Characters: Where They Start; Where They End Up

Have you ever had a character that you can’t seem to find the right place for? One of those characters you instinctively like but can’t seem to find a use for?

I’ve been writing stories for a long time. In fact, the first story I ever wrote was written when I was in the eighth grade (that’s a long time ago, let me tell you!).

My best friend in high school liked to write, too. In fact, three or four of us got together during study hall (remember that?) and started writing stories based on the Star Trek TV show. I don’t recall that any of them ever went anywhere, but they did spark and fuel an interest in writing.

Toward the end of my high school career, my best friend came up with a cool character and a neat setting (a science fiction western, of all things) and we started working on it together. The main character’s name was Caleb something or other and he was loosely based on my friend’s brother. She had a basic idea of what happened before he showed up in the old west, how he came to be in the old west and what was supposed to happen while he was there. All we had to do was write it. Since my first full time job after high school was babysitting her baby brother and she was living at home during the summers, it was an easy thing to work on our story and, as I recall, we wrote reams. All longhand.

I don’t know what ever happened to those pages and wonder, sometimes, if Rhonda still has them. The original character didn’t survive after Rhonda went off to college, but I continued working on the idea.

Several phases of changes took place in subsequent years. The main character had a name change, then a setting change, a historical period change and a whole new set of problems. After much writing and a lot of blind alleys, I finished that story, though I don’t know if Rhonda would have recognized Caleb when I finished. I still have Don’t Think Badly of Me as an electronic document as well as some of the original typewritten pages, but nothing has ever been done with it. I don’t remember what the problem was, but the moment I finished it, I started rewriting it and it has never gotten past that stage.

But the character has stayed with me like an old friend and in the years since, other characters have spun off that original character.

Parting Gifts came into being May 11, 1996 and I’ve been working on it periodically since then and the male lead is definitely a spin off. He even shares the same first name. In his early years, he was the same type of guy as Caleb (honest, upright, could be called goodie-two-shoes), but has had a life experience or two that has completely derailed him. Parting Gifts is all about his efforts to punish himself for his perceived guilt and the sins that led to it and the Lord’s work in getting him back on track. In some ways, he is the same ol’ Caleb, in other ways he’s much more mature and in some, less mature.

In late 1999 or 2000, I started what eventually came to be known as Perfect Opportunities. The male lead is a further development of and departure from Caleb. He has a completely new name, a new career and looks a little bit different, but he is essentially the same type of guy, but with a bit of an attitude and some history. He is not above doing something a little bit shady if absolutely pushed into it, but even though he’s not a Christian (the others are or were), he is on the right track except for the one thing he’s dealing with in Perfect Opportunities.

There are other variations on the Caleb theme, too. Some ideas explored for a scene or two or in a journal entry here or there, but never developed further. With Perfect Opportunities currently floundering, I have once again begun exploring other ways in which to make use of this character. In the most recent incarnation, he has changed totally into a family-less youth living off of elderly women and stealing from them while acting as a handyman. His story is even more disjointed than the story told in Perfect Opportunities, but looks to have some potential. There is no trace of Caleb in this character, not even by way of physical appearance, but he is a descendant. A great-great-grandson, almost.

The foundation for this character dates all the way back to the late 1970s. After all these years, he is still essentially ‘unstoried’ and I dont’ know if I ever will find just the right use for him.

But I am reminded that in order to make sourdough bread, you have to have starter; that little batch of dough that never gets baked, but continues to produce loaf after loaf after loaf.

I suppose I should write to Rhonda and thank her for this bit of character starter!