Drawing from the Well
Queries Sent: 1
Total Queries: 25
Rejections: 3
Scenes Mapped: 0
Total Scenes: 285
Yesterday was a lot all around. I’m kind of surprised I even got a query sent. It started early with tasks out of order to get more done so I was off all day, hence the late blog post. Today’s been a lot too, but that was kind of by design.
Filling the Well
1984: 77% – ON HOLD
Bloodwitch: 17%
I’m so mad! My Hoopla borrow of 1984 returned and the audiobook is no longer available! And I was (clearly) past 3/4 through it. And it’s not available on Prime Reading anymore so I can’t even finish reading it without buying the darn thing!
Edit: Okay, it’s available as an eBook on Hoopla so I’ll have to pull that down and finish reading it that way. It was just getting good too.
As for Bloodwitch, it’s starting to pick up (no spoilers) but I was so sleepy this morning when I had reading time that I had to switch to my YouTube playlist – which is now caught up! Hooray! So Monday when I get some listening time, I’ll be diving into the Raven Boys.
Polishing the Well
We are in the thick of preparations for not one, but TWO bridal expos tomorrow. It’s going to be a crazy day so I have to be sure to get my blog written in the morning for you all (gotta keep the streak alive!). For now, there’s just a lot of odds and ends going on.
Well Chat
Meeting Your Characters Where They Are
Characterization is critical to an engaging and consuming story. Weak, flat characters turn readers off. So how do you get to know your characters before you start writing them into your novel?
Well, there’s a lot of ways, frankly. Most accomplished authors have boiled it down to a few key items that get them going and then they fill in the blanks as they write. Likes, dislikes, personal histories, ticks all have a way of breathing life into words. But how do you select these idiosyncrasies? Again, there are many methods.
Some authors use long, drawn-out questionnaires that allow them to get into the characters head and shoes (done that). This can also be done in the form of an interview (done that too) to allow their personality to come through their answers. Upside: you determine a lot about the character. Downsides: this is time-consuming and if you do it rapid-fire, you start to run them all together.
Then there is the tactic of asking a few key questions to inform the rest of the character’s personality. V.E. Schwab, my personal writing heroine, wrote a tweet about this just yesterday which said
I get asked a lot about how I create characters, so I thought I’d answer here.
V.E. Schwab – Tweet
I start with 3 questions:
1. what do they fear?
2. what do they want?
3. what are they willing to do to get it?
I’m starting to narrow my question set down to questions that I find critical. I haven’t found the balance yet, but I will. I feel like when I hit my next IP (well into mental development with many notes and a sample chapter already compiled), that’ll give me an opportunity to really explore this. I may try to work this in for some of the new characters in Book Two. Upside to this approach: short and direct. Downside: although it gets to the heart of the character, there is still (in my humble opinion) much that needs filling in that cannot fit within a necessarily-short set of questions.
Then there’s my personal favorite way to get to know a character: take them on a mini adventure well before they step into “continuity” in your story. I did this for three characters before Book One, neither of which was a main character. Well…the who is largely irrelevant. The point is that I designed a quick short story of something that happened to each of them shortly before the story began. I used that space to explore their goals, their values, and, most importantly, their personality. I learned so much about Rorian and Meibor in particular that they became fully formed in my head through that process. Even things that didn’t make it into the short story crystallized in my head and informed my conception of them if it didn’t outright make it onto the page.
Take a little time and write a short story. Don’t worry about editing or heavy polish. Just explore the character’s personality. What decisions would they make? What choices would they avoid? And always inform through answering the question “Why?” And don’t worry about over-writing. This is just for you, just so you can meet your characters where they are and learn about them. Upside: You could practically live in your character’s skin by how much you know about them. Downside: this is the most time-consuming method.
That said, I still love it.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG