How “Real” Are My Characters?

Novel Spaces is in its 10th year! Over the coming weeks we'll be featuring some of the most popular posts from our archives. This one was first published April 21, 2018.

By Maggie King

Are my characters modeled after real life people? This is always an interesting question. The answer is yes. And the answer is no! As my characters are a hodge-podge of the many “real” people I’ve known over the years, snippets of their experiences wind up on my pages. And I’ve known people who live turbulent lives; Carlene Arness, the victim in Murder at the Book Group, #1 in my Hazel Rose Book Group series, is a case in point.

I think people expect similarities between myself and my sleuth, Hazel Rose. Like Hazel, I was born on the east coast, moved to Los Angeles in my twenties, and started my career as a computer programmer. Like Hazel, I had a calico cat named Shammy who accompanied me when I moved back east in 1996 and settled in Richmond, Virginia. Hazel and I share a commitment to the environment, we’re both frugal and unimpressed with the high life.

But divorce and widowhood have not touched my life—I will soon celebrate 29 years with my one and only husband. I may get stuck in ruts, but not for long. And, alas, I don’t have Hazel’s “money green” eyes.

The biggest difference between me and Hazel is this: if I needed to re-purpose my life a murder investigation would not be the method I’d choose. No question about it. 

But real people did find their way into Murder at the Book Group, like a woman I used to see at a gym in Richmond. I never knew her name or even talked to her except for a hi and a wave. She was partial to leopard prints and chartreuse. The last time I saw her she sashayed into the gym sporting chartreuse stiletto boots and a leopard cowgirl hat, platinum blonde curls cascading down her back. She became Kat Berenger in the Hazel Rose series. As a perk, I gave her a personal trainer job at the same gym.

Jeanette Thacker “reminds” me of a former co-worker. Jeanette doesn’t feel the need to censor her speech.  However, her language was much saltier in earlier versions. My editor advised me to ditch the swear words. If the real Jeanette reads my tome and recognizes herself I think she’ll be pleased but will probably wonder why she’s using words like “frigging.”

Another character is based on a woman with whom I once had an adversarial work relationship. I made her nasty as all get out. But I had a runaway word count and some ruthless editing was in order. Ms. Nasty got whittled down and, lo and behold, she became quite nice! I’m still scratching my head about that. Do other writers unwittingly transform their characters via literary nip n tuck? Is writing a vehicle for forgiveness? Someone with savvy in the spiritual realm can weigh in on this question.

Here is a list of some classic characters you may not have known were based on real people. Dorian Gray is one of them.

Image from https://kssunews.wordpress.com

How about you, my fellow writers: how “real” are your characters?

Maggie King is the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries, including Murder at the Book Group and Murder at the Moonshine Inn. She has contributed stories to the Virginia is for Mysteries anthologies and to the 50 Shades of Cabernet anthology. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and two overly-indulged cats.

Website: http://www.maggieking.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaggieKingAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaggieKingAuthr

Instagram: authormaggieking

Amazon author page: http://amzn.to/2Bj4uIL

Must-See TV for Writers

Novel Spaces is in its 10th year! Over the coming months we'll be featuring some of the most popular posts from our archives. This one was first published January 21, 2018.  

By Maggie King

As a writer, I love TV shows that use intricate plots and settings to show the ups and downs of being human in a less-than-perfect world. As a crime writer, I am especially fond of shows in the mystery genre. Regardless of the genre, the best TV features conflict as a common denominator.

The following are my top picks:

Cast of As Time Goes By from BBC

As Time Goes By (1992-2005) was a BBC-produced romantic comedy of manners about Lionel and Jean, who were lovers in their youth only to be separated due to a communication failure (communication issues dog every relationship, don’t they?). But they meet up again thirty eight years later and resume their relationship, in fits and starts.

As Time Goes By portrayed well-drawn characters in relationships that were very real. The humor was natural and not manufactured. Lionel and Jean loved each other, despite occasional minor conflicts. My husband and I share the same affectionate marital banter that Lionel and Jean enjoyed. Their story has gladdened the hearts of romantics everywhere.

I try to emulate this tone and interaction for my characters. Most stories have a romantic component and my Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries are no exception.

Beck is a Swedish police procedural, based on the novels of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. The characters are sharply drawn, from the plodding, methodical Martin Beck to his hot-tempered, politically incorrect partner, Gunvald, a loose cannon if ever there was one. The writers allow the characters to grow throughout the series, giving them plenty of opportunities to reveal their humanity, warts and all. There is violence, especially when Gunvald gets involved, but it’s not on a par with the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series.

Writers can learn much about creating riveting stories and compelling characters from watching Beck.

Downton Abbey Talk about conflict! This acclaimed British period drama revels in it. It’s educational to see how the fast-paced stories keep us glued to our seats. The secret, I believe, is to supply each character with back-to-back personal challenges, whether they be related to money, marriage, death, birth—the list goes on.

Midsomer Murders Don’t be fooled by the idyllic-looking county of Midsomer—its murder rate beats that of any urban area. Passions run high and evil lurks everywhere. Midsomer Murders is a slightly quirky British detective drama based on the crime novels by Caroline Graham. The main characters enjoy satisfying relationships, and the guest characters tend to be eccentric and harbor pasts (and often presents) ridden with secrets and scandals. They are often involved in the arts, academia, and the occult: painters, actors, writers, professors, fortune tellers, etc.

I especially liked the episode “Written in Blood,” where murder took place in a writing group.

Miss Marple Ah, the beloved Miss Jane Marple, created over eighty years ago by Agatha Christie. The elderly spinster lives a quiet life in the village of St. Mary Mead—quiet until a villager is murdered and that happens with alarming regularity. Miss Marple nails the murderer(s) every time, using her powers of observation. Sometimes she disguises her shrewdness with a dithery manner. Living in a village, she is well-acquainted with the vagaries of human nature, and she can always draw a parallel between the latest crime and a villager, or village incident.

There are countless adaptations of the stories and a number of actresses have played Miss Marple. Joan Hickson is my favorite as she best matches my picture of how the character looks, acts, and speaks.

Agatha Christie has influenced many crime writers over the years, especially with plot development. I expect that she’ll do so indefinitely. I think the Columbo character played by Peter Falk often channeled Miss Marple, with his bumbling ways that concealed a sharp mind.

From Wikipedia

Taggart, one of the UK’s longest-running series, is an unflinching police drama from Scotland. I rent the DVDs from my local library. The story lines are intricate as are the personal relationships of the recurring and guest cast members. I enjoy the depictions of the relationships, many of which are unenviable and riddled with friction between characters who are far from perfect. Twists and turns in the plot culminate in the killer, or killers, being identified. More often than not the end comes as a stunning surprise.

These gritty stories are set against Glasgow’s grand architecture.

In my estimation Taggart is a must-see show for crime writers.

Touched by an Angel was a popular American series that ran for nine seasons. I’ve long been attracted to stories of people who have reached turning points in their lives. Sometimes they’re between a rock and a hard place. As they’re grappling with personal demons, conflict, and tough choices, along comes an angel in human form to guide them and impart God’s wisdom.

This show inspired me on many levels. At the beginning of my debut mystery, Murder at the Book Group, the main character, Hazel Rose, is standing at a crossroads. She is at loose ends in her life and is hard pressed to make even the smallest of decisions. Solving the victim’s murder gives her the opportunity to grow and get out of her rut.   

Writers can get inspiration from many more great shows: Brokenwood, Janet King, Inspector Morse, Maria Wern, Wallander, West Wing, and Winds of War/War and Remembrance are just a few.

Tell us your favorites.

Animal Kingdom: For Writers Who Like to Walk on the Wild Side

by Maggie King 

Characters who are so good at being so bad … that’s Animal Kingdom in a nutshell.

On May 29, Season 3 of TNT’s Animal Kingdom premieres. Will I be watching?

I never missed an episode of the first two seasons, based on the 2010 Australian film of the same title.

For the uninitiated, here’s TNT’s blurb for Animal Kingdom:

Animal Kingdom is an adrenaline-charged drama starring Ellen Barkin as the matriarch of a Southern California family whose excessive lifestyle is fueled by their criminal activities, with Scott Speedman as her second in command. Shawn Hatosy, Ben Robson, Jake Weary and Finn Cole also star.

Ellen Barkin is all bottle-blonde magnificence as the controlling and manipulative mom, hell bent on getting her way. She always does. Her sons and grandson are your classic sexy-as-all-get-out bad boys. And they don’t mind shedding their clothes on-camera. Often.

Folks, this ain’t Hallmark fare. No one is nice. It’s even hard to root for the detectives who are trying to bring the family down—they may be on the right side of the law, but just barely. But characters don’t have to be likeable, just compelling.

Writers can benefit from watching Animal Kingdom with its nuanced and layered portrayal of a dysfunctional family. The tone can be ratcheted down, or up, to suit a readership. Glimpses of humanity will surface briefly, only to be quelled. The dark tale contrasts with a sunny Southern California setting, creating a virtual underworld that emphasizes the unsavoriness of the plot and those characters who are so good at being so bad as they walk on the wild side.

A word on the violence: Season 1 of Animal Kingdom started out with a creepy, menacing tone and only a suggestion of violence. By season end, I watched someone get beaten to a bloody pulp, punch by punch, kick by kick. I hesitated to watch Season 2.

But I’ve long been intrigued by scary moms who manipulate their children, especially their sons, and get them to do their evil bidding. It’s a theme that shows up in my writing. Animal Kingdom illustrates this family dynamic to perfection.

And so I watched Season 2. Frankly, I don’t recall much violence. It certainly didn’t approach the level of Season 1.

Circling back to my original question: On May 29, will I be watching the Season 3 premiere of Animal Kingdom?

I wouldn’t miss it.

Cast of Animal Kingdom. Picture courtesy of TNT

More on Animal Kingdom from TNT.  

More on Animal Kingdom from Rolling Stone.

For writers who prefer milder TV fare as writing inspiration, here’s my post from January of this year.

How “Real” Are My Characters?

Are my characters modeled after real life people? This is always an interesting question. The answer is yes. And the answer is no! As my characters are a hodge-podge of the many “real” people I’ve known over the years, snippets of their experiences wind up on my pages. And I’ve known people who live turbulent lives; Carlene Arness, the victim in Murder at the Book Group, #1 in my Hazel Rose Book Group series, is a case in point.

I think people expect similarities between myself and my sleuth, Hazel Rose. Like Hazel, I was born on the east coast, moved to Los Angeles in my twenties, and started my career as a computer programmer. Like Hazel, I had a calico cat named Shammy who accompanied me when I moved back east in 1996 and settled in Richmond, Virginia. Hazel and I share a commitment to the environment, we’re both frugal and unimpressed with the high life.

But divorce and widowhood have not touched my life—I will soon celebrate 29 years with my one and only husband. I may get stuck in ruts, but not for long. And, alas, I don’t have Hazel’s “money green” eyes.

The biggest difference between me and Hazel is this: if I needed to re-purpose my life a murder investigation would not be the method I’d choose. No question about it. 

But real people did find their way into Murder at the Book Group, like a woman I used to see at a gym in Richmond. I never knew her name or even talked to her except for a hi and a wave. She was partial to leopard prints and chartreuse. The last time I saw her she sashayed into the gym sporting chartreuse stiletto boots and a leopard cowgirl hat, platinum blonde curls cascading down her back. She became Kat Berenger in the Hazel Rose series. As a perk, I gave her a personal trainer job at the same gym.

Jeanette Thacker “reminds” me of a former co-worker. Jeanette doesn’t feel the need to censor her speech.  However, her language was much saltier in earlier versions. My editor advised me to ditch the swear words. If the real Jeanette reads my tome and recognizes herself I think she’ll be pleased but will probably wonder why she’s using words like “frigging.”

Another character is based on a woman with whom I once had an adversarial work relationship. I made her nasty as all get out. But I had a runaway word count and some ruthless editing was in order. Ms. Nasty got whittled down and, lo and behold, she became quite nice! I’m still scratching my head about that. Do other writers unwittingly transform their characters via literary nip n tuck? Is writing a vehicle for forgiveness? Someone with savvy in the spiritual realm can weigh in on this question.

Here is a list of some classic characters you may not have known were based on real people. Dorian Gray is one of them.

Image from https://kssunews.wordpress.com

How about you, my fellow writers: how “real” are your characters?

Maggie King is the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries, including Murder at the Book Group and Murder at the Moonshine Inn. She has contributed stories to the Virginia is for Mysteries anthologies and to the 50 Shades of Cabernet anthology. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and two overly-indulged cats.

Website: http://www.maggieking.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaggieKingAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaggieKingAuthr

Instagram: authormaggieking

Amazon author page: http://amzn.to/2Bj4uIL

Dressed to Tell

Hi
This month I wanted to share my ideas on using pictures to add sparkle to my words.

When I’m reading a book, I want to get to know the characters. If it’s well written, with a good story line to keep me hooked, they will get inside my head. One way I “see” them and begin to understand them, is from the way they dress. I won’t have much thought for a sophisticated business woman who isn’t wearing a suit. I’ll have more respect for her if it’s one by Ralph Lauren, for example.

And that’s the way I work in my writing. My characters are defined by their actions and words, but I also like to dress them appropriately. I will often scour magazines, photo websites, even high street advertising boards to find images that fit my characters.

Let me give you some of examples.

In Guiltless the hero is a photographer who doesn’t earn very much. This is quite an important factor in his make-up. Byron wears jeans and T shirts, drives an old Nissan truck and lives in a rundown farmhouse. This is one of my favourite images I have for him:

There is a scene in the book where Byron appears in “a black suit, grey waistcoat and stark white shirt with a narrow black tie.” This attire is totally out of character with the man Lauren, the heroine, has come to know. There is a reason he has to dress like this so I go into detail about his clothes, underlying their significance.

I have great fun “dressing” Lauren, the CEO of her own fashion house, who also wants to model their next range of lingerie herself. Here’s a selection of some the things she would wear:

The high heels are important – Lauren is only five feet four inches and she wants to be taller. She is very comfortable wearing four-inch heels.

The images help me to use words so the reader can visualise the characters. Of course, if someone was ever to make a film of my book, my idea may not quite work. Anyone who has read Jack Reacher and watched one of his films will know what I’m talking about.

I also use visuals on social media. It’s a great way to connect with an audience and try to promote your book without splashing the cover everywhere all of the time. When you’re character is well developed and has been “living” inside you for a long time, it’s hard to pick out photos that make a good match. One way I avoid this is to use silhouettes, but I don’t want to over-use them. In some instances I take a photograph and cut the head off. It’s not as drastic as it sounds – the photo of Byron above is a good example.

I was lucky with the protagonist of my third book, Keeping You, which will be published end 2017, early 2018. When the reader meets this guy, Lawrence, he is quite the opposite of Byron. Lawrence Bane only wears designer labels. The reason for that lies in a damaged past when he never had control of his life. I drop names such as Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and Karl Lagerfeld into my descriptions as often as he drops his pants! But there comes a time when Lawrence has to revert to bargain clothes. I have great fun contrasting descriptions, and again imagery helps me.

For example: Suit man

and Hoody man

My aim is to describe clothing to help both explain and determine the scene. In this example, one scene is about a proud man, protective of his privacy and his past. The other is a man filled with shame as he is forced, once more, to become the man he used to be.

In this article I stick to clothing, but my laptop is full of images of buildings, furniture, bouquets, cars… I could go on. Let me know what helps you to “tell” your story.

Come over and visit my website at www.mollieblake.co.uk where you'll find more imagery and narrative.

Guest author Timothy C. Ward: Strong Women Characters

Guest author Timothy C. Ward

August has been an exciting month participating in the Strong Women giveaway promoting strong women in fiction. We have over $2,500 in prizes, so even if you don’t like women you’d be hard pressed to pass up that prize.

I had a conversation the other day with a studious reader who championed the evolution of promoting strong women in fiction. While I didn’t completely disagree with him, I didn’t exactly enjoy what he had to say.

His general point was that he was sick of reading stories where there is only one woman and her purpose is to sacrifice all else for falling in love. He hates romance, in fact. If a story has women in it, and it should have multiple women to be a good story, they better not give up on their goals to fall in love.

To take a step back, my thoughts on women in fiction is a lot like men in fiction, and children, and old people, and insert race, denomination, whatever: if they only serve one purpose then that’s plain bad writing. To say that a story is sexist against women because you had your main female lead fall in love is a direct contradiction against what the large majority of humans pursue in their lives: someone to love them for who they are and for whom they can give themselves up as sacrificial lovers.

I celebrated my seventh wedding anniversary this year and am preparing for our second child in January. If there is one area in which I’ve struggled and found my greatest success as a husband, it is in the area of sacrificing myself for my wife and son. That is love. Do I want to read a story about a male or female who purports to be strong because they are unwilling to sacrifice themselves for someone else and to experience the best emotional we’ve been created to enjoy? No.

I want stories where women fall in love, where they bear their weaknesses and are lifted up by the person who falls in love with them so that both of them can become stronger people.

I’ll tell you what, the man I was before I met my wife was selfish and hard, broken from a difficult past and completely ignorant about how much more he could love and let love change him.

So, if you’re writing a story and you think, this female character can’t fall in love because they need to show strength, consider how much stronger they could be as a duo.

I wrote a book with three strong women in Godsknife: Revolt. One is a priestess who has figured out how to create a cross species virus that allows her to telepathically control an army of human insect hybrids, and whose goal is to display her powers of Order by overpowering the Chaos she unleashes. Another is an early twenties orphan who didn’t realize the father figure she had been working for is a Chaos doctor and the guy she meets while visiting Iowa State is a recruiter for Order. She goes from the fear of leaving the familiar for the adventure of college to running for her life and into the myths of the supernatural. She will battle the loss of her parents and how easy it will be to turn to vengeance instead of the strength within. Lastly, a middle-aged woman who left the Chaos doctor because of his drinking will also run into her father and face the anger she’s held within about his over protectiveness and subsequent divide that has hurt their relationship for years.

Godsknife: Revolt is available in ebook and paperback from Evolved Publishing. For signed copies and links to online retailers, check out www.spikepub.com.

Timothy C. Ward is a Hugo nominated producer for Adventures in SciFi Publishing, who has been lost, broke and surfed with sharks on the other side of the world. He now dreams of greater adventures from his keyboard in Des Moines, Iowa. This summer he released two novels: his second Sand Divers book, Scavenger: A.I., where two parents use an ancient technology to fight a reproducing A.I. while trying to resurrect their deceased infant, and Godsknife: Revolt, an apocalyptic battle for godhood in the rift between Iowa and the Abyss. 

Preorder Godsknife: Revolt and send him an email at tim@timothycward.com to request two of his Kindle ebooks, free!

Sign up for his newsletter for news, sales, giveaways and more: http://www.timothycward.com/newsletter/.

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Character Interviews- an alternative to the character sketch

July 27th I kicked off my Bewitching Blog Tour for Hurricane of the Heart. It coincided with the release of my latest multicultural romance Hurricane of the Heart in kindle format and paperback. You can follow my tour schedule by clicking on Bewitching Blog Tour.

I began the tour with a character interview on Eclipse Reviews. For that interview I chose Alia Graneau, the indigenous native of Dominica and female lead in Hurricane of the Heart. You can follow this link to see the full interview complete with dreamcast photo. In a nutshell, the interviewer asked a wide range of questions as if she was interviewing me and I answered them as Alia would.

It was the first time doing a character interview and I had great fun getting into the mind of the character I had created. But it was more than just fun. It was getting to know Alia on an intimate level. Doing this interview I learned a lot of nuances about the character, what she would and wouldn’t do, her love, what she abhorred and her angst. I learned how her past was affecting her actions, her decisions, her outlook on life. I got intimate exposure to her personality and her thought processes.

When I completed the interview I had to ask myself why I didn’t do this before. We often read books or reviews of books where the characters are not fully developed. If authors did character interviews with the main characters, they would be so much more developed because their creators would get to know them intimately. Consequently I made the decision that in addition to or in lieu of a character sketch I would do an interview with my lead characters in my future books.

I’m not saying the character interview can replace a character sketch. I’m saying it is a great tool that allows writers to develop great three dimensional characters. It is a tool I intend to utilize to ensure well developed characters.

How do you ensure well developed, dimensional characters in your stories? If you haven’t already, read my character interview on Eclipse reviews and let me know if interviewing your characters is a tool that you may consider using in the future.

Guest author P.I. Barrington: HEROINES: Girls and Guilt

PI Barrington

After a decade-long detour through the entertainment industry, P.I. Barrington has returned to authoring fiction. Among her experience are journalism, radio air talent and the music industry. She lives in Southern California and many times co-authors with her sister, Loni Emmert who also works in the music industry. You can find her on Twitter (@PIBARRINGTON), Goodreads, Facebook, or at home on her blog.

If you're a serious author, you have a serious editor/muse sitting on your shoulder tapping your temple whenever you start to stale. There are a lot of places in writing fiction to get stale: plot, prose, style and technique. We're not going to talk about any of those however.

Nope, we're going to talk about heroines. In case you're wondering that falls under the category of characterization. I have a beta reader, a live one not a muse, who is great at predicting what story is potentially great but also honest enough to tell me when I'm getting repetitive. When I hear the "r" word, I freak. Usually she is referring to my "style" so I can calm down a little since mine is a bit on the different side.

Still I have that other girl, the muse girl, sitting on the right or left shoulder, her choice, tugging on my earrings to make me step back and look at my main female characters. I dread the thought of using a mental cookie cutter to create them and so I'm constantly on the lookout for anything repetitive. And so is she.

How do you create heroines that differ from one other? Well, first and most simply, the physical description. I've had a character tall and powerful and brunette as well as two petite ones with black and blonde hair. That's the easy way out. But it's also the opportunity to layer that character a little too. Do their physical attributes affect their view of life? For my work, that's most of the time. My tall and strong heroine, Khai Zafara, from Inamorata Crossing, never thinks about it. She's a dedicated soldier at least at the start and takes her physicality for granted; for her it's a positive attribute.

Payce Halligan and Isadora DayStar are both small and petite; one blonde, the other black haired. One ignores her size until it becomes a problem and then she responds with feistiness. The other sees herself as a tiny person in her universe, her worth even less than her size. But that's the superficial layer.

It's the deeper layers that truly differentiate characters. How they respond to themselves and their conflicts is the key here. Anger, revenge, fear are some of the conflicts characters have to and should be dealing with in their stories. But there's one other conflict that many authors don't include. I've said this before, a bazillion times: guilt is a powerful motivator. Not only that but it's a fairly common motivator for readers as well. In other words, guilt is also a fairly universal experience. I give my characters a ten foot duffle bag of it to drag around.

How each character deals with it is the conflict. It's the major differentiation between female characters. To give you an example let's look at Payce and Isadora again. Both Payce and Isadora have major guilt over almost the same thing but on different scales. Payce deals with it by withdrawal and obsessive target practice as if reliving the trauma over and over and attempting to recreate it with the right outcome each time. Yes, I know that sounds like the recipe for insanity, but it isn't. She isn't so obsessive that she can't function—she uses target practice also as a form of self-therapy—to make sure she doesn't make the same mistake again.

Isadora on the other hand, tries to bury her past to the point of desperate addiction to kill her memories and her guilt and any emotions attached to them. To that end she debases herself completely and horrifyingly for the drug, thereby confirming, consciously and subconsciously, that she has no real worth whatsoever. Her guilt overwhelms her and just surviving becomes a suicidal struggle.

There are plenty of other ways female characters can differ too, including maturity levels, age, ethnicity, and most definitely personality type! Elektra Tate, my heroine of The Brede Chronicles, Book 1, is pale in coloring, eyes and hair and different from the majority of people around her. Though she's little tall, she's thin due to living as an orphan on the streets. Elektra though doesn't come with built-in guilt like the others. She gains guilt via a decision to save the man she loves or herself. When she chooses, that's when she learns realizes her mistake and realizes that she must then sacrifice herself to rectify it. That's when she changes from an immature scamp to a grown-up woman who understands what real love is and what it demands of her. 

Each of these settings and plots can influence and many times cause behavior that might not normally be performed otherwise. Teenage angst can cause a whole slew of reactions to guilt, fear, revenge or even boredom. A middle-aged character will behave much differently from a teenager or even a woman slightly younger due to her life experiences. A female character can range in attitude and personality from slightly morose to refuse-to-give-up cheerful to cynical and sarcastic and anywhere in between. The possibilities can be endless. Chuck that cookie cutter right back into the pantry where it belongs and start shaping your characters into what you (and your muse) want them to be! And don't feel a bit guilty over that cookie cutter in the trash bin!

Books by P.I. Barrington  

The Brede Chronicles, Book One

Future Imperfect Trilogy (Crucifying Angel, Miraculous Deception, Final Deceit) 

Inamorata Crossing/Borealis 1: A Space Opera

Isadora DayStar

The Button Hollow Chronicles: The Leaf Peeper Murders 

Free stories on ReadWave.com & Wattpad.com

Dead Man Talking

Happy New Year! (Even though I feel like January is already almost over.)

I had an interesting experience with my WIP, perhaps not an unusual one, but definitely new to me. I had this one planned out. I knew where the story should go, what I wanted to say. For me, getting to know the characters is key to my writing so I did character sketches, lived with my characters, and tried to really get inside their heads--the protagonist, his two buddies, his nemesis, his dad, his buddies' parents--I had it all covered. But still it went nowhere. I could not get past certain points in the plot. Then I realised the issue.

There was one character that I had not considered, had not spent time with, had not got to know at all ... the dead guy. You see the story begins with the protagonist's brother already dead and the reality is that the story spins around him and why he died and to understand why he died I have to get to know him.

It seems like every novel comes with its own challenges and idiosyncrasies. What are some unusual challenges that you have faced in writing?

When Your Characters Keep Talking

Years ago I was watching Oprah and an author said that he hears the voices of his characters in his head. I was like, wooooo, really? Yikes!

Well he was right. I type what I see and hear, dialogue first (I use very little narration), like I'm translating what I'm watching in a video. I live through this each and every time I write a story. I guess it's better than having writer's block, but my-oh-my, I'm going through it right now and during the times I'm not actually sitting down to write, it means I, as most writers, get very little sleep because these folks we've created are in our heads 24/7.

I'm in the 11th hour of a WIP that I need to send to two editors soon. I'm on my third and final draft, which is great, though things are still changing because of these dang "voices," or let's say "ideas," that keep popping into my head. I'm making notes, texting myself, scribbling on the back of envelopes, receipts, using my cell memo feature, recording myself, emailing myself, and sometimes, as always, thinking I'll take a chance that I'll remember the idea, but I don't. Good grief, I can't wait until the ideas stop, and then I'll know I'm done.

Just this morning the 3 year-old girl in my story said, okay, I had an idea, that she must pray, on her knees each night, asking God for her dad to come home. Then while I was making coffee, I decided to scratch one minor character, and assign his contributions to the necessary progression of the story to another character. Yesterday, I remembered that a phone rang at 1 a.m. in one scene, but I never followed up as to who it was. One character reminded me the other day to mention her occupation, which is critical to her having knowledge on a subject. Last week I wondered if my character should mediate. She wants to, and I think she could, but would I be true to her arc if she did? Oh, at three in the morning a character told me she should be at the gym in the short scene I'm writing today. Whew! This stage is amazing, necessary, a blessing, but dang characters, shut up already, or should I say, keep talking!

This is one reason why I always say don't rush a story because if you cut it off at the end before the "ideas" cease, you just might miss an opportunity to throw in a great angle. When I was writing Hot Boyz, right before I hit the button to email it to my editor, I realized that though we think there was a murder suicide, the shooter really survived, and he's in prison. The scene I wrote of the boyfriend driving out to visit the shooter is one of the best scenes, and best twists, I've ever written. I know, I gave it away, but hey - point made. :)

And so, I should be okay to turn this manuscript over to awaiting hands by Sunday night, maybe not. And even when I get it back, more changes, and one more proofreader. And trust, no matter what I say, I will be messing with the dang thing even while they have it. But in the end, after years of writing, in spite of times like this that work my nerves, I will know that I allowed my characters to live out their stories, not mine, and that I was true to them, in spite of them bugging me for all these months. It's a love-hate, but 51% love, and as long as that continues, I'll keep writing, with characters all up in my head, chatting away! My passion personified!

How do you handle this stage of writing - the times when you at least know you've developed them enough for them to speak, but you want them to shut the heck up so you can get some flipping sleep?

Write on! Voices and all!!

Villains can be fun

By Velda Brotherton

Last month I promised to talk about creating villains, and can’t they be a lot of fun? We can hate them so much that we’re excited to kill them off. It’s important to remember that without a strong and vivid villain your protagonists aren’t challenged enough to reveal their strengths to good advantage. The more devious and evil the villain the more the actions of your hero and heroine shine. Sort of like watching Batman and Robin conquer the Jester. Or that favorite villain of all time, Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs. Probably the best known villain in modern literature, his existence made Clarissa so much stronger. We cheered for her, though she failed time after time. And author Thomas Harris was so adept at creating him that most of us secretly liked Hannibal just a bit and cheered when he escaped, yet all the while we were terrified of what he might do.

Why not create a villain based on the person you dislike most in the entire world? Of course, don’t use their real name. Then add even more traits that would make this person truly evil. Get even with him by making him oh, so evil that the reader will cheer when he suffers all the consequences coming to him. Make sure no one can recognize him, though. And don’t forget, he should have a few redeeming traits.

Remember anyone or anything that stands in the way of the hero reaching his goals is a villain, he doesn’t have to be overly evil, just set in his ways. In some books, of course, the villain is the weather, or the setting or specific circumstances.

You plan a story, then build the characters to function within that story. I didn’t say plot, I said story. An idea that you can fill in with the necessary people to get through to the end. Good characters will weave a plot as they struggle with life’s problems and challenges. Without conflict it will fall flat, and that’s where the villains come in.

Your goal is to create characters your readers will either love or hate, they can laugh with them, cry with them, curse them, cheer for them when they win out over the worst adversities.

We humans are all a maze of inconsistencies, but we do have a dominant impression. Don’t load up your characters with the same dominant impression. One may be dignified, but he could lose it when specific things happen to him.

Some dominant impressions are: dignified, cruel, sentimental, sexy, flighty, rowdy, dull, bright, etc. Each of these can be hiding the true self. And each can be a dominant impression of your villain. Sometimes it only takes someone with strong drive and a good reason for being the way they are and you’ve got a superb villain. Why? Because what they want is the opposite of what your hero/heroine want, thus they clash.

For instance, a man who kills someone because he believes they murdered his wife or child is not necessarily all bad, and he may never commit another crime of any kind. Whereas the bad man who goes through life destroying anything in his path is another type of villain.

You can use certain traits to hide the basic personality of your villain. Dignity can hide his stupidity. Naiveté might disguise cruelty.

Try to figure out the dominant impression of some of your writer friends. Ask them what yours is. This helps us learn more about creating characters, both the hero and the villain, or simply an annoying minor character or a lovable aunt or cousin.

Creating our characters is sort of like drawing some stick figures in a sketch pad, then adding faces, hair, then moving on to personalities, weaknesses and strengths. What motivates her, and again what does she fear and what does she want? A villain has goals much the same as the protagonist, they just aren’t necessarily moral goals, but he may want them for a good reason. The more depth you give this villain, the more interesting he will be.

Only two types of personalities are all bad. Those are psychopaths and sociopaths. Though each is capable of hiding his evil beneath a veneer of charm---think Ted Bundy---in the end he will only be what he is born to be. Pure evil. Everyone who commits crimes, is morally corrupt, or just ornery will also have a good side. He may love his mother, his wife, his dog, but turn around and shoot someone who invades his turf. This type character can be a real thorn in the side of your protagonist.

It’s also important to learn the language peculiar to the villain of your piece. Study well- constructed villains in books and movies carefully. There you’ll get a feel for the way they speak. Maybe you know someone in person that you consider villainous. Watch their body language, check out the way they talk to others, the way they dress. Get your clues from real life and you’ll create better villains for your fiction.

Guest author James R. Callan: Conflict & Tension Can Help You

After a successful career in mathematics and computer science, receiving grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA, and being listed in Who’s Who in Computer Science and Two Thousand Notable Americans, James R. Callan turned to his first love—writing.  He wrote a monthly column for a national magazine for two years, and published several non-fiction books.  He now concentrates on his favorite genres, Mystery and Suspense, with his fifth book released in 2014. At the request of a publisher, he has also written books on character development and how to write great dialog.


We all know that conflict is the basis for most plots.

This post is about character development. So, what does conflict have to do with character development? Easy. Conflict can show the reader a lot about a character. Conflict often leads to tension. And tension is another great way for the reader to learn about a character.

You’ve probably heard the advice to have conflict on every page. That’s good advice. How do you do that? Here’s an example.

“You sound different?
“No, I don’t.”

There’s conflict in six words. How much conflict? As much as you want. Suppose the first person pursues it. It could get nasty. Or, the second person could say she just has an allergy. End of conflict.

What if the first speaker, a woman, has never met the second speaker, a man. She’s talked to him on the telephone a number of times. But this does not sound like the man she’s been talking to. This could be a big problem, and a major conflict. All started from six words. How this plays out can show the reader a good bit about these two characters.

Ann says, “That was really a good movie.”
Jill responds, “It was terrible, probably the worst movie I’ve seen all year.”
We have a conflict between Ann and Jill. How much? As much as you want or need. Here is an excellent opportunity to show the reader a bit about these two characters. Does Ann drop it? Or does she push forward. “The acting was superb and the plot was excellent. How can you say it was terrible?” We can establish whether Ann sticks to her opinions or is easily swayed. Is Jill pushy? Is either one of them ready to give in or fight?

How does Ashley handle it when the person she’s talking to trashes Ashley’s friends?

What is Ethan’s reaction when someone cuts in front of him in a line? What if he is in a car and someone cuts him off?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Tension can tell us a lot about a character. Here’s an example of tension between two friends.

“What did that man say to you?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“He seemed to upset you. What did he say?”
“Drop it.”

This probably is not a conflict between two friends, but there is tension. How much? As much as you want. Depending on what comes next, the reader can learn a lot about the character of these two friends.

The tension could be within one person.

“Who was that guy?”
“He’s the man who tried to destroy my life.” Sandra closed her eyes and tried to quiet her nerves. “I know he’s going to try again.”

Clearly, we are learning about Sandra. How she deals with this tension will help define her.

So, use conflict and tension to help develop the character. One of the best aspects of using this approach is that you are definitely showing not telling. You are presenting a scene and letting the reader see how the character reacts, thus helping define the character.

In my mystery Cleansed by Fire, there are numerous conflicts between my protagonist, Fr. Frank, and the detective investigating the fires. Those help define both Fr. Frank and the detective.

Remember, major conflict is the plot. But minor conflicts and tension are great ways to show the reader who your characters really are.

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Character: The Heartbeat of the Novel

On Amazon, in paperback

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Cleansed by Fire

On Amazon, in paperback, Kindle, and audio (June 2014)

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