Hitting the Books

One of the things that all three judges from Hearts through History commented on was my hero needed some…oomph, for lack of a better word. Travis is a nice guy, from a nice family, no real big problems. I made him that way on purpose, to provide the stability that the heroine so desperately needed. But stable can also be a bit bland…

Okay, so he’s dull. He has a sense of humor and a bit of a temper, but he’s practically a static character–no growth or “inner change” (I think that’s the word Bonnie’s mini-course used)

The more I tried to discover ways to juice him up, give him more depth, the more I realized I didn’t have a clue what made Travis tick. Which was very odd considering how long I’ve lived with the guy.

I think part of the problem is that he started out as one type of personality–a very laid-back, low-key kind of guy…just like the boy I had a crush on at the time. Then he took on some of the attributes of yet another high school crush. When I was single, Travis became the kind of guy I wanted to marry some day…or at least the kind of guy I thought I wanted to marry. Once I was married, I let him have a bit more of a life of his own, but who he was was dictated by the plot, not vice versa.

So how does one get a character to reintroduce himself, to throw off 15 years of masks and baggage and say “Here I am”?

While I was pondering this question, ready to publish the post and throw my question out into the blogosphere, I had the bright idea of checking one of the links in my toolbox. (insert sound of palm slapping forehead) I’d been to Forward Motion before–Holly Lisle’s writing workshops are awesome. When I saw she had her Create A Character Clinic available as an e-book, and how cheap it was, I downloaded it immediately.

Omigosh! This book is worth it if only for the incredible flow charts! I don’t know how Holly packs so much information into such easy-to-digest nuggets. (Actually, I do know–how many bestsellers has she written?) I’ve only just started asking Travis questions, using Holly’s format, and already I’m discovering things I didn’t know he had hidden in there.

See for yourself what I’m gushing about–you can read the first three chapters here for free.

Me? I’m off to interview an uncivilized Yankee.

I started writing An Uncivilized Yankee way back in junior high. I was all of 13 or 14, so to me a 16 year-old heroine and a 20 year-old hero were oh-so-mature. But over the 15 years it took to finish the blasted book, I grew up. Got married. Had a kid. A totally different life and way of thinking.

So I made Star and Travis a few years older, as befitted my more mature thoughts and ideas. But while they aged chronologically, their actions and thoughts remained young–they were still a couple of teens. I had had them characterized that way for so long that it never occured to me that their age and actions didn’t really add up now.

Now I’m going back through the whole shebang, looking specifically for this “immaturity,” and finding it far more than I originally thought. Not so much in Star, as she is still a teen, albeit an older teen. But Travis? Sigh. An unexpected result of taking too long to finish things, I guess.

Has anyone else experienced this? How did you handle it? Or did all of you finish your novels in a reasonable length of time ?

Well, I’m back…sorta. I don’t think I’m any less busy than I was previously; I just seem to (for once) have a better handle on things. Amazing, huh?

As I suspected, as soon as I said I wasn’t going to write for a while, I got the urge to write. I worked on my fantasy novel off and on for a few weeks. Not sure I actually got a whole lot written, but got a bit more of the world and characters pounded out.

Then I actually got the guts to sit down and read the critiques from a contest I entered back in March. I had entered mainly for the sake of said critiques (just as entering in the Golden Heart contest was more of a get–the-silly-thing-out-there than any real thought of winning), but when I saw I had come in second to last (OUCH!) in my category, I just closed down the email and didn’t look at it again for a long while.

That was the end of May. End of June, beginning of July, I finally opened the judges’ scoresheets and was shocked to find they had really enjoyed my book! Yes, there were a lot of things that needed tweaking, but on the whole it was a pretty good story. The score was only relatively low, in comparison to the other 17. All three judges said they would have kept reading (after the first 3 chapters) to find out what happened to my hero and heroine. Even better, they gave a lot of very good advice on what worked, what needed help, and what needed to be pitched out the window.

So now I’m wading in for a rewrite: chopping the beginning, deepening and defining characters, merging scenes, etc. Bonnie’s series on Donald Maass’ book Writing a Breakout Novel has been very helpful (thanks bunches, Bonnie!)

I’ve discovered two things that, once remedied, will greatly enhance the story.

1. My hero and heroine need to grow up.

2. I really don’t know my hero as well as I thought I did.

More later…