The Everyman & Everywoman in Fiction

While critiquing the latest chapter of my book-in-progress, Sunlight, our writing group got into an interesting conversation (at least I thought so) about my character Laura. Laura’s a secondary character, and in the timeline of my story she’s only been around for about 24 hours. The general consensus of the group seemed to be that although Laura seems like an average/nice/likeable character, certainly with her real life problems—so far something is missing about her: Her AWESOMENESS. I tend to agree—but her lack of awesome may be OK—at least for now.

In this early draft of my book, I’m still getting to know my characters (like Laura), and I know things in her back-story that are awesome but haven’t made it to the page yet. There are also challenges to come that she’ll have to face that will bring some of that out. BUT this still raises a more general question—do all characters (even secondary characters) in your story need to be awesome?

In our group discussion we never fully defined what “awesome” meant, but for me when I think of awesome characters, my mind immediately jumps to those with extraordinary, super-abilities or traits: Sherlock Holmes smart, Superman strong, Buffy’s ability to kick some vampire ass, or Dean Koontz’s well, odd and supernatural Odd Thomas—characters so full of great capabilities, contradictions and strengths (or so unusual) that they stand out, can carry their own story and are easily remembered.

So should every character in your story be awesome? I think the answer is yes and no. All well written characters should be unique, should stand out in their own way, ideally they should be flawed/troubled/complicated enough to seem real. My goal and hope as a writer is to bring characters to life that people care about, want to hang out with, spend time with maybe even think about and remember after the story is over. But I think there is a character type in literature and film that somewhat defies the idea of the “awesome” character.

The Everyman.

The “Everyman” is a somewhat generic character that people can often easily relate to, who is taken from their own, mundane, normal world and plunged into a crazy or abnormal situation or reality. The interest in the story of the everyman usually comes down to “what would an average person do in this strange/terrible/tragic situation?” Often they end up surrounding themselves with many stronger, talented and/or more interesting characters to help them accomplish their goals.

My lead character Job in Sunlight fits the bill as Everyman. He’s a cop trying to cope with the loss of his family in a world taken over by monsters. He doesn’t have super-powers, he’s not the “chosen one,” he’s not an antihero, etc. He’s just an average guy doing the best he can in taxing and extraordinary circumstances. I do want my readers to strongly relate to him. Likewise with Job, as I develop him further in my rewrites I hope to make him seem real, unique, likeable, etc. But he’ll still be an “everyman.”

Some of my favorite fictional literary and film “everyman” characters:

• Rick Grimes, from the Walking Dead series. (And just about every lead in every zombie story starting with Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead.) I have to say, I don’t really “like” Rick, but I can always relate to him.

• Sherriff Brody from Jaws

• Arthur Dent from HitchHiker’s Guide…

• Peter Parker (when not Spider-Man)

• The Man and The Boy from McCarthy’s The Road. (Very generic but relatable characters.)

• Mario from Nintendo Games (and just about every main character from any first person-shooter game)

• Frodo, from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings might qualify as an everyman, too… despite being a Hobbit, even though he’s also the chosen ring bearer. He starts the story living in a hole in the ground, afraid of adventure. Compared to his other companions in the Fellowship, his extraordinary/awesome levels aren’t that impressive. He’s got his own skills, but he’ll never face down a Balrog on his own.

More specifically the conversation in our writing group focused a bit more on women characters. Do female characters all have to be special, unique, more than just your run-of-the-mill person to be a worthwhile/interesting character? Can they be a good character without being “awesome”?

Maybe. I’d like to believe there is room in fiction writing for the “Everywoman” character, too. I tried doing a Google search on this concept, of an “everywoman” character, and I didn’t find much information at all. I did find this posting on the everywoman that I though raised some good points, especially “Why is there only “room” for “extraordinary” women?” in literature.

Images of the “average woman” from various countries, 

created from hundreds of pictures of women from all over the world.

Although I haven’t read Stephanie Meyer's vampire-romance Twilight books (and don’t intend to, it’s just not my thing—and the movies fill me with a vague sense of nausea and sadness for sparkly vampires… I can't watch them, either) from what I know of the stories, my gut instinct was that the main female character “Bella” is an “everywoman.” This post on the “everygirl,” (also nicely done), confirms this idea, and also lists some other great examples of the “everywoman” in literature.

So after thinking more about this, I do think there’s room for the Everyman or Everywoman in your story, depending on what that story is. If you are looking for a way for people to relate and sympathize with your main characters, especially if the world you’re creating is crazy/dangerous/abnormal it can be a great way to go.

But--don’t be afraid to bring the awesome. If it’s there in your character, let it out on the page.

Mark

@manowords

(Source for the "Average Woman" photo article linked above)

Characters – Surprise & Contradiction

A friend of mine recently gave me a CD that celebrates Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, with various authors (including Bradbury) reading and commenting on that wonderful book, a book that hasn’t been out of print in the last 50 or so years. As I listened to the first paragraphs where the main character, Montag, is burning books, I was drawn in by the poetry of the piece, but also by the glorious contradiction in his character. He’s a fireman, see? A fireman burning books. Now Bradbury is having a bit of fun, or maybe just showing off his brilliance. If you’re going to write a story of a dystopian world where books are burned, why not make your main character a fireman, someone we readers think of as the person we want to show up to stop a fire in progress—but in this world, firemen are the bad guys. The main character is part of the story’s problem—and has lots of room to grow and change as the story moves on.

When I think of my favorite characters from other books and TV shows, it is often contradiction that makes certain characters stand out and makes them, well, my favorites. Often in the contradiction is the surprise factor—and in that unusual aspect is what makes for a memorable character. Here are just a few of my favorite contradictory-filled characters from TV and books:

Ender, the main character from Orson Scott Card’s Enders Game is the strategic master upon which the Earth’s fate rests. And he’s just a kid (six in the opening scene).

This character spends his days working on the police force as a forensics/blood spatter expert—at night he goes looking for criminals to kill and dispose of. (Dexter from the TV series of the same name.)

He’s a drunk, half-blind U.S. Marshall with a shady military past who is a fifteen-year-old girl’s only chance of finding justice for her murdered father. (Rooster T. Cogburn from True Grit by Charles Portis)

He’s a golden lab. He can also spell and would probably beat you at Scrabble. (Einstein, the dog, from Dean Koontz’s Watchers.)

She’s a restored 1958 red and white Plymouth—and she’s alive. (The car, Christine, from Steven King’s novel of the same name.)

He loves car racing and wants to be reincarnated as a man (Enzo, also a dog, from The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein).

As an android with a positronic brain, he is capable of amazing computational thought—but more than anything he longs to understand human beings and experience human emotions. (Data, from Star Trek The Next Generation TV series.)

Here’s one of the characters from my novel, Blackheart:

Noel August is a 16-year-old girl who likes boys, pop music, dressing in pink and can talk to angels. Hopefully you can spot the contradiction (or at least unusual attribute). Yeah, it’s the pop music thing.

So who are your favorite contradictory characters? If you’re a writer, what contradictions have you given your character(s) to make them strong and memorable?

The Name Game

Names are fun.

- end post -

Heh.

No, but really now. The great fun in naming your characters is that you can chose a suitable name for a fully-formed adult. In real life, Eugene Schwab may grow up to be an Ultimate Fighter, and Rock Hardshanks may end up an actuary. Although, come to think of it, that's pretty unlikely. There's a certain amount of manifest destiny in a name, I think.

I remember an episode of Airwolf (yeah, you heard me right) - where the main character, Stringfellow Hawke, (*snort*) is talking about how pretty girls always have pretty girl names. Wait. That doesn't sound like ol' Stringy. On second thought, it was probably Riptide. (I get those 80's helicopter-centric action shows mixed up.) Anyway, his point is proven again and again throughout the episode when every gorgeous girl they meet is a Vanessa or a Gabrielle, and every plain Jane is... well, just that. The reason why this sticks in my mind is that one of the beautiful woman they meet is named, you guessed it, "Claudia."

I'm a Claudia, and I love my name. It's quite rare in the U.S., rare enough that it was a bit torturesome to wield it as a child, but well worth it in the end - so thanks Mom and Dad!

We as authors have less responsibility to our characters in naming them, which is deliiiicious. We can call a guy, oh, say, Severus Snape: a horribly cruel appellation for a child, but a fantastic name for a morally ambiguous wizard.

J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter and the aforementioned Snape, is a genius with names, although sometimes she can get a little too literal. This is fine, and even humorous when she's dealing with minor characters like Professor Sprout (Herbology teacher) or Adalbert Waffling (author of "Magical Theory"), but when it comes to a major character like Remus Lupin, the literalness of his name not only defies logic, it's also a spoiler. And speaking of which.... SPOILER ALERT, (but not really if you've ever taken Latin or studied mythology), Remus Lupin is a werewolf. But he wasn't born a werewolf, he was bitten as a child. How bizarre that he was given a name that pretty much translates as "Wolf Child McWolferstien Van Wolfysnout," and THEN LATER was turned into a werewolf! Quelle Coincidence! But I get it, Rowling's being sly, and I forgive her, because she's Queen Awesome, and also came up with the names Cornelius Fudge, Belletrix LeStrange and Neville Longbottom.

someone aged well

So then, here are some of my favorite names. Let's make this a game, shall we? I'll give the name, you provide the book, movie, or T.V. show from whence the character hails. Some of these will be easy peasy. For obvious reasons, I've left out names that are also titles. (Indiana Jones, Austin Powers, Sweeny Todd...)

No interwebs, please. Answer in comments below!

1. Popeye Doyle

2. Travis Bickle

3. Sarafina Pekkala

4. Elinor Dashwood

5. Zaphod Beeblebrox

6. Angus Thermopyle

7. George Bailey

8. Malcom Reynolds

9. Mad Sweeny

10. Salacious B. Crumb

11. Atticus Finch

12. Corky St. Clair

13. Raleigh St. Clair

14. Jerry Lundegaard

15. Inigo Montoya

16. Holly Golightly

17. Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps (pronounced "Fungy Fipps")

18. Brian Crookshanks

19. Archie Leach (this is a famous person's real name and a character name)

20. Charlotte Haze

If you want to guess without reading other people's guesses, post below before you read others' comments!

And what are your favorite character names?

Name that Character - or rather, your character

Natural Build

Hackwar Smof Swunnset

Darth Competent

Chuck Banger

Harry Potter

Rinkashime Chikukachiari

Baraqijal

These are all my names.

Really.

At least thanks to the Internet and the magic of random (or semi-random) name generators. The above are my Jersey Shore, Fantasy, Sith, Porn Star, Harry Potter character (score!), ninja and fallen angel name(s) (Baraqijal is the angel who taught astrology).

Our friends at #Reverb10 asked the question, “If I could walk into a room of strangers and introduce myself for the first time with a fake name, what name would I choose?” Not really sure. I suppose Darth Competent would work. I’m guessing he is the scariest but most organized of the Sith. If I were still a single man, Chuck Banger would have a certain appeal to the ladies. Ladies? Where did they all go? Anyway….

So what about Character names? Does it matter what you name your characters? How should you go about naming your characters in your story?

Here is a pretty good link on the subject that is pretty comprehensive:

http://www.babynames.com/character-names.php

Here are some character names from my book BLACKHEART, and why I chose that name and/or what they mean.

Clayton Jaeger: My human main character. He’s a detective and he is also suffering from illness and the loss of his only daughter. In Chapter 1, the character he has come to arrest, Blackheart, comments on his name, “Take dust and water mix ‘em together you get Clay—the same mud God made man out of.” I consider Clay to be the common man, hopefully the most relatable character in my novel for most readers. Jaeger, his last name, means “huntsman”—which I think is appropriate for a detective.

Blackheart: AKA Carl Black, AKA Cyex, is the violent protagonist and antihero of my novel, titled for the same. Terribly scarred and at war with literal demons, Blackheart is like his name suggests dark—in many ways to his core. Discovering his true motives and nature (his heart) are one of the things that I hope will keep people reading.

Noel August: Is a psychic teenager who talks with angels. She spends a lot of time in the company of Blackheart and demons. I wanted a name that would stand for her purity and brightness. Noel is literally the masculine form of the word “Christmas” (French). In English speaking countries it is sometimes used as a female name. “August” is a reminder of summer (the book is set in a winter blizzard.)

Marauder: Nemesis of Blackheart. He’s been around for a long, long time. Marauder is the current name he goes by, but he’s also been known by Af, Pahadrone, Rabdos, Apep and many others (all references to other times, places and bad things he’s done). The name Marauder means “Plunderer” or “Attacker.”

A couple mentions for awesome character names from my fellow Scribblerati writers (and there may be more, these are ones I like that come to mind as I’m writing this): Claudia’s time travelling character Ursula Evermore; Lisa’s nature-steeped main character: Beryl Kodiak. Very fitting names. Read their books and find out!

So what are some sources for finding good character names?

A few I have used:

q Sit through credits at the end of any movie and jot down names. There are some awesome names out there in real life. Mix and match first and last names as needed.

q Books on Naming: I have 3 books on my writing desk that are full of names. The best is the “Writer’s Digest Character-Naming Sourcebook.” It lists thousands of names from many languages with definitions. I also have a baby naming book and a pet-naming book. All of these have come in handy when trying to name fictional characters.

q The Internet. Duh. J I’ve included some links (there are probably thousands of other related links) that will help you either find or generate names.

Random Name Generator from US Census

http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm

French Male Name Generator

http://nine.frenchboys.net/randboy.php

Harry Potter Name http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/406/

Angel/Demon Name generator:

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=adname

A Plethora of Fantasy Names. Yeah. A plethora.

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/fantasylinks.htm

This post is dedicated to my friends with the best names ever: Syshwinsnyx Mollieux and Wyoho Cheelaburb. You know who you are.

Happy New Year!

We Can Be Heroes

"Look at what's happened to meeee....eee, I can't believe it myself!"

In my last blog entry, I talked about villains, so this time I thought I’d give their counterparts some equal time. As I said before, I tend to prefer the villains; they have way more fun, but nevertheless, I love me a well-written hero.

Last time, I came up with some possible categories for types of villains, so let's see if I can pull off the same feat for our heroes (the way I’m defining them, they don’t have to be the protagonist, just someone, to put it simply, 'on the side of good'), again, sticking somewhat, but not entirely to the sci-fi/fantasy genres.

Hero as the Perfect Person: This category was more common back in the day – especially in comic books and young adult literature. Superman, Nancy Drew, Aragorn (in fact, many of the characters in LOTR)… you get the idea. It’s harder to pull off today, because we 21st century denizens tend to like at least little darkness in our good guys (look at the majority of television drama protagonists these days).

I can think of a couple of exceptions, keeping in mind that these people have little moments of imperfection, but for the most part, it’s the outside forces in their lives that are messed up, not them:

Jack Bauer from 24 (I’ve only seen the first 2 seasons, so I can’t vouch for subsequent episodes) – the writers can afford to make him perfect, and by that I mean beyond smart, quick, capable, moral, brave, etc., because the whole season takes place over only 24 hours, and therefore everything moves very quickly. There’s no time for deep introspection or character development. In fact if our hero were flawed, it would get in the way of the action, and he’d be less fun to watch – part of the appeal of the show is that, no matter how dire things get, you know the hero is going to triumph in the end.

John Crichton from Farscape: Crichton is an earthling stuck in another part of the universe, far, far away. The big joke of the show is that he is the very best of humanity: he’s a genius (literally a rocket scientist), unbelievably brave, unfailingly moral, athletic, attractive, kind, funny, etc., but the aliens he encounters all think he’s about as evolved as a trilobite. (Okay, more accurately, an ape.) So, the writers have fun playing with everyone’s incredibly low expectations of him (his morality especially is seen as a weakness), and his constant struggle to prove himself, and gain the trust and love of these strangers.

Pretty much every main character in Star Trek: This is, in fact, one complaint that many people had about the shows; everyone's too perfect. At least we’ll always have Lt. Reginald Barclay.

The Superhero with a Couple of Flaws and/or Weaknesses: These folks are either literally super-powered in some way, or far superior to any living human being, and therefore might as well have super powers. Most modern comic book superheroes fit into this category, as does Sherlock Holmes. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Oh, man, she can kick some undead patookis, but put that girl in a romantic relationship, guaranteed it'll eventually fall apart, and then she’ll fall apart.

Veronica Mars: (Great show, by the way, go rent it if you haven’t seen it). Veronica is one of those not-really-superpowered-but-no-person-could-possibly-be-that-clever-in-real-life types. So fun to watch her big brain work, and she always gets her man, however, like Buffy, she acts a little screwy when it comes to the boys. More than that though, she’s itty bitty teeny tiny - pocket-sized, even, and not in the least bit kick-ass. Put her in physical danger, and she’s fairly helpless. Also, she's a little - vengeful, a little hard.

As a subcategory, I’d go so far as to say that most protagonists in Hollywood films fit this bill, sans the superhero part. (He’s great, but he: lacks self-confidence/doesn’t connect with his son/can’t commit to a relationship/can’t forgive himself for his wife’s death, etc. etc.).

Hero as Everyday Schmo: Pretty self-explanatory. In sci-fi/fantasy, this person is usually tossed into extraordinary circumstances. Sometimes they become great heroes (Luke Skywalker), sometimes they just survive (Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). Who else? Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. Many of Neil Gaiman’s protagonists. Harry Potter (despite the magical powers, I’d put him here. Everyone in his world has magical powers, and he’s hardly exceptional). Simon from Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series: In fact, a lot of fantasy books use this type of hero.

Hero as Redeemed Rogue: Han Solo! Han Solo! One of my favorite types of heroes, they’re so fun to watch/read about, and for some reason are often quite sexy. Must be the bad boy/girl thing.

Of course, it all comes back to Buffy with me – and the show excelled at portraying the Redeemed Rogue - Spike, Angel and even Anya and Andrew fit this bill. Who else? Xena, Warrior Princess. Artemis Fowl. And one of the best: Severus Snape from Harry Potter.

A subcategory might be ‘Misunderstood hero’ – folks we think are bad, but actually turn out to be good. Serious Black springs to mind, as does Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. For obvious reasons, though, these folks are almost never the main characters.

Hero as Seriously Damaged/Flawed Individual: This is a late addition, due to Jon's comment on my Batman neglect. I had thought of Mr. Batman, but didn't know where to put him... now it occurs to me that I was missing a category. Far from possessing "a couple of flaws," but not quite an antihero, these folks show up most often in ongoing series (otherwise they tend to end up a Redeemed Rogue), and they usually are extraordinary in some way, otherwise we wouldn't put up with their antics. Tony Stark (narcissistic, womanizing alcoholic), Batman (brooding vigilante), and House (jerk) all fit the bill.

Antiheros: I thought I’d give a nod to this type of character, even though they’re less ‘heroes’ and more ‘nasty protagonists’- your Taxi Drivers, Clockwork Oranges, Catchers in the Rye and the like. If they turn out to be actual heroes in the end, like Thomas Covenant (even though it takes a LOOOOOOONG time for him to shape up), they’d belong in the Redeemed Rogue category. I can think of two possible exceptions (you be the judge), and both are sociopaths:

Dexter: Sure he’s a psychopathic serial killer. But he DOES rid the world of bad guys.

Kate Mallory: She’s a cop from a wonderfully suspenseful series of books by Carol O’Connell, and although she’s a diagnosed sociopath, she does right in the end because of a code set up for her by her adopted cop father and his wife. (Sound familiar, Dexter?)

So then. There’s a bit of Hero sandwich for you to chew on. What are your favorite types of heroes? Name your favorite all time heroes!....GO!

Someone You Can Root For

Is it just me—or has this summer’s movie line up been pretty dismal?

I haven’t seen many movies this year—but the ones I have gone to all seem to have one thing in common, and it’s not good: Characters I don’t give a damn about.

Kurt Vonnegut’s second rule of creative writing is this:
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

I think this should apply to screen plays, short stories and novels alike. And I guess that’s where I find the following movies lacking good character(s) (just to name a few)….

THE EXPENDABLES: I won’t say I had high hopes for this film and I did think selected moments were fun (the ensemble cast, Mickey Rourke as the tattoo artist, the Jet Li/Dolph Lundgren fight scene were all good) BUT I can’t say that I cared about what might happen to any of the primary characters. And why should I? Essentially the main characters were all paid assassins out to kill a bad dictator. Who should I care about here? The paid killers or the “bad” guy about to get killed? The title said it all in this case. The characters didn’t really matter a lot in this movie, all expendable. There were explosions-a-plenty, lots of gunfire, stabbings, severed body parts, gratuitous wrestling scenes, but no noble motivations for the audience to grasp onto, no underdogs to cheer for, no characters that were unique or captivating. (Contrast this movie with the original Rocky, one of the great underdog stories of all time--also written by Sly Stallone.)

PREDATORS: I thought the opening to this movie was great and the alien setting cool, but the further this movie progressed, the less I cared if any of the characters made it out alive or not. Should I root for the sex offender (maybe the character with the most complete story arc), the South American drug lord (he buys it way too early so that would have been a bad choice), the wimpy “doctor,” or, or—well I really found no one to root for, except maybe the Predators. But that’s not supposed to be who I’m rooting for is it? Is it? The only good news to come out of this movie? Adrien Brody if he chooses to follow Arnold’s and Jesse’s lead is now assured a governorship somewhere.

THE LAST AIRBENDER: My wife, son and I have been viewing the Nickelodeon series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” this summer. We’ve found it very entertaining—mostly because of the charming characters and their interplay. Somehow M. Night Shyamalan (whose movies I otherwise really enjoy) missed the endearing parts of the characters in his movie and instead focused on checking off plot points. In the cartoon Uncle Iroh is one of my favorite characters with his quiet wisdom and love of tea. Aang (the Avatar) also laughs frequently and takes time out to play and enjoy life amidst the seriousness of his journeys. Somehow all these character moments were missing on the big screen version.
One of my fav Airbender episodes, for when you have 22 minutes: http://bit.ly/talesofbasingse

I could go on but I won’t. All I’m really asking of Hollywood—and you if you’re a writer for the screen or otherwise—is for you to give me someone, anyone I can care about and want to spend time with in your writing. Give me someone funny, or charming, or in danger, or struggling for survival, or trying to save the human race or someone just quirky enough to be interesting. You get the idea. And I’ll try to do the same.

By the way, a few other 2010 movies that failed my character test: Legion (horrible movie on many levels--it made me long for the apocalypse), Ninja Assassin (rented this one—a blood fest), The Wolf Man (I liked it for other reasons, but not for the characters), Clash of the Titans (all the characters in this movie were sacrificed to the God’s of CGI. Terrible).

My favorite pictures so far in 2010 for great characters: Youth in Revolt (go Nick Twisp/Francois Dillinger!) and Iron Man 2 (What’s not to love about a one-man arsenal with a drinking problem? But don’t get me started on the annoyance level of Pepper Potts). Do you have a favorite character from a movie this year? I’d like to hear about it.

Character Origins – where do they come from?

Some authors base their characters on people they know. In general this method (so far) has not been my habit. I do get requests from acquaintances saying (usually jokingly) “Put me in your book!” with their reasons why this is a good idea. Not gonna happen. In general my characters tend to evolve over time, taking on a life of their own as I sit down and write about them.

Here is how a couple of my characters for BLACKHEART came into being:

Blackheart

Blackheart was born one day in the late 1990s as I was driving fast on a very crowded Interstate 35W in Minneapolis. I imagined (that’s what us writer-types do, don’tcha know) a horrible car wreck occurring complete with explosions and twisted metal that killed all involved—except for one dark, scarred man who climbed from the wreckage unscathed. I wanted to know—why, how, who was this dark figure that could walk from a fiery wreck untouched save for another series of scars added to his body? Thus Blackheart was born, the dark antihero who kept coming back time and time again in scene after scene as I wrote—whether I asked him to show up or not, who eventually became the engine that drives my book.

Clayton Jaeger, P.I.

I saw a documentary about an old surfer dude who went down to the California coast every morning and surfed to start his day. It made me think of a man, not an old surfer dude, but a sick, middle-aged private investigator, who had nothing left to live for—dying of cancer, twenty-something daughter recently killed, wife ready to leave him—who decides to go for one last surf and never come back. Instead of drowning he is saved by an angel—who gives him this decree, “Stop Blackheart.”

It is the meeting of these two stories that sets my book in motion.

Snow/Cold/Minnesota

At lunch with a friend discussing my book’s progress recently I was happy when she said, “Your book happens in Minnesota? Cool. I am so sick of every book I read and every movie I watch taking place in New York.” I couldn’t agree more. Setting my book in Minnesota makes perfect sense to me. It’s my primary example of “write what you know.” Having lived here for approximately 4 decades I’d like to believe I’ve noticed a thing or two about this state. For instance, it snows. In Blackheart there is blizzard that at times is only a backdrop for the story and at other times is one of the enemies my characters struggle against. The biggest challenge for me here is finding different ways to describe snow throughout the book. I understand the Inuit had 100 words for snow. My book contains at least 102. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow)

Noel August

Fifteen-year-old Noel August travels with Blackheart and leads him to what he believes is the key to his immortal curse. She is a beautiful and troubled girl—her family murdered, speaking with guardian angels that only she can see and hear. I’m not exactly sure where Noel came from—but I personally know a number of people who claim to have seen angels—and at least one who claims to have conversed with them. To me the concept of seeing and hearing spiritual beings is fascinating—and Noel adds a wonderful counterbalance (I hope) to Blackheart’s darker side.

Resolutions

As the member of the Scribblerati who wrote the last blog entry for 2009 and now is writing the first blog entry for 2010 I thought it appropriate I at least comment on New Year’s Resolutions. In 2009 I had hoped to complete the third draft of my book—which I did on New Year’s Eve day. It made me happy.

However, that being said I still have much work to do on BLACKHEART before I try to put my book in front of agents and editors—my goal for sometime in 2010. I’m hoping revision 4 (and maybe even 5) goes more quickly. There is a writing conference I have my eye on this spring that claims to have “writer/agent speed dating" on the agenda—and I hope to be in that dating pool. Other than that I also just hope to write as much as possible and maybe even get a good start on book number 2.

Happy New Year—and for you writer/author types—happy writing.