K = Knowing Your People

Paula thinks about how she gets to know her characters.  

I’ve had quite a lot of reviewers say they feel like they ‘know’ my characters e.g. “so well written that I feel I know all the characters personally” and “you feel that you have actually met them”.

Comments like this are great because they show the reader has really engaged with the characters – and it goes without saying that this will only happen if we, as writers, have also engaged with our characters. Or rather, with our ‘people’, since according to Hemingway, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”

We probably all have different ways of getting to know our characters in order to portray them realistically. At one end of the spectrum are the authors who write a detailed biography of their characters before they start the story and sometimes find pictures of them all to pin up near their computers. At the other end of the spectrum are the authors like me, who start simply with a name, and maybe (but not always) an occupation.

I’ve seen character ‘bio sheets’ or profiles that suggest you list everything from the person’s shoe size to what they like for breakfast, and from their best/worst childhood experience to their favourite movies/books/singers, and their political or religious beliefs.

Fair enough, if this helps a writer to ‘know’ their characters, but it wouldn’t work for me. I couldn’t work from a pre-formed ‘creation’ of a character. I prefer to get to know my people as I write the first draft of the story (and even then I probably couldn’t answer all the questions on a character profile!). It’s rather like getting to know a person in ‘real’ life, and I find they gradually reveal more of themselves, their backgrounds, their personalities, and their hopes and fears. Quite often I blink in surprise when a character tells me something I didn’t know.

In my current ‘work in progress’, I knew the hero needed some ‘back story’ but when my brainstorming partner asked me about it, all I could say was, ‘I don’t know yet, I’m waiting for him to tell me.’ Well, it’s taken a while but eventually, almost 60K words into the story, he finally got around to telling me! Yes, I’ll have to go back now, and layer in some extra details earlier in the story, but to me, that works better than foisting a back story on him in advance. Better for him to tell me, than for me to tell him!

I’d be interested to know how much you need to know about your ‘people’ before you start writing their story.

K Is For Kiss

Jennifer shows the first kiss..

My romance, Skin Deep, is about a makeup artist and the star of a TV show. Here is the scene with their first kiss.

Valerie.

Her eyes glowed with warmth and he could find no trace of disgust in their smoky depths. Her lips curved in a soft, sweet smile. He couldn’t imagine them ever curving around hurtful words.

She held out her hand. He looked at it, and back up at her face. Her gaze remained fixed on him. He reached for her hand in slow motion. His hand trembled at the first contact of skin on skin and his knuckles brushed against the back of her hand. He turned his hand and took her small one in his. His fingers caressed her delicate bones and silk smooth skin. She didn’t flinch. He looked at her face and saw the smile he adored. He relaxed. She led him over to the sofa and they sat down next to each other. She left her hand in his and he froze, afraid if he moved, she’d remember where her hand rested and move it. When she didn’t, he played with it, turned it over, looked at it, amazed she let him touch her.

Her voice interrupted his thoughts. “If you don’t want me doing your makeup, that’s fine, but don’t run away from me.” He squeezed her hand, unable to find the words to apologize. She rubbed his hand, and he exhaled.

“Oh, and one more thing.” She leaned over and kissed him. As their lips met, his entire body stiffened. He pressed her back against the sofa and supported his weight with his arms. One hand cradled the back of her head, the other slipped around her waist. Noses bumped, breath mingled and fingers intertwined as their kiss lengthened and deepened. Sofa springs bounced, sofa pillows cushioned and toes touched as they leaned into each other.

John’s senses shrieked into hyper-alert. Her soft mouth caressed his, her warm breath tickled his upper lip. Her silken hair flowed between his fingers. Behind his closed eye lids, sparks of bright color shot like fireworks. He felt like he was drowning; yet at the same time, he felt like he might be finally saved.

Amazon

K is for Kudos

Ana celebrates--and gives thanks!

Last week I was surprised to final in two categories in the Pages from the Heart contest.
Stormy Hawkins finaled in the Unpublished Author Historical category.
Ammi Folkright, my current WIP, finaled in the Unpublished Author Suspense category.

I haven't had time to fully digest the first-round judges' comments. It's always better to read them and then walk away for a week or two.

I sure appreciate my crit partners, who helped me earn comments like this:

You are very good at getting the backstory out without info dumping.

Smooth writing. Very polished. Great descriptions and world-building. I can see it in my mind’s eye the whole time. The balance between showing and telling is terrific…it is a really hard thing to do, and it really sets a story on a higher level to do it well.

Your descriptions were well done. There was enough to "see" everything without slowing down the pace of the entry.

It's easy to tell the characters apart by their "voices."

There were critical comments a-plenty, but the nice ones made for a good balance. I won't need to withdraw and lick my wounds.

NEWS FLASH! I just heard (as in an hour ago) from the editor at Entangled who requested a full. She wants me to revise the second half and then she''ll make the final decision to accept or reject. I agreed to do it.