Saving Grace, Finding the Right Character

Writing can be very frustrating work (and, yes, I did chose the word “work” deliberately!).

Last week’s weekly update post was all about finding the right story.

You’ll recall I had several potential plots vying for my attention. All of them wanted to participate in Saving Grace.

Most of them were strong enough to be considered for Saving Grace and all of them had advantages and disadvantages. There was no clear favorite and I was so tied in knots about which one to do that I considered casting lots to make a decision!

I didn’t cast lots (though it still sounds like a marvelous writing tool), but I have come to an interesting realization.

Maybe my problem isn’t with having too many plots. Maybe my problem is trying to put the wrong characters into the plots I have. Mm.

We, as living, breathing human beings, do not like to be pigeon-holed. We rail against it. We struggle against it. Sometimes we have to give in to it because that’s just the way life is, but we never like it.

So why should a character like it any better?

The fellow who appeared as the lead male in the first draft of Saving Grace has been throwing fits almost since the story was finished. I don’t think he liked having to die symbolically in that story and I don’t think he liked going into the witness protection program, either. I suppose, given what I’ve come to understand this week, I don’t blame him.

He has been a thorn in my side, though. My efforts to get the second draft written have prompted me to give him his own story, to pull him back into the second draft, to change his career, his family history, to kill him. Again. Figuratively speaking, of course.

At mid week this week, I decided to confront him. Ask him some questions to get the ball rolling and see where the conversation led. It started out well, but I don’t mind saying it ended in a standoff. We actually ended up glaring at each other over his office desk. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Then I had the following rather revealing thought.

Am I exerting too much influence? Am I putting my words into his mouth? He seems very angry and I’ve never seen anything about him to suggest such hostility. What’s going on here?

At that point, I stepped away from the computer for a break. On that particular occasion, the break was about ten minutes of silence and letting my mind settle.

That’s about all the time it took to hear Anderson say, in essence, “Let’s do lunch and chat.”

I wasn’t getting anywhere the way things were, so that’s what we did. I directed the conversation with such comments as “Tell me about your childhood” and “What would you do if you could do anything in the world and know you’d succeed?” and “What’s the one thing you’d never do?”

I ended up with nearly 3,200 words on that topic by the end of the day and it was quite enlightening. I learned things I’d never heard before and had never considered.

By now, you’re no doubt wondering what lunch with Anderson – figuratively speaking, of course! – has to do with finding the right character for Saving Grace. I already have the character, right?

Sort of.

I’ve written over 20,000 words on this story this week. Most of it had been with characterization. I am no closer to achieving what I’d hoped to achieve this week than when I started.

But I am closer to the overall goal.

All of this struggle led me to the realization that I may be pigeon-holing my characters. After spending parts of three days this week doing nothing but listening to Anderson, I quite suddenly realized that I don’t know anything about him beyond the basics (age, birth date, home town, parents, siblings, work, appearance, etc.). I knew very little about what makes him tick. Why, for example, is he always dressed to the nines?

The led to the secondary revelation that maybe he’s been such a problem child because I’m trying to force him into a story in which he doesn’t belong.

So I decided this week to set the story aside for the time being and concentrate on the character. Namely, Anderson. Figure out what makes him tick. What his aspirations are. Why he’s settled for whatever he’s settled for and what lie he believes about himself and about the world in general.

If, in the course of that work, I discover his story lies somewhere else, partnered with other characters, so be it.

But if he turns out to be the right place at the right time, then I’ve hit pay dirt and we can tell the story properly.

Whatever happens, the writing time will have been time well spent. Hopefully, I’ll have learned not to bully my characters, too. Hopefully, I’ll remember it with the next character, so they don’t have to go through the same thing!

Wishes for a great week to you and keep writing.