CHARACTER CRISIS...
Last weekend I had the great opportunity to attend a workshop with Kate Cuthbert from Escape Publishing.
She was a great speaker, full of information and eager to share her knowledge.
She got us thinking about our works in progress, and then she made us write about our characters.
Now, at the moment, I'm working away on my novel. I'm on second draft but have just done a major time shift, and rejigged scenes etc but after this workshop I realised I know nothing about my characters.
Paper cutouts...shadowy figures that do what I want them to do. (Mind you, every now and then, one or more of them do tend to go a bit wild and apparently do whatever they please).
The more exercises we did, the more I came to realise, how much more work I need to do on my characters. Not necessarily for what they do in the book, but for what they do out of the book.
Interestingly I thought I knew my characters...but when Kate asked some in-depth questions, not necessarily to me, but to others in the group... I then put those same questions to myself.
A lot of the times I realised I had no idea what my characters would do in other situations. Situations that I had not put them in. These were creations and I needed real people.
I came away, not only knowing I had a lot of work to do on my WIP, but excited as well. Eager to give my people a nip and tuck, add some history, invent some bad previous relationships. And of course, keep asking 'what do they want.'
Kate kept asking us about our characters before. When someone was telling her the idea of their novel, whether it was about someone seeking revenge or a broken person, or about a huge loss...she kept asking us about before. These characters were someone before the incident, before wanting revenge, before being broken, before the loss....they will need something else because otherwise, when they achieve their goal they will be empty. They need more. Everyone has more.
As I said it was a thoroughly enjoyable workshop, and it has not only inspired me but encouraged me to really understand my characters.
Here's to some extensive character building!
Vicki
She was a great speaker, full of information and eager to share her knowledge.
She got us thinking about our works in progress, and then she made us write about our characters.
Now, at the moment, I'm working away on my novel. I'm on second draft but have just done a major time shift, and rejigged scenes etc but after this workshop I realised I know nothing about my characters.
Paper cutouts...shadowy figures that do what I want them to do. (Mind you, every now and then, one or more of them do tend to go a bit wild and apparently do whatever they please).
The more exercises we did, the more I came to realise, how much more work I need to do on my characters. Not necessarily for what they do in the book, but for what they do out of the book.
A lot of the times I realised I had no idea what my characters would do in other situations. Situations that I had not put them in. These were creations and I needed real people.
I came away, not only knowing I had a lot of work to do on my WIP, but excited as well. Eager to give my people a nip and tuck, add some history, invent some bad previous relationships. And of course, keep asking 'what do they want.'
Kate kept asking us about our characters before. When someone was telling her the idea of their novel, whether it was about someone seeking revenge or a broken person, or about a huge loss...she kept asking us about before. These characters were someone before the incident, before wanting revenge, before being broken, before the loss....they will need something else because otherwise, when they achieve their goal they will be empty. They need more. Everyone has more.
As I said it was a thoroughly enjoyable workshop, and it has not only inspired me but encouraged me to really understand my characters.
Here's to some extensive character building!
Vicki
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