Where Do My Characters Come From? (Z Minor)

Where Do My Characters Come From?

Z. Minor

Author of Historical Romantic & Contemporary Suspense Novels.

First I have to have a title for my novel and determine what year the story is going to take place before I can think of any characters and their names. Names have to fit the time period especially historical novels. I have discovered doing research over the years, people and their actions haven’t changed much. Since the beginning of time people have loved, hated, cheated, and killed for numerous reasons. The landscape and style of clothes may change, but people and their motives not so much.

Some bestselling novel I have recently read came from recent headlines. Newspapers, newscasts, and magazines not only supply plot ideas but names, character’s motives, and locations for stories.

Once I have settled on a main plot. I can start thinking about the characters who will have an active role and help to shape the outcome of the story. They can be from any walk of life, rich, poor, male, female, and of course children. Animals add another dimension and will also need a name.

Character names come from baby books. Phone book are especially great for last names. If I hear an interesting name I write it down for a later date. I usually only start writing a story with the names for my main characters.

Juletta, my husband’s grandmother’s middle name, is the name of my contemporary heroine in “Artful Deception.” One of Juletta’s friends in the story is named Ray. She has known him since grade school, and calls him Raymo throughout the story. I believe this adds a personal touch just like everyday life.

I do an interview with my main characters and some secondary characters, but only if they appear throughout the entire novel. The depth of the interview depends on how important they are to the story. Some of my main character interviews are done before I start writing a new story and some are done no later than three chapters into the book. By then I know how important the character is going to be and if the story is worth continuing to write. Some interviews I do when a character appears as I am writing a scene.

The interviews usually cover their childhood or some aspects of it, their likes and dislikes. How they got to where they are, when they appear in the story. Lastly what are their dreams for the present and future? In some cases, I want to know how they plan to get where they want to go. Any information that will help me to give the characters added dimension. Most of the time I don’t use many of the facts I garner from the interviews and the reader will never know them. However, I need them to create a believable character.

Names for secondary characters I find when I need a name after I have written them into an important scene. Actions of characters I take from everyday life. Historical newspapers, like “The London Times”, has given me insights into everyday life during its publication. There are many books that show the life and time of a given time period. There are also dictionaries such as “Dictionary of the Old West” 1850 to 1900 which can help with dialogue.

Names are interesting to me and I have found them while on vacation, reading a book, and meeting new people. My characters actions are many times from something I have seen, read about, remembered from way back when, or heard second hand. I am a people watcher as I think most writers are.

So Beware!! Your actions and your name just might just find their way into one of my books.

Fill in the Blank(s)

Yes, that's a blank sheet of paper, which is pretty much where I was on ideas for characters, plot, conflict...  You name it.

Usually, as I'm finishing the last half of one book, the next idea starts bugging me.  For the first time I can remember, that didn't happen.  I turned in the last Desperation book almost a month ago.  So where are all the ideas that bounce around, already taking space in my head?  Where's the heart of the next story idea?  The characters for the next story?

The answer to that has been "nowhere."

I have a basis:  A Texas ghost town.  I have the names of three heroes and three heroines.  Oh, and babies.  There must be babies.  But I don't know who these characters are, much less hunting for photos of what "stars" might represent them in my head.  Smack!  This doesn't happen.  I was at a loss.  I was in a panic.

One evening, Patricia Davids and I were doing some brainstorming on her WIP.  (Go, Pat!)  When we finished with that, I threw out my basic idea for the ghost town series.  She asked me questions I had no answers for.  None.  Nada.  Zilch.  It took a few weeks, but I finally came up with some answers, although they weren't very solid.  A week ago, with Pat and Theresa and Melissa, things began to come together.  Four heads are definitely better than one!  (May blessings rain upon you, P, T, & M!)

But one of the elements I chose needed some research, so last night I decided to do a little of that.  One thing led to another, and...  Do you have any idea how many real ghost towns there are in Texas?  Oh, my stars and garters!  And the stories behind those towns--the history of them--are sometimes fascinating.

Now that I've found the answer to that element I needed and even more, plus a suitcase full of photos of Texas Hill Country, the story is beginning to form.  Ideas for a scene or two are slowly starting to sneak and twist through my mind.  Short snippets of conversations between characters, along with a little introspection (character thoughts) are whispering.  Those characters are starting to take shape and will hopefully come to life soon on the written page.

Is it what I'd imagined originally?  Not quite, but what's replaced those first pitiful ideas are much better and finally taking form.  At least I hope so, especially on the 'better' part of it.

So that blank page above?  It's full of scribbles and notes now.  It's starting to come together.  It won't be long before I'm hunting for photos, not of ghost towns and underground caves, but hunky cowboys and their feminine equals.

Wish me luck!

Geography as Destiny?

I’m taking a left, sort of metaphysical, turn on this month’s topic.  Instead of considering where in the world I would go, I’ve decided to talk about where our characters come from as in their back-story.  This was prompted by a brief quote I had saved in 2010 and found--while looking for something else to use to spark off a blog this month..

“Anthropologists claim geography is destiny. Which means where we set our stories will shape our characters in fundamental ways. How do you decide which setting you need for your type of story?”  Does geography determine who and what or why our characters are the way they are?  (I found in doing some googling that in the real world there is a vast, multitudinous debate on all stands pro and con on geography as destiny.  I am not a proponent of any views, just an explorer!)

One book I discovered (which I neither recommend or contest because I have NOT read it) Power of Place by Harm de Blij, really got me thinking because of its Table of Contents--thanks to Amazon’s Look Inside.  Some of the chapter titles in Place-- “Imperial Legacy of Language; Fateful Geography of Religion, Rough Topography of Human Health, Geography of Jeopardy, Same Place-Divergent Destinies; Power and the City, Promise and Peril in the Provinces,” started me thinking about how I choose my characters’ backgrounds.  I am taking the topics far more literally than the author.)

In my Honour series, André Ribeymon, Baron de la Croix is a French émigré whose parents were killed by a mob in France during the Reign of Terror in the early 1790’s.  He was six at the time and was rescued and taken to England by his aunt. She weds an earl and they raise the boy and his sister.  The earl was a British agent and de la Croix admires and respects him.  André decides to follow his example and becomes a British spy working to overthrow Napoleon.

Then there is his counterpart, Donatien.  He is slightly older than André but was born and reared in France.  Born on the "other-side-of-the-blanket" and raised in a dissolute aristocratic household he comes to admire survival.  As an adolescent he was part of the “mob” and as an adult has become a master spy working for Napoleon, or perhaps more correctly, for his own advancement via Napoleon or whomever he can use.

These two men speak the same languages, their health is equally good, they both deal with jeopardy in many different forms, reside mainly in the city albeit one in London and the other in Paris and are familiar with the provinces of both countries.  They began their lives very much closer geographically than they realize.  Are their adult decisions merely Same Place-Divergent Destinies?  In the case of these two men I believe it was more a matter of who raised them than of geography although the political geography did have a huge influence and open possibilities neither would have had otherwise.  One grew up within  a sound family life with examples of moral living and the other had the exact opposite.  They both have chosen “good” but its definition is very different for each.  But I do need to add that Donatien, a totally amoral unflinching sort, really surprised me when I was writing Honour's Redemption in that he showed a glimmer of a heart.  It will be interesting to see how that develops, or does not, in book five.

Does it matter what setting our characters come from?  Does it make a difference in who they become?  It does to some extent just like where I was raised had an effect on me and the kinds of characters I create.  I don’t think its nature versus nurture but a combination of the two that mold a person.  My experiences and beliefs create different characters than yours would even if we were both given the same basic character.  Agree?  Disagree?  Why?