Almost jacked-up the blogfest.
But, I've regrouped and am ready to OWN IT!
I wrote my first novel when I was 16, while grounded for a very long time (I fucked up big, yo). It started as a Stephen King It rip-off and has been through several revisions since. The exploding YA market combined with the fact that I was a YA when I wrote it makes it the logical next project.
It is horror, of course, called The Gifted, the Cursed, and the Wicked.
It has eight main characters. Eight. And about 5 supporting characters. As much as it hurts--deleting a character feels a lot like murder--I need to scale down.
Luckily, I stumbled onto this great blogfest:
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Those of you not participating, answer the questions for yourself! Or answer them from the perspective of your favorite fictional character! Or, or answer them from the perspective of someone you would find intriguing.
I'm going to develop my questions around Kristina Knight. She was supposed to be me, or what I wanted to be, and now I feel she needs to be her own person and not my ego, so I think she's a good candidate.
1. Which bad habit of your character drives other the characters crazy?
Kris will open up a can of Diet Coke, drink part of it, and then forget about it and go open another one. She'll have six cans scattered through her apartment by the end of the weekend.
2. How would your character communicate "I need help" with just body language?
She crawls into her boyfriend's lap and contracts into a fetal position.
3. If your character had only one night in Las Vegas, what would he/she do?
Kris would hit the night clubs and dance all night long.
4. How does your character regard his/her cell phone?
An onerous necessity. She keeps it on her so that her friends don't bitch at her for not responding to their messages right away. But it's not a smart phone; it's not decorated. She does not cross off the days of her calendar anticipating when the first day of her early-upgrade window.
5. What habit will your character never be able to break without some kind of intervention?
Chewing on her cuticles while watching television.
The simplest way to scale down on characters is to delete those that hold no interest, not even for you. The ones that are flat and dull with no real personality.
ReplyDeleteIf you have none of those, I suggest getting rid of a few supporting characters and scale some of your main characters down to supporting characters.
1. She's an early riser and, while she leaves for her morning run quietly, she's too awake when she gets back to care.
ReplyDelete2. Cassie is usually the helper not the one who needs help. When she does need help she hides it, going someplace alone to let it out.
3. Find the quickest way out of there. She likes to keep hold of her money.
4. Cell phone? You think she can afford a cell phone?
5. Penny pinching (wait, is that a habit?).
1. Which bad habit of your character drives other the characters crazy?
ReplyDeleteEdgar's consistently cynical, and some people can't handle that!
Ever is completely whacked out and basically on acid, but without actually being on acid. :P This drives my more practical characters nuts.
2. How would your character communicate "I need help" with just body language?
The closest Edgar comes to saying "I need help" is actually approaching & talking to other people. He won't ever actually say with a look or a word, "I need help."
Ever never feels that she needs help. She's perfectly oblivious to all of life's bad stuff.
3. If your character had only one night in Las Vegas, what would he/she do?
Edgar would probably either drink at the bar, or go up on a rooftop somewhere & just hang out there. Alone.
Ever would float around the streets in a daydream, admiring the pretty sparkling lights.
4. How does your character regard his/her cell phone?
Edgar doesn't have a mobile phone.
Ever has one but always forgets she has it.
5. What habit will your character never be able to break without some kind of intervention?
Edgar won't be able to break out of his "I like to be alone, no really" thing without someone forcing him to open up.
Ever probably will never snap out of her "daydreamy hippy" thing. It's just how her brain has ended up.
Fun questions, good luck scaling down your characters. (Brooke just happens to be convenient and helpful like this.) ;)
ReplyDelete1. Ceil has to be right.
2. She'll be grumpy when her stubborn side takes over. When she flat out needs help and pushes her stubbornness aside, she'll look pleadingly into someone's eyes.
3. Needless to say, she's faaaaar away from Las Vegas, but if she ever was there, she'd probably go out drinking all night. Maybe she'd gamble and go find someone to argue with.
4. When they get phone reception and a Verizon store in the Arctic, I'll come back to answer this question.
5. The habit of playing with her hair. Or maybe the habit of holding grudges.
These are great oddball quirks! I love this character already.
ReplyDelete