Secondary Characters Stepping Up by Martha Reed

I recall seeing a movie once where a secondary supporting character said something so funny and witty that when she walked off camera it kicked me out of the movie narrative because I lost interest in following the movie’s plot any further. I wanted to follow her to see what she was going to do next.

Judy Dench has this kind of magnetic pull on me, as does David Tennant, Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth.

What are authors supposed to do when one of our secondary characters suddenly steps forward and demands more face time?

This has happened to me twice. At an active crime investigation in my Nantucket Mystery series, a CSI specialist made a remark that was so wry with dry humor that I had to rewrite the scene and dial it down because it literally stole the focus from the corpse. I never forgot the strength in her voice though, and when it came time to develop my new NOLA series, Jane stepped in, ready-made. It felt like a gift.

I also developed a young, vibrant UBER driver named Cleo for a short story. When the editing phase came, as it always does, I needed to trim the word count. Poor Cleo got axed. I remember apologizing to her as I hit the highlight and delete buttons. Being a frugal writer and knowing that aggressively vocal characters are a truly rare treasure, I pasted Cleo into a blank Word document and saved her for later, vowing to return. She has been very patiently waiting for me to do so, and as I worked on my current WIP I needed a strong new female antagonist and there she was. Another gift.

Readers and family members ask me if I hear my character’s voices when I write. I have to admit that eventually I do although I worry that my family’s going to notify the authorities and send for the men with the nets to come get me.

I remember the very first time this auditory surprise happened because as a newbie writer it scared me. I was drafting a scene with two characters enjoying a tea party when I “heard” the clink of a silver spoon against a fine china teacup. I was alone in the house. I stood up to see who it was, then sat back down as I realized that I’d heard the sound inside my head. Now that I’ve gotten used to the creative writing process I rejoice whenever I reach that level of creativity because then I know I’m solidly in the zone and for my money that’s the most joyous place to ever be.

So, writers, have you ever had a secondary character demand the spotlight? And do you hear voices in your head?

One or Ten Characters Too Many

One or Ten Characters Too Many by Debra H. Goldstein

The idea I have for the fifth Sarah Blair book I’m writing is perfect. It’s funny, it’s light, it’s going to be something readers enjoy. That is, if I can write it so it is funny, light, and fast paced.

Here’s the problem I’m having with it: The introduction of too many characters in the first pages is bogging down the telling of the story. The first 5000 words I wrote were good, but not quite there. I threw them out. The next 10,000 words I wrote were really good, but I could see it would be another 10,000 before I got the plot moving. I threw them out.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had a problem with too many characters to introduce. I like having a lot of people in my stories. Usually, by the second chapter, the reader has met eight to ten characters. This time, it is more like twenty-four – and that’s not counting RahRah and Fluffy.

My mind tells me to pare down my characters. Surely one can do the job of three. But this book is being stubborn. It won’t let me substitute one character in place of even two. I need every distinct character for the storyline to work.

Barbara Bradford used to put family trees at the beginning of her books so that when readers became confused, they could simply flip back to remember who was who. I remember hating keeping my finger in one page while I glanced back two hundred pages to find out the heirs of Simon, who being caught in an avalanche had little chance of survival. I don’t want to do that. I want the characters to be memorable.

But with twenty-four introduced at once, I know they won’t be. I think I have a solution to the keep the plot rolling along, but I’d love to hear any ideas you might have – as well as how many characters you enjoy meeting in the first few chapters of a book.  

 

Voices in my Head (#amwriting)

By James M. Jackson

I have written approximately 70% of a new novel. It uses a few characters from my published novels and has a bunch of new folks. I’ve mentioned that I write without an outline or even a firm ending. (I am a pantser, writing by the seat of my pants.) Before I start the first draft, I have a clear idea of an inciting incident: the thing that lets the protagonist (or at least the reader) know the ordinary world is about to change. And I think I know who the protagonist will be.

I say I think because, although rare, sometimes another character throws a fact-filled, emotionally powerful tantrum and convinces me that they need to steal the story. The last time that happened, I killed the original protagonist. The king is dead. Long live the king.

Much of the arguing between characters revolves around who gets to be the bad guy(s). One might think characters want to put on their best face, be the protagonist’s best buddy, or mentor, or occasionally not-quite-center-of-the-road sidekick. And these potentially helpful people do jockey for position. But when it comes to BAD . . . let me digress to make the point.

I have sold many character names at charity auctions. Only once did an auction winner ask me to use their purchased name for a nice character (and that individual bought the name as a gift for a friend). A couple of winners expressed no opinion. Most wanted to be bad. We all have a dark side. And If we can experience it risk free, many of us jump at the chance.

Most of my characters approach the casting couch with little regard for their long-term welfare. It’s all about ME right NOW. Issues such as the future years that character might spend in jail, the increased probability of dying an early, violent death, the fact that their better nature is hidden, are not my characters’ concerns when the prospect of a bigger role in the story is up for grabs.

My new novel includes three brothers. One of them will be the primary bad guy. The oldest brother keeps arguing for primogenitary succession. Dear old dad was not all sugar and spice, and the next generation takes it several steps farther. As first born, he is the natural leader of the pack. Second son argues that being stuck in the middle causes him to have the most repressed anger at parents and siblings. The youngest maintains he has put on a facade of sweetness and light for forty years. Now his darker nature is in full revolt.

They all make such good cases, I’ve taken to referring to the villain in the WIP as “The Grandmaster.” It’s a reference to a high level of expertise in the game of chess that requires strategic long-range thinking. Each brother has embraced the name and is bending their nature to make it fit.

One of the fun aspects of being a pantser is letting these guys battle it out, not knowing who will win. I remember when I wrote Bad Policy (Seamus McCree #2), I was sure I knew who had done it. All the clues pointed to a certain individual until I realized that character was a puppet for the real evil person of the story. Now that was a fun discovery.

With 30% of this book still to write, anything could happen. Maybe I’ll let you know how it turns out. More likely I’ll sit at my desk and chortle and make you read the book to find out which brother (s?) did what.

* * *

James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree mystery series. Empty Promises, the fifth novel in the series—this one set in the deep woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—is now available. You can sign up for his newsletter and find more information about Jim and his books at https://jamesmjackson.com.

CREATING CHARACTERS

I’m almost finished with the ninth book in my Catherine Jewell Mystery Series. It’s my February book, “Red Roses for Valentine’s Day,” and soon I’ll be planning my tenth book that will take place in March. In my last book I’d had the ideas and plot in my mind for some time, but I still needed new characters. Since I write a series taking place in a small town, many former characters will return, but I need new ones, too.

 Soon I’ll start making up biographies for those new characters. How big a part they play determines how long his or her biography will be. The murderer needs a biography, too.  I need to know what drives that person to commit murder. I don’t write thrillers with psychopaths. My murderer is often, although not always, a normal, even a nice person, but something drives him or her to murder. It might be the victim standing in the way of something he or she desires, or  feels threatened in some way by the victim. Even with only one murderer per book, I do need to bring in new characters to populate my town of Portage Falls, similar to the Cabot Cove in the series Murder She Wrote. I’ve already killed off seven plus eliminated the murderers as they populate the state’s prisons.  

My brother at one of our sibling evenings.

I’ve based a few characters on people I know although never the murderer. A character I love, Ed, is based on my late brother, Jerry. Ed looks like my brother, is the avid gardener and an intelligent well-read person. But they diverge in other areas, especially in their wives.

My sister-in-law is a delightful person nothing like Ed’s wife, although after she read my first book she kept insisting she was. She has a delightful sense of humor.

Catherine, my protagonist, shares the same name as my youngest sister, and like my sister she's a botanist and a  blonde. Other than that their only comparison is being smart, curious and nice.

The first thing she asked after my son died,
in my arms  was how many breaths he took.

Millie is a cook at Elmwood Gardens, the large public gardens important in my series. She’s based on my mother-in-law, now deceased. Millie is extremely nosy and often asks inappropriate questions. She loves gossip and because of this she often unknowingly gives Catherine and the reader clues or red herrings.

Another character is based on a teacher I knew combined with a woman I didn’t know personally, but lived close to where I taught who was crazy about squirrels and put out signs warning people to drive carefully because of squirrels. This character became a kindergarten teacher who loved squirrels, but looked like the teacher I described even though she didn’t teach kindergarten. I gave her the name of “Polly Popcorn,” who had changed her name to go along with teaching kindergarten. Another character my readers like.

Grace is an amazing person. I'm really impressed by her.

A character I added recently is a woman in her nineties named Grace Meadows. I not only kept

her name, with her permission, I moved her, her house and greenhouse to Portage Falls. I met her over a year ago when a friend of my sister’s took us to meet her. She’s an avid reader of mysteries and keeps a three-ring binder with the name of each mystery author on a page and lists each book and a brief synopsis of the book. I’ve been sending her my books since I’ve met her and once she reads them she donates them to the library. I’ve visited her several more times and plan on going again once her garden is in bloom.

Other characters are mostly created from my imagination with sometimes a quirk or a certain look of someone I know or maybe from a conversation I’ve overheard in a restaurant or someplace else between two strangers. Also, the human interest stories in the newspaper or magazines are a good source of characters. So are obituaries.  In Twinsburg, Ohio, there is a yearly gathering of twins. One of the awards given is for the oldest pair of twins. So in my third book, I have elderly twins, a brother and sister, who constantly bicker.

Names are easy. I pluck them from the newspaper, books, magazines or people I know – a first name here, a last name there.  Once I had my cousin and her husband visiting a workshop at Elmwood Gardens where Catherine works. Another time I gave a character the last name of a woman in one of my book club. One of the members insisted on having her name in one of my books. She didn’t care if she was a victim or the murderer. When she read the book she was not pleased. She said, “You not only made me black, you made me old.” A friend of mine also in the book club thought that was funny. It didn’t matter to this woman the character I gave her name to is delightful as is the character’s sister. A lot of readers like them. So do I.

Creating characters is fun. It’s one of my favorite aspects of writing. Maybe it’s because I’m curious about people. I want to know more about them. What’s their story? What makes them who they are? Of course, there are people I meet I don’t care to know better.  That doesn’t mean

I can’t use what attributes I don’t like in a character.  A book needs well rounded characters, those who are a mixture of positive and negative elements with the characters we like best usually leaning more towards positive. But unlike the old-time westerns, no one today wears a white hat signifying they’re a good guy or a black hat signifying they’re the evil-doer. And neither should our characters although I have to admit sometimes I do make the villain not such a nice person, but I usually add some other characters that are equally unpleasant characters.

Another thing I like about creating characters I use characters to bring social issues into my books. I have a young man with Down’s syndrome, an autistic man, a couple who are gay, and all are characters judged favorably by my readers. I’ve brought in prejudice, spousal abuse, and other issues. It’s my way of not only writing a book that people will hopefully enjoy, but also maybe making a difference in other ways. I recently read that readers tend to be more tolerant of others.

If you are a writer, how do you create your characters?

If you’re not a writer, what kind of characters would you like to create? 

Finishing a Book and Starting a New One

Less than a week ago I finally got my sixth book in my Catherine Jewell Mystery series published and up on Amazon both as a print book and an e-book. Carnations for Cornelia solves the mystery of who killed a young girl whose skeleton was found in an Underground Railroad tunnel in my fifth book, Murder in the Corn Maze. Also, there is a new murder Father O’Shawnessy discovers in Our Lady of the Roses church one evening – a body murdered like the man in P.D. James’ Death in Holy Orders. Ironically, The Portage Falls Library book club he belongs to had just read and discussed the book that evening.

Because I write in multiple POV’s not only Catherine’s and the police chief John’s POVs, but also police officers Tony Montecalvo’s and Robin Harper’s POVs come into play. Tony is upset because his abusive father has returned after being gone over twenty years, and Robin worries about what is bothering Tony when he refuses to discuss why he’s brooding.

And now I’m ready to start my new book. Since I am going by months starting in June with my first one, this one will be in December so poinsettias will be the flower on the cover. As always, my step-granddaughter came up with another beautiful cover for the last one so I’m sure she’ll do equally well with the next one, but for now I have no idea what the title will be.

I’ve been plotting and thinking of what this next book will be for weeks now. Obviously, since it’s a December book there will be a Christmas theme. I have some of the events going on already perking in my mind. I’ve been jotting down notes, and coming up with some new characters, also. My biggest hang-up was the method of murder I wanted to use. I thought of one idea, but my sister shot it down. She suggested having the victim bundled up in one of those Christmas tree bundling machines would be better. I didn’t like that, but I still liked the idea I had if it would be viable. So on Sunday morning as I was starting out on my morning walk with Maggie, my son Joe called out to me from his back deck. I went over to talk to him and asked if the murder I was plotting could be committed that way, and he said it could be. He also gave me some ways it could be accomplished. This is my son who willingly posed as a dead body for my first book albeit without the garden fork in his back. Later that afternoon I asked my oldest grandson what he thought of the idea. He laughed. He thinks it’s funny I guess that his little, old, white-haired grandma plots murders. Anyway, he also agreed my idea would work.

My murder won’t occur for some way into the book. I read the questions asked of Ramona DeFelice Long from Guppies (a chapter of Sisters in Crime) in a recent question and answer session on the Guppy digests, and her answers to those questions. She is a remarkable editor and has edited all three of the Guppy Anthologies.  The one thing that really resonated with me was there should be someone who mourns the death of the victims. I’ve tended to make my victims not very nice, in fact usually downright nasty, although some times, especially in this last book, I had mourners for both victims. So this time in book seven there will be many mourners for this latest victim of mine. Strange as it may seem, I grieve more for my murderers than for the victim. I feel horrible that they felt murder was their only way out of a situation. Not that I condone what they did, of course, but I feel sorry for those who loved the murderer and are grieving for him or her. Of course, that’s not true with every one of my books, but mostly it is. So far I have no idea who my murderer will be, although I have some ideas, but I do know my victim – that is unless I change my mind.

 

Of course, I will be adding new characters, and that is something I find really enjoyable. One of them is going to be a man who raises and sells Christmas trees. Murderer? Victim? Or merely a suspect? I know but you’ll have to read it to find out. And, of course, I also love bringing back familiar characters. Unfortunately, there are too many characters that both I and many of my readers like so some have been resting for a while. However, I plan on bringing back some of those earlier well-loved characters for this book again. Just who I’ll bring back, and who will be still resting off the page, I haven’t decided yet. Until I start writing and the characters demand to be heard, I won’t know.

If you’re a writer, what characters do you have a hard time getting rid of?

If you’re a reader, what characters would you like to see more of in some of the books you’ve read?