Thousand-Word Characters
I’ve been dreaming characters. This book I’m writing is a modern retelling of Les Miserables, which I’ve tentatively titled Tears of the Wretched. Tentatively because it’s a little melodramatic. But then so is Les Miserables.
Every time I think about what I’m attempting to write, it scares the bejeezus out of me. I cringe just to tell you what I’m attempting. I’m, like, embarrassed that I presume to try this.
So moving on…
I’m dreaming characters. This is so exciting, because they are these vivid, fascinating (to me) characters. They are not main characters, but walk-ons. And they say so much about the world they live in, their society, their family, their life, and who they are, in a very poignant way. (At least, I imagine they do.)
That’s a tall order. They are a picture worth a thousand words.
And they’re so fleshed-out, in my mind, that I could write a whole novel on each one. Which is a problem, because I keep wanting to move them up to major character status. Or actually write a novel on them.
What’s also odd is that I’m not thinking them up. They are hitting me. Bam! I am dreaming them. Just boom! and they’re there.
Surreal. This has never happened to me before, not in nine years of writing.
But thank you, Universe. No way could I write this story without some major divine intervention.
It makes me ponder. I generally focus on my main and secondary characters, and other “bit” characters are added as needed. They’re static, single-function, serving the story and/or the other characters.
Should I be doing this in all my stories? Would I have a livelier, more vivid story if I made each bit and minor character novel-worthy? Even those who are only onstage for a sentence or paragraph?
Am I reading too much Dickens? (I’m currently reading Oliver Twist. Reading Dickens is like sipping a good cup of hot chocolate: comforting and yummy.)
What think you? Do your bit characters make you want to write a whole novel on them? How do characters occur to you? How fleshed out do you go for each character? Major? Minor? Bit?
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Natasha Fondren is a writer traveling the U.S. in a camper with her four cats. She is currently enjoying the lizards and desert heat in Arizona.
I’m so jealous! I want to dream about my characters.
I think one of the reasons my wip is taking me so long as that I am fleshing them out as I write them. With this book, I don’t have a lot of characters, unlike others I’ve written. Yesterday, I introduced a character, a contractor, who won’t be in any other chapters. Instead of naming him, I had the POV character think of him as “the contractor.” Thinking of him by a profession fit the POV character. And since the contractor is only in that one scene, I made a conscious decision not to name him.
I think I jinxed it, Edie! We’ll see.
Isn’t it cool how many conscious decisions we make, after writing for awhile? When I first started, I never gave that much thought to something like that. But then, I was a slow starter, LOL.
I’ve had bit characters that I’d like to give their own story. Sometimes they’re the ones that hold up the others, so that makes them, in my mind, a “bit” more important than the main character.
Speaking of bit characters, Christopher Moore’s latest novel is about King Lear’s fool, appropriately named Fool. In the play the fool appears in a few acts and really isn’t all that noteworthy, but Moore turned him into a major player, and it is SO funny! OMG, I could hardly put that book down. Never have I enjoyed Shakespeare so much.
That said, maybe you should write a story about a bit character from Les Miz.
(Although I’m sure the one you’re writing is going to be extraordinary!)
I just downloaded Fool to my Kindle. I’ve been meaning to read Christopher Moore since you’ve told me about him!
She’s not a bit character from Les Miz, but a bit character in my re-telling of Les Mix.
I’m laughing. I mean, where do you think Trevor came from?
He is very vivid, Susan!
I think you’re on to something, Natasha. The more you invest in your characters, the richer the payoffs will be for both you and your reader.
I hope so, Rick!
Oh, yes. I will dream about my characters – major and minor – and some of the minor characters are SO very interesting to me. One rose from a nameless sister of a villainous character to the star of her own backstory, now at 250,000-words. And through her I found the much needed explanations for my main character.
Oh wow, Bevie! Now that’s a bit character… explosion! Wow, so cool.
Fleshed out? I think it depends on the pov, ie. how these characters appear to the narrator.
(wish I could dream my characters!)
That’s a good point, Bernita. I might have to tone it down, because the pov character would see them as normal.
That sounds very cool. Plus, when people love the novel, I’m sure they’d love to read another novel about a minor character, etc. This could be the start of an empire!
LOL, Robin! Sounds good to me!
The book I’m writing now is about minor characters from my first novel. They just wouldn’t leave me alone.
Oh that’s cool, RJ! I love when that happens!
Sounds like you are in the zone. I’ve had minor characters want to take over. Sometimes I’ve given ‘em much bigger roles than before and sometimes I tell them they’ll have to wait until I write “their” book. yeah, and that’ll happen any time now. But it shuts ‘em up.
Funny you should mention supporting characters….
The novel I just contracted has these two characters I absolutely love. No, not the protags, although I love them too, but I really love these two other guys. One’s a 200+ year old mage (who’s slender and pretty and looks about 22) and the other is his apprentice (who’s 6’4″ and muscley and is and looks about 30) and they just have this great back-and-forth banter thing going on, as well as their more serious interactions. I have a short story about them done and ready to go, plus a couple of others about half done, and I have a couple of novels about them in the notes-and-thinking stage. And every now and then I think, “Why the hell didn’t I just write about them?!” Except the main story (at least, the one I wrote) isn’t about them. [sigh]
I just have this sneaking suspicion that this is going to end up one of those series where readers advise other readers, “Oh, it’s great, but skip the first book.” [laugh/headdesk]
We’ll see.
Angie
What is it about being in the midst of writing that forces the pieces to possess us even in our dreams?
Some writers disagree, but many feel that their characters have lives of their own. I heard a published author once say that when one of her characters asked a question, she was crushed by the other character’s answer.
While you can’t write separate novels on all the characters, the fact that their lives are multi-layered will keep you from making the same mistake of many writers who create one-dimensional characters or stereotypes. Even for walk-ons.
Good luck on reigning it in.