Before I start, just a word to the NaNoWriMo writers: You are heroes! Sleep, eating, family, TV, normal life are all overrated. Go for it! Have fun!<\/p>\n
On July 10, 2011, Lexi wrote, My MC in the real world is kidnapped by some strange-looking people. They kidnap him to protect him, but my MC doesn\u2019t understand that at first so he should be freaked-out by them. The problem is, the characters who kidnapped him are good so I have a hard time making my MC dislike them. How do you make the main react realistically?<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u2019m thinking a lot about realistic reacting as I\u2019m writing Beloved Elodie<\/i>, not only for Elodie and the other POV characters (I\u2019m writing from several points of view), but also for the secondary characters.<\/p>\n
Of course I haven\u2019t seen your story, Lexi, so I can\u2019t be sure, but you might approach this by sticking close to events. For some reason or no reason, I\u2019m thinking of these kidnappers as aliens, so I\u2019ll give them alien names: Fllep and Yunk. Suppose Fllep and Yunk enter Keith\u2019s house in the middle of the night and tie him to his bedstead. They leave him, and a minute or two later he hears bumps and crashes from his younger sister\u2019s room. The situation seems clear, at least to him. They\u2019re baddies, and, depending on his personality, he\u2019s terrified or angry, or, I suppose, if he\u2019s evil too, amused. Or amused if he happens to have some secret weapon or if he knows his sister can handle an alien duo. The possibilities multiply fast even in the simplest situation.<\/p>\n
Now, suppose before leaving Keith alone, Fllep and Yunk bring his stuffed elephant over from the bureau for him to cuddle with. What\u2019s Keith\u2019s realistic reaction to this? Could be confusion. The reader is likely to be unsure how to understand this surprising development. Keith can have other responses here too, depending on his nature. For instance, he could be annoyed that these aliens think he\u2019s so babyish that he needs his elephant – even while he clutches it to his chest.<\/p>\n
So, realism depends on action and personality and probably a few hundred other factors, like, for example, what else has been going on in the story. Obviously, if we\u2019re in the middle of the tale, Keith is likely to have some ideas about the aliens.<\/p>\n
I often interview my characters to learn their take on events. In this method I might do this:<\/p>\n
Me: What do you think of the beings who just broke into your home and strapped you to the headboard of your bed?<\/p>\n
Keith: I\u2019m terrified. They weren\u2019t wearing masks so I can identify them. What are they going to do to me? I\u2019m freezing even though it\u2019s warm in here, and I can\u2019t seem to put two thoughts together. I wish I could untie knots with my toes.<\/p>\n
Or,<\/p>\n
Keith: Some costumes on those dudes! Wait till Sis sees them. She\u2019ll laugh her head off while she\u2019s decapitating them. I hope she remembers to check on her big brother afterward.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s early days for your story and you don\u2019t know Keith well yet, interviewing can flesh him out. He may answer your questions in surprising ways that will help. So you can ask him how he\u2019d feel and what he\u2019d do in a Fllep-Yunk situation.<\/p>\n
Interviewing characters doesn\u2019t always work. Nothing works every time, but usually this is a good technique for me. Characters who lie in my story don\u2019t lie in the interview; they know we\u2019re having a behind-the-scenes conversation.<\/p>\n
When interviewing a character fails, I can ask myself how I would respond in Keith\u2019s place, knowing what he knows and doesn\u2019t know. If he\u2019s anything like me, I can be a reasonably reliable guide. And I can ask other real people. When I was writing The Two Princesses of Bamarre<\/i> the character of Addie, who\u2019s very shy, sometimes eluded me, so I would ask my writing buddy, Joan, who\u2019s also shy, and she\u2019d tell me how a particular situation would affect her.<\/p>\n
Character responses take three forms, or I can\u2019t come up with more than three: emotional, thinking, and physical. In Keith\u2019s first reaction, he says he\u2019s scared, his emotion. He\u2019s cold in a warm room, a physical reaction brought on by emotion. He says he can\u2019t think, which is thinking, likewise wishing for more flexible toes is thinking. You don\u2019t have include all three each time, but remember the possibilities.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve set up the situation that creates the reaction. A question you may want to ask yourself is whether you\u2019ve given Keith enough information to go on. Maybe the aliens have deposited him somewhere. He\u2019s gagged, blindfolded, and tied up. He\u2019s frightened, yes, and you can write about that, but it can\u2019t go very far without external input. What clues are you giving him (like the stuffed elephant, also possible sounds and smells) to build a response on? It\u2019s these clues, the objective data, combined with Keith\u2019s personality that will get you a realistic response.<\/p>\n
And realistic doesn\u2019t necessarily mean predictable. Keith may be happy when one would expect him to be scared. He may be thinking more about something surprising a classmate said that day than about the aliens.<\/p>\n
Beloved Elodie<\/i>, many of you know, is a mystery, and my secondary characters have hidden motives and backstories that are unknown to the reader and to Elodie, and these motives and backstories come into play. What\u2019s more, I\u2019m not entirely certain who my villain is, although one particular character is looking more and more likely. In any given situation I\u2019m asking my characters how they would respond if they\u2019re innocent and how if they\u2019re guilty. I\u2019ve been suspecting that the solution to the whole story hinges on realistic reactions.<\/p>\n
Masteress Meenore, the dragon detective, presents a special challenge when it comes to realistic response, not only because IT\u2019s a dragon but also because IT\u2019s brilliant. Can I think of everything IT would? Am I drawing all the conclusions IT would? This is another case of the character\u2019s nature shaping a response.<\/p>\n
Enough about me. Prompts time. When you do these, think about including all three kinds of reaction, physical, emotional, and thought.
\n
\n\u2219 Let\u2019s start with Keith, tied to his bedstead, elephant on his lap, bangs and crashes reverberating through the house. Write three different reactions for him and make each one believable.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Fllep and Yunk enter Keith\u2019s sister\u2019s room and find her wielding a sword, waiting for them. How does each alien react? Remember, they\u2019re good guys. <\/p>\n
\u2219 Erisette arrives for the second week of her training as a scout for King Aldric and is told that she\u2019s been dropped from the cadre. Write three realistic responses from her. If you like, choose your favorite and keep going.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Victor\u2019s best friend, Caylie, texts him that he\u2019s never there for her, that he\u2019s selfish, and thoughtless, and everyone agrees with her, and she doesn\u2019t want anything to do with him anymore, and he shouldn\u2019t even text her back. Write three responses. Again, if you like, pick one and finish the story.<\/p>\n
Have fun and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before I start, just a word to the NaNoWriMo writers: You are heroes! Sleep, eating, family, TV, normal life are all overrated. Go for it! Have fun! On July 10, 2011, Lexi wrote, My MC in the real world is kidnapped by some strange-looking people. They kidnap him to protect him, but my MC doesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[156],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}