And I've decided that's just fine. Almost never do I find an idea wearing a business suit and holding flowers when it arrives, and sometimes I fix it up before I send it on its way, and sometimes it'll head out of my head into the world the same way it came in - in a hoodie and baggy jeans, but hopefully with more spring in its step and a better attitude. There's plenty of time to fancy up ideas when it comes to publishing a book; here on the blog, you can expect more hoodies and slouchy hats than suits and ties.
All of this is leading up to, of course, a stream-of-consciousness-style blog post that will hopefully become something intelligible.
Anything You Say or Do Can and Will Be Used in a Novel
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| Hoodie sold at shirtskills.com |
Today's topic is something that popped into my head as I sat on the back deck of my house the other day, watching the clouds go by and typing methodically away on my current work-in-progress novel. I've been trying for a while to come up with a really good explanation of how I create my characters, because it's the most common question I get when I tell people I write, and this is what appeared in my head: 'a really good character isn't your creation. They're your best friend'.
What I mean by that is that you have to let your characters take on their own lives and become what they want to be - oftentimes they do it on their own, but the most important thing to do is to allow them that freedom. More than once I've had a character who will not do what I need them to do, and I'm sure that's a common problem. But when you shove said character back into their tiny little box and continue on like they aren't screaming to be something else, the story starts feeling rigid and wooden, and that character especially becomes forced and lifeless.
The best way I can describe it is with an example from my own life, from my tenth grade English class. We were tasked with picking a few pages of Shakespeare's The Tempest and acting them out in pre-assigned groups in front of our peers. A lot of our peers. Word spread, and anyone who could weasel their way out of class that period was planning to come. I mentioned that the groups were pre-assigned, because I think it's an important point. My group consisted of me, a quiet Chinese girl who became our costume designer, and two guys from the Varsity hockey team. I was the director and one of the actors, and the two hockey players (I'll call them Dan and Steve here) were our other two actors. We decided on doing the scene when Trinculo and Stephano (the drunken jester and butler) meet the monster Caliban. Between our honestly mediocre drunk impressions and the sheer fact that we had to memorize our lines, it was an interesting experience. Poor Steve did not want to be Caliban, but I wasn't about to do it and Dan was determined to be Stephano, so he was stuck. Our costume designer forced him into fluffy blue monster-feet slippers and matching monster-hand mittens, and I forced him to hold still while I painted his face Smurf-blue with cotton balls and a sub-par compact of costume makeup I had from a Brainy Smurf costume I wore in the eight grade. Between the embarrassment of that and the fact that Steve's first language wasn't English and he struggled to memorize his lines, our Caliban wasn't the best. He was awkward at best and wooden at worst. Our performance was a bit of a debacle, but luckily we pulled through with a decent grade.
The metaphor there is, of course, that Steve wasn't meant to be Caliban. He wasn't comfortable with the character, so it didn't work out. The same thing happens if you don't allow your own characters the room to grow and develop and become more than you might have originally planned.
Circling back to my original point of your characters needing to be your best friends rather than your creations, you need to know them inside-out. Think about your closest friends, and the little quirks and mannerisms they have that someone who doesn't know them as well wouldn't see. I'll use my friend Will as an example. Over the time I've known him, we developed our own little language of gestures and facial expressions that more often than not results in the two of us falling down laughing while the rest of the people around us try to figure out what exactly is wrong with us. But it's that sort of observation that I think is really beneficial for a writer. I notice the little facial expressions Will makes and I can understand more than just the basics of what he says based on that - for example, one of his hobbies is making eye contact with me when I'm trying to talk to someone, especially if its an important conversation, and just quirking one of his eyebrows and smirking, because he knows it will make me laugh every time for absolutely no reason. But the point is, now that I've noticed it, it's become one of his distinguishing features in my mind.
What I'm saying is, sometimes you have to be a little creepy. Watch people, observe your friends, and learn their little quirks and mannerisms. I actually have a file on my phone where I list the little habits I notice people have - hair twirling, nail-biting, playing with a necklace when they're nervous or thinking - and store them away to give to a character. It's easy to think of some of them, such as nail-biting and other common habits, but others - the really unique ones that are worth mentioning often in a story - can only really be come up with by observation.
The most important thing to know about your character is their core identity - I call these the 'Remember Statements' (idea shamelessly stolen from Maggie Stiefvater's post about how she creates characters), which basically sums up what their primary motivation is. I find these incredibly helpful in my writing process, because when you lose sight of a character's motivation and they begin to feel listless, these instantly snap you back into their head. But that's only a small part of who they're going to grow to be over the course of your story. And this is where the best friend concept comes back into play - for your major characters at least, write down everything you can think of that's relevant to them, even if it will never be mentioned in the story. It might be relevant to their backstory, or it might just be a random little detail that is entirely insignificant. But the reasoning behind this is that it makes the character feel more real to you, and if they feel real to you, they'll feel real to your readers. Little details like a favourite stuffed animal they still keep on their bed, or the way they prefer to dress, and other things like that make your characters feel more fleshed-out - not to mention they'll come in handy for set and costume design if your book ever becomes a movie!
Of course, it's imperative that you don't get hung up on these little details. The point is that you know them - not every single one has to make it into the final cut of your novel. Some of them will probably worm their way in, and that's by no means a bad thing, but make sure you don't become obsessed with cramming every tiny detail you can think of into your novel - it'll disrupt the action, and your fans won't have anything to come up with on their own.
So overall, sometimes, to be a writer, you have to be a little creepy. Observe your friends, your family, and even just random people when you're out and about. No detail is too small; write them all down, and even if you never mention them, your characters will seem all the more real to you and your readers.
