The characters I cast in my novel aren't who I thought they were. I don't know why I'm so surprised. Anytime I meet someone for the first time, the new acquaintance smiles a lot, flatters me with complimentary politeness, chooses her words carefully. I do the same thing. It's only through subsequent meetings, time spent hanging out together, that guarded moments give way to natural reactions, and the façade begins to crumble. In the time I've hung out with my characters this week, they have begun to shown me their authentic selves. I learned the antagonist has a lifelong fascination for electroshock weaponry. And here, I thought fire was his thing. Another character informed me I had it all wrong, that he never wanted to marry his fiancée. One character up and altogether quit the project! And an Asian dude I'd pegged from the start as a wicked man turned out to be a student and a young fellow of incredible honor. It's a shame what's going to happen to him. However, it was only when he revealed himself to me that the big climactic scene -- the one I just couldn't figure out for weeks and weeks and weeks -- finally played out in my mind. Maybe I'll make it up to him by mentioning him in the book's dedication blurb...
So, I made my first self-imposed deadline: Step Six of the Snowflake Method is complete, on time today, April 3.
The steps in this method of plotting a novel are extremely well designed. For example, in Step Five I wrote a one-page narration of each major character and a half-page narration of each minor character. The exercise was to write in first person from the POV of that character, letting him or her explain his or her role in the book (relationship to other characters, goals, motivations, etc.) Then this week, in Step Six, I expanded the one-page plot synopsis of the novel I wrote for Step Four to a four-page synopsis. Today I begin Step Seven which shifts focus back to the characters and asks me to create detailed character charts for each character. It's brilliant, because I know so much more about the characters after working through Step Six, including how wrong some of my original interpretations of the characters were. I'm excited to dive into this exercise and fully flesh these people out.
Snowflake Method author Randy Ingermanson says in Step Seven notes: "You will probably go back and revise steps (1-6) as your characters become "real" to you and begin making petulant demands on the story. This is good -- great fiction is character-driven. Take as much time as you need to do this, because you're just saving time downstream."
How do you get to know your characters? Have you ever interviewed them? Have your ever had a character quit your novel?
36 comments:
I've tried to get to know my characters before hand but I find it difficult, I really enjoy just starting to write and allow the character to choose its on view and direction, I know it requires more edits later but it also helps me in the end, although my MC broke her arm right before the book ended and I had to deal with that!
I've never had one quit, but I did have a couple that got too big for their britches. Both of them were secondary characters that attempted to take over the book, stealing scenes, interjecting themselves in scenes they didn't belong. I finally had to sit them down and read them the riot act!
I ended up promising them starring roles in the sequel. :{
Hee! I've never had a character quit, but I have been known to kill them off with some regularity. They sometimes cringe in fear of me. :)
What SJS said! Many have met their unfortunate demise.
Ahh, characters. I usually get to know them by writing brief character descriptions, then we really become friends as the novel progresses.
And I'm quite fond of killing them off.
In my current WIP, it's a little frightening how well I know my 2 MCs...
I have definitely had a character quit on me. I kept wanting one of my main characters to have a girlfriend. But, no matter how hard I tried, he just didn't want a girlfriend. So now she's lying on the editing floor. Sorry, Girlfriend.
I just posted about this myself. Unruly characters are one of my biggest annoyances.
I try to know my characters before I begin (to make sure they're up/right for the part) and have done interviews as well.
In the end, though, I make them conform. I'm a dictator.
I've had several minor characters quit, but their role ended up not that important.
I plan and outline my story before I begin writing, so I usually know my characters fairly well by the time I begin. I'll fine tune along the way, but nothing radical.
This is excellent advice, the Step Six part of the process. I'm definitely going to try it b/c, like your characters, mine are constantly proving me wrong when it comes to knowing them well. Maybe if I'd gone through the Snowflake Method, I'd have figured them out before I wrote about them. (I can hear them laughing in the background saying, "Duh!")
I've never had a character quit on me before. I have more characters show up! My novel started out with 4 major characters and how it has like 10 or 11. It's insane! But since I have split it up into three novels, everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame.
I just talk to my character outloud as if they were sitting next to me. My husband thinks I'm totally insane, but it tends to work. Recently I had 6 of my characters tell me I had portrayed them wrong on paper. In my head I had it right but when I wrote it down, it came out all backwards. So I am basically rewritting the whole novel to fix this! The main plot is still there but almost all the subplots have changed completely. It's been fun and stressful but the novel is SO much better! So it's worth it.
Great post, Nicole! I do a quick character sketch before I start writing to try to determine what their motivation is and where they're coming from. But I do revise things as I go through the story and they grow.
Thanks for the brilliant advice!
What a great post! I know exactly how you feel. I didn't find out until halfway through my WIP that my antagonist wasn't really an evil person, she's just being acted upon by darker forces... The more I write about characters the more I know them. Like real people, they shift and change as time goes on. It's a never-ending process just like life!
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Nicole, I haven't tried interviewing my characters to get to know them, but I usually think up/write down an extensive history of their life and that of the people who influenced them.
I've never had one quit, but I've had several who have butted in and wanted more action. I'll have to check out this snowflake method-- sounds interesting!
It's so fun to get to know your characters, and often surprising as well. I also have a method for interviewing characters, except it's nothing so formal as preplanned questions. Usually, it's just a matter of talking to them. Everything sort of just unfolds. I had a series for a while of interviews with mc's. It was fun, and I got to work with some great authors, but it was pushed aside for other things. Perhaps I'll revive it someday.
This Snowflake Method sounds like a very organized way to write! Looking forward to seeing how things end up for you.
Awesome Post! I have taken serveral personality tests and have had a few conversations with them. For me it helps to imagine that they are with me. For instance, when I'm driving home from work I imagine my hero sitting on the passanger side. I imagine what he smells like and what his clothes look like. I even ask him how his day is going. He dosen't talk much because he thinks I'm old...but I think he's coming around. =)
My characters sometimes reveal a good amount of themselves to me. However, I learn more and more as we work together.
My assassin, she actually has a heart and decent morals. My bad guy, well he's just rotten through and through. No surprise there.
I talk to them in my mind before we get to work. They tell me their ideas and I nod my head a lot.
Never had anyone quit, but one refused to die. I just keep killing him over and over. You'd think he would give in for once.
I haven't had a character quit - not yet anyway! I have had them surprise me - quite a lot :) Gotta love when they just take over like that!
I find I get to know my characters best when I ask my self why they do any given action. I think about that a lot, even when I'm not writing. I love discovering the answers, especially when it's a big surprise!
Great post, Nicole! I have, in fact, interviewed a character (for a novel that I ended up not writing, but still.) He was going to be my antagonist, and I knew his actions, but couldn't figure out his motive until I interviewed him. It worked perfectly!
I've also had characters quit on me. I mostly write romance or stories involving romance, and I outlined a potential novel all set to go... and then the lead female backed out. She was kind of nasty anyway. So I gave it some time and waited until a new, better leading lady stepped into my head, and now I'm all set to outline that next romance.
Best of luck with your writing! Characters can be so unpredictable and sometimes their surprising nature can be discouraging, but hey -- at least you've created real enough characters that know who they are! :)
I saw you comment on a friend's site & thought I'd stop by. It looks like you have a very popular blog!
I had a friend who just did the snowflake thing & she, too, is singing praises. I love deep characters - as a reader it's way more important to me than plot.
Thanks for the insights here!
Aren't you glad you're finding all these things out about your characters before you start writing? That's why I'd never dare write without an outline, things would be falling apart all over the place. I fill out character questionnaires from First Draft in Thirty Days, the book I told you about before, to get to know my characters.
After finishing the first draft of my main WIP I started doing little monologue/memoir/interviews with my main characters. *sigh* They didn't change that much, but enough for me to realize that the story has to be completely retold. But it will be better. I know it will!
I've never had a character quit, but I did have one very minor character that somehow wormed his way into my heart and ended up the MCs object of affection by the end of the book. I loved him and the ending so much I couldn't get mad at him for showing me he was so much more than I had him pegged as.
Hey Nic, I just stopped by again to wish you a VERY HAPPY EASTER!
Love,
Lola
I had the same thoughts when I was writing.
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This is my most favorite and most hated part of writing. I love creating new characters. I have been using a variety of methods and sources to get to know all of them. It's strange how not even one is like me. I've had a couple quit on me but after some wining and dining they'll come back. I know they will.
I'm with Summer, I do love to kill them off...maybe that's why they run. Huh.
I am finding the same thing happening with my WIP. Thank you for sharing because I thought I was just going insane for thinking my characters are beginning to tell me who they are.
I'm new at this and grateful when I read things that I can relate to.
I love the snowflake method and have used it for this project. My daughter saw it on my desk in my office and she said to me, "What are you doing with that?" I told her it was for my novel and she informed me that it was for math. HA! What does she know anyway? ;)
Nicole, thanks for connecting with me. Your creativity sparkles!
We scour the internet for pictures and talk about them like they're real people. When I was a teacher, the kids LOVED to play "Hot Seat" after we finished a book. A student would sit on my stool in the front of the room and we would interview them as a character from the book. Lisa and I need to play this game together!
Hey Nicole!
Nice to meet you. The snowflake method looks interesting, I write my novels using the Marshall Plan for Novel writing which works pretty well for me. Before I begin writing I do a character profile for each of my characters so that I get to know them really well before I do any writing. They still manage to surprise me when I'm writing but I like that I get to know them out beforehand. Otherwise it'd be like getting married without dating first!
Jai
I love the idea of having your characters surprising you. If they don't surprise us, how will they keep our readers' interest?
"electroshock weaponry" - that's a surprise.
Congrats on meeting your deadline!
I've never had a character quit that I can't think of, but I've had many that have melded into another character, making two characters really one by the end of the project. They like to minimize themselves apparently. :o) (Really, it's a kindness to me because I get mixed-up in dialogue if I have too many people participating.)
Interesting post. I've definitely fired some characters before, but only a few have quit on me. Since I do a lot more planning ahead now, this doesn't happen very often anymore. If a character is going to get cut it's usually well before any major writing has been done. ;)
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