Saving Grace, Understanding Characters

Last week I talked about taking the time to get to know and understand the character I thought was supposed to be the male lead in the story, Saving Grace. I spent a lot of time and words on Anderson and followed that up with more time and words this past week before finally writing to the end of the subject on Wednesday or Thursday. What did I gain?

Quite a lot. For instance,

• I know what lie Anderson believes about himself. It’s a common lie, one I share with him.
• I know how that lie affects his decision making and behavior
• I know how that behavior is manifested through mannerisms
• I discovered his inner values, those values he holds without really knowing it, and what created those values
• I know – or have a good idea – which of those values takes precedence when two or more come into conflict
• I came to a better understanding of the lessons he needs to learn

Possibly most important, I began to see glimpses of the story he needs to tell. I don’t yet know how it will unfold, though several beginnings have suggested themselves, and I don’t know how it will end. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear. Anderson’s story will probably not be told in the second draft of Saving Grace.

My next step with Anderson is unclear. There are a lot of things still to figure out, namely who the other characters are (assuming they are not the other characters from Saving Grace) and the structure of the story. But all of that in due time.

Since Saving Grace is still the story at the top of my writing to-do list, I moved from Anderson to Grace, thinking I would follow up a successful eight or nine days of character work with more successful days of character work. So far, I’ve encountered only one problem, but it hit me in the face immediately, and it’s a big one.

Grace herself. She is one intimidating lady!

I’ll confess that part of my problem is that I have always made more solid connections with my male lead characters than with my female lead characters. In my favorite story to date, the female lead and I share artistic talents and a love of horses, so we did make a connection, but the male lead is the character with whom I shared conversations and made all the major connections.

In my most frequently finished manuscript, Perfect Opportunities, the male lead is the character I had the most fondness for and connections with. The female lead was, truth be told, only the narrator in whom I had little interest and who seemed to be singularly uninteresting. That is not good, since she was also the character telling the story … in first person.

So it may be that I’m just crossing into new territory here when it comes to taking time to sit down and ‘talk’ with Grace.

Or it may be that she’s a career Marine either recently or soon-to-be retired.

Or that she holds two high-powered degrees.

Or that she lives her faith in a much more fundamental and determined way than I think I do.

Whatever the case, I honestly feel outgunned by this gal personally, professionally, and spiritually. Yes, I’ve written a complete manuscript with her as the lead character already, but what do I really know about her?

At the beginning of the week, I made a tentative appointment to ‘meet with her’, but work was still being done with Anderson, so I didn’t have a time line in mind. By the end of the week, with all current work with Anderson behind me, it was time to turn to Grace.

The preliminary ‘staging’ work was done by Friday. I even began reviewing the character work from the first draft to see what I already knew and where might be a good place to start. I thoroughly described the setting in which I envision Grace and the small town that is nearby and jotted down the thoughts and questions that came to mind from that work. I even sketched out the location, making my own ‘floor plan’ of the location just to solidify it in my imagination.

The real work, the introduction to Grace as a ‘person’ I was meeting didn’t begin until Saturday.

But Saturday’s are notoriously bad for getting anything done because of the usual weekend distractions. I did manage to work on this project, but only in fits and starts. I worked most industriously on the approach to the interview and I mean that literally. I described the setting as seen in the walk to the isolated homestead where I see at least part of the story taking place.

I even got almost to the point of first glimpsing the character in her natural habitat, her grandfather’s homestead and chopping wood. Surreptitious observation on my part, but no interaction.

The good thing about all this is that I have the foundation lain for work next week. I have no further excuses. I’m hoping that by the time Sunday is past and I’m sitting at the computer again on Monday, I’ll know what to do.

Check in next week to see how well that worked out!

In the meantime, have a great week and keep on writing.