I bet you thought I wasn't going to publish a post today...
The internet up here on my mountain was not so good today. I had a lot to get done, and no bandwidth to do it. Also, my daughter's preschool sent her home early because she was "feeling sick." Ok, apparently she threw up twice. That's sick. Only she wasn't sick when I picked her up, and we had an awesome afternoon free of my normal writing and "other" responsibilities (what does a new author do for money? THAT is a post for a very rainy day).
So, by now you might have forgotten that this is part two of my diatribe against Nicole Arbour (Part 1). Honestly, I just needed to vent last week, but now I'm feeling rather detached from her little video. I've moved on. Great, so let's get started on the writing part.
Standard disclaimer: I'm in no way an authoritative source on writing advice. This isn't advice, or tips, or help in any way.
Every character has a back story. You need to know it, even if you never mention it.
So, let's craft a character based on Nicole Arbour. What's the first thing I do when creating a character? Name them? Nope. Just start writing and see if they "develop" over the course of my story? Hehe... NO. I frequently refer to characters as "puppets" though that description implies that I am the puppeteer. I am not the puppeteer. I don't control the characters, they control the story.
They're more like lopsided rocks rolling down an obstacle course. I determine the obstacles in their way, but they decide whether to bounce left, right, or roll right over them. I'll often plan a scene by writing an outline of where the characters are emotionally and plot-wise at the beginning of the scene and the end, then hope they let me get there. My characters have a way of deciding how to respond to situations as I write them which alter the game plan, sometimes significantly. This creates a more realistic plot, and it lends to more believable characters. Well-formed characters write their own scenes and have me re-plot and clean up as I go, which is easier than trying to form characters around the plot itself.
So, my characters need motivations, emotions, personality... in essence, they need to be as human as any other person in my mind. The characters Jessica, Ashley, Kristina, Andrew, Corinne, all exist in the same department of my mind as my actual friends and family. I can hear them speaking as I write dialogue, see them moving as they interact with each other. Characters are way more interesting than, say, scenery or political machinations (which, in my opinion, should only exist as a means to advance character interactions).
Not every character was abused as a child
Which brings us to our character, FakeNicole. I can picture her in my head, ranting about that poor kid on the plane. But how does she react in a different situation, say, when she was actually sitting next to the kid. We have some information, like how she put the divider down even though it might not have been necessary. What was she really thinking when she did that? How did she do it? Slowly, with a look of disdain crossing her face? Or did she look the other way, avoiding eye contact? Did she exhale with a 'harumph' as it landed in position, or did she silently shift in her seat?
To really get the details of the moment, you have to figure out what she's feeling and to understand that, you need to know WHY. Why does she have these negative feelings towards heavy people? When did they start? Did her mother tell her fat people are evil when she was four (my kid's going through a slight judgmental phase which I'm trying desperately to abate without making her self-conscious). I hesitate to make every character trait the result of some childhood trauma or bad parenting. Think about yourself for a moment. Are you defined by your childhood? Sure, some parts of you are, but chances are you've been growing as a human since you turned 18.
Just for fun, I'd probably say FakeNicole's prejudices started in college. Did they really? Who knows, this part is fiction.
Her roommate gained the freshman 15, while FakeNicole tried really hard to stay thin. But her roommate got good grades while hers suffered, she had fun with an ambitious friend group while FakeNicole felt isolated. FakeNicole became resentful, but for the most part still really liked and admired her friend even as her envy grew. She needed some way to justify why her roommate was succeeding while she felt like a failure, so she started mentally noting all the ways she was superior. She eventually decided that by letting go of her weight, FakeNicole's roommate was gaining some kind of advantage. She wasn't hungry during class like FakeNicole was, and she was able to eat anything out with friends, which was hindering FakeNicole's social situations. Of course, none of these things were really happening... until, of course, FakeNicole started to identify them. Once she defined herself as someone who sacrificed her grades and social life to be thin, it became part of her personality, and eventually, her identity. The anger came much later.
I write at least 30 paragraphs like these about each major character before I put them in a story, and I continue writing them as the novel continues (because as well as you know someone, there are always more things to learn about them). Even minor characters get at least three paragraphs like this, writing which is both essential to the story, but never read. Sometimes elements from these bio-paragraphs work their way into character descriptions or even contribute to the plot, but for the most part these add nothing to the novel other than deepening the characters' backstory.
All that said, writing a sequel is a very interesting proposition from a character standpoint. Not only do you have backstory from before the first novel, but you have what happened in the first novel, how the character perceives what happened in the first novel, and what happened between the first novel and the second. With luck, characters will change in ways which stay true to their original conception but reflect the events which readers experienced first-hand.
Think you'll see FakeNicole in my next novel? There's always a chance... But you'll have to wait to find out. In the mean time, why not check out my debut novel? Join the "dozens" of people who have already gotten to know the people who exist solely inside my cramped little brain.
(Yes, I said "dozens." I'm proud of that number, ok? I'd like it to be "thousands," I'd settle for "hundreds," but I'm damn proud of "dozens" thus far as an unknown author.
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