I). Triage Technique: Judging characters
A). Protagonist
B). Antagonist
C). Minor characters
D). Credible conflict between protagonist and antagonist
Working on "Underneath the Colored Lights."
My protagonist is Cynthia Towers, a woman in her late 20s or early 30s. She has worked as a private investigator before, but in the present of the story has become disillusioned with the profession and is working as a Sonic carhop and taking a Dectective Literature class at Northwestern. (From my research after I wrote the story, this drifting in and out of the profession is pretty frequent.) She also worked as a cop in the K9 division, and they let her keep her dog partner after she left. It's a female German Shepard named Zenith. (Yes, I'm tweaking names, though that's a through back to where I worked Zy from. Ah memories.)
I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be asking myself specific things about the protagonist and antagonist, but I can't remember what they are. ARGH! Hate that.
I know I need another scene or maybe an extended scene where it becomes a lot less obvious on Stan's status. Is he a killer or no? Credible red herrings and all that. I'll work on that now.
Okay: now I have the book Stein on Writing.
I already added a verbal sparing match between Nolan and Stan. We'll have to see once other changes are made, how well that works.
I A). Specific questions on the protagonist
Do you find yourself thinking about the main characters in situations that are not in your book?
Hmm, do plots for other stories count? I've got this idea for Cynthia to work in a call center and get a strange phone call and start an investigation off of that, preventing a murder from that.
What is it about your character that you like especially? Does that happen to be also a trait of yours?
Her sarcasm and her empathy. I think I might need to play up her empathy more, though in this story she's trying to keep it shut away because it has brought her nothing but pain. She's faster with the sarcasm than I am. My wit usually catches up with me when I'm in the car fuming over how an encounter went. Her drive to be exactly like her fictional heroes.
:S Okay I might need to giver her something that is totally different from me.
If you were about to take your only vacation of the year, how would you feel if your character were going along? You would probably see your character at mealtime and in between, day in and day out for a week or two. Honestly now, would you look forward to that?
I think I would enjoy it. Cynthia can be a lot of fun to talk mysteries with. Too bad none of my stories seem to show her fun side.
How well do you understand your character? One way to find out is to imagine that you have just won a lottery jackpot of two million dollars. Your character doesn't know you've been playing the Lotto, but he is likely to hear about it on the news. People hae mixed feelings about the sudden success of friends. Would it better for you to tell your character the news yourself? How is your character likely to take the news about your new wealth? Would any of his reactions be useful in making him more interesting?
Whoa, it would probably best to tell her in person, but boy would it make her bitter. She's never had that kind of luck or success. She would hate herself for feeling bitter because of her empathy and generally liking people, but it would take a while to get over that anger over perceived unfairness.
Does the protagonist change in the course of your novel?
Well, it's not a novel. But she does realize she has a talent for detecting, and a need to help people. So she better get herself licensed so it's not illeagal.
I B). Specific questions for the antagonist
The antagonist is Nolan Wiggins, somewhere between 18 and 20 year-old college student. He tortured animals as a kid too, not that it comes up in the story.
Is your antagonist morally bad, not just badly behaved? Does your antagonist enjoy doing wrong to people? Is your character not just mischievous but malicious? What I'm getting at is the degree of villainy. Is your character just badly behaved or a truly evil person?
I think serial killers are truly Evil, in the sense of being an opposing force to good and decency. They don't even see their victims as human, the same that they are. Nolan takes it one step further, like Leon and Leopold, it's a game for him. Who he targets to kill, how he twists the police to hunting Cynthia, using her story.
Does your villain hae something that charms or entices people? If the villain isn't intriguing, interesting, lifelike, and believable, he may not be a worthy villain. No villain can attract victims unless he has charm charisma, position, or wealth.
Hmm, might need to play up his charm. I have one scene where he comforts Kate, maybe I should expand that. Also should add in some more Kate and Nolan interaction after he forces Stan out of the room. Right now it sounds like Nolan is a snot-nosed punk to me, when I want readers to see Stan violently angry and consider him a potential killer. But I can't seem to get any feedback on it and I don't have it with me to post the section at P2P.
This is probably not a good day for me to be working on this, but since I was abandoned, I don't have much of a choice.
If you're having difficulty making your villain charming or interesting, try seeing him through the eyes of someone who loves him.. Or at least cares a lot about him.
I think I can make him charming, it's just a matter of where to put it. It's a short sory after all. I know a lot of crap is going to have to go--especially description-wise. That will help with word count, but right now I'm concentating on characters.
I C). Specific questions about minor characters
Minor characters are often not minor if the credibility of a scene depends on believing their verisimilitude (lifelikeness). Just one special characteristic can make a different. And easy way to help characterize minor players is to use one of the senses you may have neglected.
That makes sense, frighteningly enough. Minor characters that I'm worried about: Kate, Stan, Floyd, Ballard. The professor needs a name since she has dialogue.
I D). Credible Conflict
Stories from time immemorial have consisted of people overcoming obstacles against high odds and strong adversaries.
Muliple murders, reluctant detective, chase through the Christmas Festival crowds. I'd love to film this story. :)
So I need to find out if my red herring conversation works, tweak the minor characters a tad (add more with taste, touch, smell, and sound. Sight is covered.)
This is a fun technique. I'm going to like writing the tutorials and using it on the Hyrueliana. If I had the book with me right this second, I'd get started on the second part.
Read Free!
The BookWorm
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