concise and often do better justice to the overall story and the characters involved.  The writers of shorter stories are not trying to meet some ambiguous word count minimum/maximum set up by a publisher.  Instead, they only set out to tell the story that they know. 

Sadly, television has corrupted writing to the point now that most writers are trying to play “screen writer” in their books rather than as authors.  Third person omniscient is now becoming status quo.  It is the equivalent of a watercolor artist narrating a painting as to why the paint flowed a certain way, why it blended the way it did, etc.  The narration ultimately becomes the main stage element and what is being narrated now takes a back stage.  When the reader knows everything about the characters then there is little surprise.  Thus, many authors compensate with more and more absurd situations rather than focusing their attention on practicing a modicum of restraint. 

The only caveat to this is when one writes about a genius.  Here, writers often try to make the character an enigma.  I remember researching out a number of authors recently who were talking about how to develop an ingenious character.  These experts all basically noted that time is something that is on the author’s side.  In other words, the “genius” character in the book may not have time to Google “hairy bottomed frog” to give a quip but the author does.  This allows for a character that seems almost supernaturally intelligent.  So, in such a case, you may have a scene where the genius asks a colleague how (s)he is doing, and gets a response as to something like, “I am fine as a frog’s hair split three ways!” only to have the genius retort by saying, “You know, there is actually a hairy bottomed frog in Africa which, during mating season, grows projections on its rump that looks like hair.  Even cut three ways, I dare say that it is anything but ‘fine.’  I guess we shall endeavor to make your day better then.”   

Other ways may also include the author leading the reader astray, and surrounding the “genius” with more simple-minded characters, so as to make the “genius” look even more intelligent by comparison to his or her surroundings.  In television, this is done all the time.  For instance, on the show “Endgame,” an agoraphobic, Russian chess grandmaster is left in his hotel solving cases.  As he tries to figure out the puzzle, the viewers are taken down multiple wrong paths only to have the grandmaster reveal the truth at the end.   

Verily, the core of any good character is research.  However, how you develop the character with this knowledge base can be done a number of ways.  Most authors like to do a linear development of characters.  But, a few will venture out and take a static point of view.  Linear development is nothing more than having the character(s) follow a given timeline of events where they grow and morph along the way.  A static development is where the character does not change, usually because it is so complex or formidable that change is nonexistent, and so then the story becomes one of how the character got that way to begin with. 

A great example of static character development is El Vengador.  As I once wrote in a Yahoo! Voices article on werewolf allegory, Stephanie changed paradigms as to what a werewolf represented.  However, she did this by taking the often underutilized static form of character development.  Until the end, the reader does not realize that the monster is a single, cursed being.  In the end, even though the killing spree and attacks never end, the true story was in depicting how the monster came to be, where he came from, and what motivates him. 

In contrast, the Displaced Detective Omnibus gives the reader a compilation of multiple books which takes the reader along a given time line where Sherlock Holmes is taken from his time and dimension and placed in our world during our time period.  While Stephanie gives insight into some of their thoughts, she refrains enough in the story so that you have to work to see and understand the characters independently for who they are.  In other words, she does not let the narrative overshadow the characters.  What is important to note about the series is the development of Sherlock.  In the book, he goes from being a very static, Victorian gentleman to being more animated.  Her taking into account cultural and temporal norms allows for unmalleable character to become dynamic.  Where his time required men to be almost asexual, he is now allowed to show passion and tenderness openly without the author sacrificing the traits that makes Holmes such an iconic character.

~~~

Ken Johnson is an independent researcher and culturalist who typically writes on issues of culture, conflict, conservation, and literary allegory.  Starting college at the age of 16, Ken now holds a BA in Social Sciences, an MBA, and special certifications from the USDA and the Florida Supreme Court in the field of mediation.  Predominately a non-fiction writer, he has a book due out in August 2014 called Unbroken Circles SM for Schools. In 2005, he was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel for his good works by the governor of Kentucky.  He has also been nominated for the Grinnell Prize as well as two media awards given by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. 

~~~

I'd like to thank Ken for his analysis of my works and my writing style. He does indeed have my thought processes correct, and to see someone else's take on my attempts at creating other beings has been fascinating!

-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com