This week's exercise is all about characters. No one wants to pick up a book and within the first few chapters, think something like, "I feel like I've read this before." It's funny if they have, frustrating when they haven't.
Plots can feel similar from book to book, but the characters are the special spice blend. Just like each person, their unique life experiences shape who they are. No two people on this planet are the same culmination of life circumstances, events, experiences, and how they view them. Characters shouldn't be either.
For this exercise, I chose a sketch of Jilly, one of my series characters. On the surface, Jilly is bouncy and scattered, hyper and outgoing. Underneath, the main character finds that she hides her own secrets and wounds behind all that gusto.
We all have pieces of our pasts we hope to hide. We've all said and done things to hurt the people closest to us—sometimes intentionally, and sometimes not. Some of us grow to own these choices and reconcile. Others can't find it in them to apologize for anything. Just from that statement, several people came to mind for me. That's the beauty and transient nature of life. Nothing stays the same. Everyone must adapt to their own circumstances while also trying to make room for the people they love.
Being part of a large church means I have access to multiple groups and studies set up to help people through their challenges. I recently started a spiritual deepening program with a mentor, in hopes of becoming a mentor myself (pretty much a guide through the same program I'm doing/listening ear/prayer partner) to others going through troubled seasons of life. This may sound like I'm spending hours on my knees in prayer or reading entire books of scripture each day. It isn't at all.
And it doesn't begin with memorizing certain Bible versus or praying a certain way; it begins with a deep dig into my own backstory.
In order to understand where I may struggle with my current relationships, feelings, or faith, I have to understand why I think and react the way I do. Who hurt me? What did I think my role was in my family as a child? Are these beliefs true?
Sadly, most people want to leave the past in the past. Owning all the gunk can be frightening, condemning, or depressing. For some people, saying "sorry" once means they have to own all the other thousands of apologies and hurt feelings they've dismissed over the years. It's safer to think they're always right and keep those barriers in place.
Thankfully, since I have always loved writing and exploring characters in depth, doing my own "background checks" and asking hard questions like "what's my part in this?" has been an ongoing process for most of my life. If I show how much I love God by how well I treat the people around me, even those I don't think deserve grace, I better work to get a little better at this every day.
My life is a novel I need God to help me write love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control into—or I'm going to want to rip out several chapters by the end. Would anyone want to read my life story? Would I want them to?
If characters can make or break a novel just as easily as the plot, it's a worthy endeavor to make characters detailed and complex. What are their hopes and dreams? Why? Who pushed them away or toward their goals in the past? How did their parents/mentors/role models fail them? Where did they succeed?
Today, I'll be working on the main character, Cia, for my future NaNoWriMo project, Pencil Pricks. I'm going to do a shortened version of this exercise, using the questions I feel are most helpful for now. I also added my own to dig a little deeper.
NaNo Week 2 Character Questionnaire: Cia
Cia's Main External Desire:
To prove herself as a capable indie artist and be able to support herself doing pet portraits.
Cia's Main Internal Desire:
To keep her emotions in check when life reminds her she's not her "perfect" mother.
What major internal and external problems stand in her way? What internal and external help does she have?
Cia struggles with keeping her head cool when stress happens. Through years of therapy after she quit college, she managed to finish her degree. She thought she had all her stress under control until her ex-boyfriend turns out to be the teacher of an advanced art class she's determined to pass. This makes her feel like she hasn't made much, if any real progress. He's also the reason she ended up in therapy to begin with. (She blames him anyway)
Her internal help is all her tools from therapy that remind her to stay calm. Her external help is her best friend Val who believes emotions should fly free like a flock of birds, and poop on everything in the way. (See how I gave an image of Val here? Sneaky!)
Will your character get what they want, change significantly, or not? Why?
Cia thinks she needs to be "perfect" like her mother who always has everything together. Cia thinks she wants to be like her mother, but she needs to accept herself as is, flaws and all. She will attain this after she manages to stop blaming others for her reactions and confronts her mother for setting the bar too high and not acknowledging her accomplishments. At the end (I think, but the end of stories always surprise me when I get there), Cia will find strength in her flaws and be able to forgive both herself and the people who hurt her.
Actually, I'll stop here for now and keep digging into these questions. They provide the backbone of every novel. Underestimating their significance can make the characters feel flat—no matter how crazy their hair is, how witty their responses, how many orphans they saved in the fire, or how many billions they make. An author's goal is to entice readers along with the protagonist's journey, even if that journey isn't entirely original. Many characters seek financial stability using their passions or freedom from anger issues.
But Cia has a unique blend of reasons why she struggles to attain those things. It's my job to make her struggles accessible and intriguing.
And also notice that I gave Cia's gender only. No age or physical description. Her gender could easily be changed, and "He-Cia" (even "They-Cia") could still try to live up to a parent or mentor's impossible expectations. The majority of problems and struggles aren't unique to a certain age/race/group of people. Each of us experiences life through our own filters. It helps me not to get stuck in an age group or checking certain "hot topic" boxes.
Bottom line, I plan to write the story I want. Not everyone will connect with it, and that's fine. As long as I come out of this journey with another novel that has a message I believe in, I will succeed.
And, of course, have fun on the journey!
Keep on smilin'!
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