An Interesting Thing Happened on the Way to the Plot…

Our regularly scheduled blogmate, Cheryl, had some difficulties getting here today, so I'm going to fill in.  She will be back next month.

———————-

So last night, I surprised myself.  Or perhaps, I should say my character surprised me.  I sat down to work on my characterization for the main protagonist of my thriller WIP. (I have two currently in progress: the 2nd book in the Willoughby Family series and when I need a break from that, I work on my thriller.) 

I wanted to write out my heroine's story, her childhood, get to know her better so as I work out the outline for the plot, I know what matters most to her. And a funny thing happened as I was writing her backstory: I started writing in first person.

Now anyone who knows me knows I don't like first person — it's hard for me to read so I generally don't. It has to be an amazing story for me to continue past the paragraph.  But my writing this in first person wasn't about changing how I will tell that story, it was about getting to know my heroine that much deeper.  I found a very definite shift in how close I felt to her, depending on how I wrote it. 

When I wrote it in 3rd person, it was the details and very little emotion. (I envision the Story Police over my shoulder, saying, "Just the facts, "ma'am. That's all you need right now.") And it was my intent, to lay out the facts of her life — the events, the triggers, the timeline. 

I would stop every now and then and write her thoughts,  what she was feeling and going through at that particular moment. The combination of these methods gave me so much more insight into my character, into why these events shaped who she is and how she does things.

As I wrote the heroine's story, I wrote the facts: 

Parents divorced. Father had an affair and fell in love with someone else.  Mother was angry and took Mariah away.  Never let her father see them again.

Those are the facts, Ma'am, yes, they are.  But how did Mariah feel? What did she notice? What meant the most to her at this time? I stopped and wrote Mariah's thoughts.

And here is what came from this exercise: 

Papa left.  Mommy is trying to pretend it’s just another business trip, but something is different.  I saw the suitcase by the door that HE packed.  He threw things into his car without thought, and he never did that before on a trip.  Whenever he used to leave before, Mommy always packed for him.  She would iron his clothes, lay them flat in the suitcase.   Then whenever she would go into the other room to get more of his things, I would sneak in something – a note to say I love you, Daddy.  Sometimes a piece of candy. He got a little upset with me that I didn’t wrap the last one, so this time I made sure to put it in a plastic baggie.  

Every time it’s just a business trip.  But this time, I hear them argue.  He says something about a woman named Sharon.  Mommy yells. She’s angry.  Papa is guilty, cause he looks like I do after I tell mommy I cleaned my room but didn’t. 

They didn’t seem to know that I could hear them. I’m not sure why.  And Papa left without saying goodbye.  He just left. 

I still have the candy in the baggie. Waiting for him.    I wonder if he’ll come back soon so I can give it to him.

This exercise helped to make my character real.  It made her unique. Plenty of people have parents who divorced.  And a lot have parents who cheated on each other.  There is nothing unique in her story, she isn't alone in those facts.  But she is unique in how she processes them.  The idea of making a tried and true story (ie the Cinderella story) into something fresh is nothing new.  But do you relate that to your characters, as well?  A girl from a broken family is nothing new. It's certainly not fresh.  So how do you make her unique? 

We have all heard the Goal, Motivation and Conflict aspects — each character needs the
se three elements.  But they need more.  They need to be human, and every one of us sees a situation differently, we notice different things, we remember in different ways.  That is what makes us unique, so it's what will make your characters stand out.  By using first person to get into Mariah's head, I saw the way SHE would see it, not the way I would see it.

The facts — sure we can all sympathize with a child from a broken family.  Nothing new. We've heard it before.  But the emotions — to know the child watched her father leave.  To know that she had something to give him, to show she loved him, but he never gave her the chance… we can feel the ache of that.  We can feel the pain of a child who was abandoned.  It's personal now.

This exercise also gave me a prop, so to speak. It gave me something tangible that would relate to her memory.  A plastic baggie.  Does she still have that baggie with the candy?  And even if she doesn't, would a plastic baggie –something completely benign to most– have an entirely different meaning to her?  A suitcase by the door is going to trigger that memory. It's going to trigger the emotions that went along with it.

I have 3 pages of mixed story now– some fact and some character thought.  In those three pages, I learned more about her than I have in the months I've been working on outlining this plot.

Try it.  You might find your heroine (or hero) will surprise you with what they share.

And if you're so inclined,  post your exercise in the comments.  Start with a line or two of facts — something that happened in your character's childhood.   Then, put yourself in his/her mind and write out that scene from their eyes, from their heart.  I'd love to see what you come up with.