MAKE LOVE WITH YOUR CHARACTERS

- Part 1

Let’s play a quick game called “So You Think You’re In Charge”.

Scenario:

Here you are with this great, fresh, stellar story that you just can’t wait to start on. You’ve got your hero in mind. He’s this gorgeous alpha male with a bod that makes us pant – I mean come on, really, why else would we write about him then? He’s everything we secretly fantasize about. – and he’s going to just sweep your heroine off her feet. And here you have your heroine. She’s intelligent, funny, independent, everything we secretly wish we could be. To your thinking, they are perfect for each other. You get to working, whip those pages out, and have them meet.

But wait, she’s not supposed to think he’s a jerk, well, not really to that extent. And he’s not supposed to act like a jerk. Why is he doing that? And I don’t know about you, but it seems she’s becoming quite the bitch.

So you go back and edit your first couple chapters. You think you’ve got it right now.

OK, he’s way too much of a pansy now. He’s practically drooling at her feet, sprouting proclamations of love. And she’s . . . well, in truth, she’s still a bitch but one who’s trying to pretend she’s not. She’s a bitch in denial. Her actions are fake and her responses are not quite to your liking.

So after the fifth or sixth time editing these characters, you find yourself hating them more and more because they just won’t cooperate with the grand plan you have for them. Their actions seem staged, their emotions too childish and stupid. You bang your head on your keyboard and scream, “Why won’t they do what I want them to do?” while your family members look on as if you’ve just hit the roof and maybe had one too many coffee.

And then in their naivete, they innocently tell you, “But you’re the writer. You can make them do whatever you like.”

Sorry to break it to you, but you birthed them. They are 100% real, albeit two-dimensional, and have a mind of their own.

So what do you do now? Well, what would you do with a rebellious child you just don’t understand?

You try to understand them. You become their friend and get to know them. And then you let them do exactly as they want with hopes that with your new understanding of them, their actions will make more sense to you. And you pray that as their friend, they will take your needs in consideration go in the right path that you want them to go.

And you thought you were God with your characters.

If you’re anything like me when it comes to writing, halfway through your book you’re screaming out in frustration about your characters. You thought you knew them. You thought you had them all figured out. So why the heck won’t they do as they’re told? And you flood your critique partners with stacked on emails of venting. Bless critique partners for putting up with your antics.

The truth is perhaps you did know your characters, but they’ve changed throughout your story. Or perhaps you really didn’t know them to begin with. You wanted them to fit a particular mold that satisfies your needs but not theirs. They can’t be a mold. They need to be individualized.

When you see all those new developments springing up with cute little identical houses all faced the same way and in the same color scheme, do you think, “Awe, I want to live in a place that that.” Or do shudder to yourself, the cardboard houses reminding you of such movies like “Edward Scissorhands” and “The Cat in the Hat”. Overdone. Boring. Lacking of originality.

For all intents and purposes, let’s hope you chose the lather.

So now your quest is to get to know your characters. OK. Now what do you do? Simple. How do you get to know a person? You ask questions. You get nosy. You dig. If you could, you invite them to happy hour one night and get them as drunk as you can to loosen their tongues. But you can’t. You’re a writer. You’re characters are only two-dimensional. So how do you get to know your characters?

GMC. Goal, Motivation, Conflict.

Correct. GMC plays an important role in getting to know your characters, but it goes further than that. Stay tuned for Part Two of “Make Love with Your Characters” where we delve into GMC and see why your characters are misbehaving.

          - Not to be reprinted without author’s permission.