RHYS BOWEN:
I am just taking the first tentative steps in writing a new book: a new stand-alone that takes place in France and England and Australia in various time periods. So a lot of work ahead of me.
When I start a new Spyness or Molly Murphy book it’s like visiting old friends. I know how my characters speak and react to each other. I know their environment. But with each stand alone it’s a new set of characters and a new setting to be meticulously researched. (Asks self why do I write stand-alones?)
When one starts any book the first question to ask is “whose story is it?” followed up with “what do they want and what is going to stop them from getting it?”
This is a big leap of faith when starting a new book, because obviously I don’t know my characters yet. I haven’t met them. They haven’t said things that surprised me and revealed aspects of themselves I didn’t know about. I’ve toyed with them in my head while I’m driving to the supermarket and come up with their basic traits and situation, but I’m having trouble starting to write this book because of the main character’s relationship with her father.
She doesn’t want to go home to him in England when war breaks out because:
1.They’ve had a contentious relationship
2.He never approved of her marriage. Or
3. He’s an unpleasant man Or
4.He’s a drunk
But I find that I want to like him. So…. I’m thinking he’s the true academic, not at all wordly and lost in the research of a book he’s writing. He’s also much older. An old father when she was born. But we need more…
I know her mother died in the Spanish flu epidemic when she was eight.
So…
So he married again. He wanted someone to take care of him and his daughter. And the woman he married was a war widow who wanted someone to provide for her. But she’s objectionable and doesn’t like my heroine and the father is either so caught up in his books or will do anything for a quiet life that he doesn’t notice how unhappy his daughter is and allows the wife to send her off to boarding school.
So far so good. But is the new wife pushy? Jealous of the daughter? Uneducated? A social climber? I can’t quite visualize her yet. It will have to come out in dialog. It usually does. I find a character opens her mouth and starts talking and I see who they are.
And the interesting thing is that almost none of this will appear on the page of the story I’m writing. It’s what formed my character and makes her into who she is. Perhaps the step-mother isn’t horrible at all. Perhaps my heroine was so devastated by the loss of her mother that she never forgave her father for marrying again? Perhaps they will reconcile by the end of the story?
So many things to work out before I even type the words chapter 1.
How about the other writers here: do you get to know your characters before you start to write or do they reveal themselves to you as the story goes along? Who plunges ahead blindly with a leap of faith and who works like Elizabeth George and writes long character sketches of every character first?
This is so interesting, Rhys . . . is this struggle-to-get-to-know-you true of every new character? Or, might a new character just seem so well-known to you?
ReplyDeleteDoes it ever work in reverse, meaning you have an idea for a character before you write the new story?
Great questions, Joan!
DeleteOh yes, Joan. Sometimes I know a character well before I start to write. This was true of Molly Murphy. She just spoke to me and I knew her
DeleteI love this process, Rhys. I'm much more in the camp of getting to know my characters as I write them.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1926 novel I'm working on now, I thought I knew Aunt Etta, who my younger PI sleuth is staying with in Boston. It turns out Etta isn't the frumpy kindly maiden aunt I'd first thought she was. Yes, she is a spinster aunt, but she also turns out to be a stylish professor of 55 who has a lover. And Etta has insisted on doing some of the investigating in her own scenes! Not planned, but I'm delighted she stepped forward.
EDITH: Thanks for sharing. I like how Aunt Etta's character grew and shifted as you are writing the book. Looking forward to reading about her and your PI sleuth.
DeleteIt does my heart good to read more interesting older characters, Edith. Thank you for Aunt Adele and now Aunt Etta, and for not falling into the trap of making oldsters either boring or too quirky to live in the real world.
DeleteIsn’t that fun when a minor character takes on a life you hadn’t planned! Zoo Zou in the Spyness books was supposed to be a one time minor character but she wouldn’t go away!
DeleteRHYS: Thanks for sharing your process in developing and getting to know the characters in your new stand-alone WIP. Yes, fleshing out the protagonist's stepmother could go several different ways. I like that she will become clearer to you as she speaks.
ReplyDeleteWas that also true when you started to write Lady Georgie or Queenie or Darcy?
Oh, great question!
DeleteOh yes, Grace. Once Georgie and Darcy started speaking I knew them! That’s a benefit of first person narration
DeleteThank you for letting us in on the process Rhys. The development of backstory for your characters is critical. I find it fascinating to hear your questions as you work it out. And there is a big difference for readers, too, between picking up a Royal Spyness book, where the characters are old friends and a stand alone. In the meantime, I am really excited about the three books you have coming out in 2022.
ReplyDeleteMe too! But it’s going to be such a busy year
DeleteSee, this is where I get bogged down: every single potential back story scenario could make for a completely different story. It's too many choices. How do you know you have picked the right one?
ReplyDeleteWell, obviously, you pick well, Rhys. And Hank. And Julia, and the rest of the Reds. Does that come with practice?
Karen, I find as I work on defining a new character, I can see which traits or what background opens the story possibilities, versus closes them. For instance, in Rhys's case, the mean old dad idea is easy for readers to get, but it's more of a dead end story-wise. Any conflict between the heroine and Dad is pretty single level, and the heroine is in the right.
DeleteBut if dad is actually a well-meaning, misguided man, it adds all sorts of subtleties and possibilities. What of the work he was absorbed in was vital to the war effort? Or he was a biologist developing more productive crops for a hungry post-war world? Who will be right or wrong when the dad and the heroine clash?
When in doubt, go with the choices that have the possibility to take the story deeper and make it wider.
Food for thought, Julia, thank you.
DeleteI usually have a rough idea of a character before I start, but inevitably I learn more about him or her as I write. I don't think it's possible not to. At least for me.
ReplyDeleteI use an if this-then what happens-and why to get the ball rolling. I'm writing a new story and yesterday, the mother emerged as the most interesting character. She's shrewd and wily and may be playing both sides of the conflict. I'll find out today.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what makes writing exciting, isn’t it? The finding out as we go
DeleteSuch a great question, Rhys. Character arc! It floats out there alongside your plot and the two have to make sense, taken together.
ReplyDeleteThe best writing moments for me come when I'm writing along and the character DOES something I'm not expecting... not expecting because it feels "out of character" ... which means not logical or merited given the back story I've developed for that character thus far. It's a moment when I have to either CHANGE what they do, or CHANGE their back story... usually the latter, because when a character does something that surprises the author, it will surprise the reader, too, and that's a good thing. It usually means I have to add some secret in their past that will get revealed later in the book. It's terrific when it happens.
I agree, Hallie! That's what I call the magical part of writing. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it makes me smile and keeps me going.
DeleteI suspect that also happens to series characters, right? I've noticed some revelations in long-running series that lead to interesting plot lines.
DeleteI love that, Hallie. In almost every book a character surprises me, usually by telling me something about their past
DeleteAargh, LED, not lead. One of my own worst nitpicks, too.
DeleteNope nope nope no character sketches for me! But this is SO fascinating, and I love the personal brainstorming. Sometimes it helps to try out names. Is she Vanessa, or or Cordelia or Zuzu or Nell or Winky?
ReplyDeleteCannot wait to read!
The name is so important, isn't it? If you get it wrong the story stalls.
DeleteYes, Rhys, my process ( such as it is) is similar to yours - I need a character to do something for the story but they're just a placeholder. And then they start talking and I find out who they are. I have had the experience of having an unknown person open a door, say, and a whole person is right there. That is so much fun. And I have had a character intended just to be a victim but he kind of took over and refused that role. He ended up being in all my Brooklyn books! Looking forward to seeing who your new ones turn out to be
ReplyDeleteWas this the old newspaper reporter? I loved him!
DeleteTriss, I had this happen with the character of Zou Zou. She was supposed to be very minor but she just wouldn't go away.
DeleteRhys, so glad you let Zou Zou be the boss and stick around. She's a great character. And Judi, thanks, yes, that was the reporter. He came out of nowhere and just grew and grew.
DeleteRhys, thanks for sharing! I started a story once but it refused to go anywhere because my main character's name was wrong. I'd pull it over the years and never get very far. Then I found his name and the story wrote itself. Sometimes I sketch out a backstory for a character, but nothing too detailed. It can feel like I've put my character in a straitjacket--writing to the backstory instead of letting the character go where s/he wants/needs to go.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love your series and your standalones, so whatever you do, it comes right in the end. I can see the stepmother as wounded from her life circumstances in a way that makes her cold, pushing the daughter out to make her own survival certain. Did she have children of her own? Has she lost a child? No matter, she's already an interesting character.
We’ll have to find out!
DeleteOne of the aspects of Rhys's process I want to highlight for aspiring authors is the way you have to be willing to let go of your first, or second, or third ideas about the characters. Sometimes, the people you wind up writing about are nothing like the folks you imagined when you first came up with the story idea. If you can say, "Okay, but what about this?" you'll be on your way to writing more interesting and layered characters.
ReplyDeleteI find that once I've created them it's their story and I have to let them do what they want.
DeleteFor new books, I generally have an idea about my characters, who they are, what they do, what they look like, but once I have that, I let them direct me and weave in the nuances of their individual personalities.
ReplyDeleteFor established books - the characters will grow and change, but their basic temperament, ethical structure, and personalities are familiar.
Rhys, what a great question! And I love the window on your process. I usually have some idea of the characters when I start a book, but they don't always agree with it! It's not until they start talking--or other characters start talking about them--that you really start to see who they are.
ReplyDeleteI think that's another aspiring writer tip: Allow yourself to think outside the box you've created for your story or your characters. It's your book--you can change it.
"I find a character opens her mouth and starts talking and I see who they are."
ReplyDeleteAhh! Love it.
I see the wife as clingy, possessive and jealous. Book sounds wonderful, when can I pre-order it?
ReplyDeleteProbably all of the above!
DeleteRhys, thanks for this look at how you start and work through the characters of your stand-alone books. You are one of my favorite authors for characters, so I know however you do it, the end result is always just right.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kathy!
Delete