The best littl' character in the whole wide world!
After two weeks away from my novel (bad, Jess, bad!), today I journeyed to my not-so-secret-but- adequately-not-stimulating writing hideaway in the Natural Science Stacks of the UW's South Allen library. Opening up my current chapter-in-progress, I realized how disconnected I can become from my work in a short period of time. Note to self: if it feels like a steep incline after two weeks away, don't you even think about taking two months away like in years past! Ugh.
Luckily, I brought my notes from the writer's conference last week. I flipped my notebook open to see what I'd scribbled to myself, inspired by different talks and workshops over the three days. After getting through the fairly vague agent/editor notes from the first morning, I came to my notes on Gail Tsukiyama's fireside chat, entitled "Body & Soul: Developing Character."
I've always found that character development is somewhat intuitive for me, right up there with dialogue and voice. Plot--trickier. Setting--oh boy, bores me to tears. But I have been struggling with a particular character in my novel of late, Grandpa Myers. I took a look at my notes from Gail's talk. For example: to help the author further understand a character (particularly a bland character, a small character, or one who is really bad or really good), Gail suggests the author create/discover a defining moment in that character's life, often from childhood. A miscarriage. Witnessing a deadly house fire at a neighbor's. A drunk man peeing in the yard. Winning first place in the spelling bee. Basically, the most important moment in determining who that character will come to be, be it a wonderful moment or ghastly or just incomprehensible. I'm still weighing Grandpa Myers' big moment in my mind. I'll keep you posted.
The other thing that caught my eye is more along the "intro to creative writing" line. She briefly outlined the five methods for presenting character:
1. Author’ interpretation (or POV character’s, i.e. my protagonist, Sam)
2. Appearance
3. Action
4. Speech
5. Thought
As an exercise to get closer to
2. Appearance. Gil “Grandpa” Myers looks younger than his 70 years. Relatively fair in complexion, he burns then tans in the summer, though his long, parsnip-like nose and the skin on his high cheek bones stay pink throughout the year. His skull, like his nose, is long and narrows from his crown down to his chin. A scar the shape of an bow tie marks his skin between the right-side jut of his chin and his lower lip: he got it on a Boy Scout cookout when Hubert Ellis turned around too quickly with his hot-dog roasting stick in hand, the tip aglow from just poking the campfire’s cinders. Gil has blue eyes the color of sky on a clear winter morning, but icier—there are only minute flecks in its blue canvas giving no texture to his irises, like they’d been polished with a sealant that rendered them unable to let dust particles in, or allow teardrops out. His eyebrows don’t have much of an arch, nor do they dip down, but run in modestly bushy horizontal lines over his eyes, separated by a centimeter or so.
He is bald on top, but still has abundant hair around his ears and the back of his head. He keeps it long enough on his left side that he can comb the hair over his massive bald spot. His hair used to be blond, but now it is white as snow. Gil never has grown facial hair, aside from a few days worth of stubble.
He has broad shoulders and strong arms, but overall, he’s kept himself fairly lean, aside from a healthy-sized belly, about the size of bread loaf. Gil’s tall, like his son, maybe 6’2”. Despite his height, broad shoulders, and strong forearms, his hands are small, with short fingers but wide palms. When he curls his fingers in to make a fist, his hand takes on the look of a croissant—the skin withered rather than flaking, the surface accentuated by a network of indigo veins rather than folds of dough. His size-12 feet correlate with his height appropriately.
Luckily, I brought my notes from the writer's conference last week. I flipped my notebook open to see what I'd scribbled to myself, inspired by different talks and workshops over the three days. After getting through the fairly vague agent/editor notes from the first morning, I came to my notes on Gail Tsukiyama's fireside chat, entitled "Body & Soul: Developing Character."
I've always found that character development is somewhat intuitive for me, right up there with dialogue and voice. Plot--trickier. Setting--oh boy, bores me to tears. But I have been struggling with a particular character in my novel of late, Grandpa Myers. I took a look at my notes from Gail's talk. For example: to help the author further understand a character (particularly a bland character, a small character, or one who is really bad or really good), Gail suggests the author create/discover a defining moment in that character's life, often from childhood. A miscarriage. Witnessing a deadly house fire at a neighbor's. A drunk man peeing in the yard. Winning first place in the spelling bee. Basically, the most important moment in determining who that character will come to be, be it a wonderful moment or ghastly or just incomprehensible. I'm still weighing Grandpa Myers' big moment in my mind. I'll keep you posted.
The other thing that caught my eye is more along the "intro to creative writing" line. She briefly outlined the five methods for presenting character:
1. Author’ interpretation (or POV character’s, i.e. my protagonist, Sam)
2. Appearance
3. Action
4. Speech
5. Thought
As an exercise to get closer to
2. Appearance. Gil “Grandpa” Myers looks younger than his 70 years. Relatively fair in complexion, he burns then tans in the summer, though his long, parsnip-like nose and the skin on his high cheek bones stay pink throughout the year. His skull, like his nose, is long and narrows from his crown down to his chin. A scar the shape of an bow tie marks his skin between the right-side jut of his chin and his lower lip: he got it on a Boy Scout cookout when Hubert Ellis turned around too quickly with his hot-dog roasting stick in hand, the tip aglow from just poking the campfire’s cinders. Gil has blue eyes the color of sky on a clear winter morning, but icier—there are only minute flecks in its blue canvas giving no texture to his irises, like they’d been polished with a sealant that rendered them unable to let dust particles in, or allow teardrops out. His eyebrows don’t have much of an arch, nor do they dip down, but run in modestly bushy horizontal lines over his eyes, separated by a centimeter or so.
He is bald on top, but still has abundant hair around his ears and the back of his head. He keeps it long enough on his left side that he can comb the hair over his massive bald spot. His hair used to be blond, but now it is white as snow. Gil never has grown facial hair, aside from a few days worth of stubble.
He has broad shoulders and strong arms, but overall, he’s kept himself fairly lean, aside from a healthy-sized belly, about the size of bread loaf. Gil’s tall, like his son, maybe 6’2”. Despite his height, broad shoulders, and strong forearms, his hands are small, with short fingers but wide palms. When he curls his fingers in to make a fist, his hand takes on the look of a croissant—the skin withered rather than flaking, the surface accentuated by a network of indigo veins rather than folds of dough. His size-12 feet correlate with his height appropriately.
3. Action. Gil never walks idly. He takes large steps with his feet, placing his heel down first then dropping his toes with a concise snapping motion. His shoulders jut ahead of the rest of his torso, following the pace of his footsteps. His movements tend to be quick more than slow, but not so fast that he becomes clumsy or cedes a smidgen of control. He is not prone to flamboyant gestures; he doesn’t wave his hands in the air to emote nor kick things in fits of rage. When he uses his hands while speaking, the gestures are quick and contained within the range of his torso. He rarely makes sudden movements, nor is he prone to abrupt stops. Gil Myers is deliberate with his every action, be it physical or behavioral.
Tomorrow, I get really down and dirty as we compare how Grandpa Myers speaks and how he thinks. WILD. I swear.Labels: novel, writing etc.
posted by Jess | 9:57 PM
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