Lost Gems of Character Development

We writers and authors spend an exhaustive amount of time learning our craft. You have to do it. There are so many technical aspects about writing which must be studied. You must learn about plots, scene and sequel creation, dialogue, monologues, internal dialogue, Point of View (POV), deep POV, grammar, punctuation, formatting, vocabulary, character arcs, style, genre, trends, world-building. Good grief the list is endless! And there are dozens of checklists, reminders, rule books, handouts, programs, spellcheckers– Holy Info Overload, Batman!

The learning must happen if we want to produce a quality story, chapbook, or novel. I know for me, there is a constant review of certain lessons with every novel, checking style and format, always improving vocabulary, looking to reinvent a master plot or character trope and always striving to be original in the process.

One thing I recently noticed in my writing, and in so many other books, is the missed opportunities for deeper character development. Great care is taken to showcase the golden flecks in someone’s eyes, the blue-black sparkle of hair, the limp, the bushy eyebrows, or the curl of smoke from a pipe. Delicious details offer insights to the vampire’s desires, the streetwalkers boots, the royal throne or the courtier’s waistcoat. Even the most intimate scenes offer description of the silky sheets, the sweat that runs down the chest, the sound of flesh against flesh.

All of these details are ones we’ve been told to add. We know we need to cover all the senses, preferably in every scene. We want the readers to see the people as clearly as we do. To feel and hear the swish of a gown on the stairs, to taste the burning heat of a rye whisky tossed back without thinking, we need the readers to follow us as we dodge around trains who vent steam and blare horns. We go to a picnic and treasure the dappled sunlight, swat the flies over the potato salad and our mouth water when we smell the fried chicken. These details are what flesh out every scene and give depth to our tales. 

What if I told you that you can do more, that you are missing one of the best treasure troves for letting the reader learn about your characters through what THEY find in your stories?

Sometimes deeper character development, and therefore hidden meanings or careful foreshadowing, even character secrets, comes from what isn’t directly said or carefully described. What about what surrounds the character in your story? Are you taking advantage of the character’s personal items that never change, that are personally offered and perhaps never addressed?

Let’s use my house and me as an example for what I mean. In every story, your characters live somewhere, whether its a tent, a mansion, an RV, or a brick and mortar home. In my case, it’s a ranch house. I don’t like stairs anymore because I have a bad knee (have had since I was in my 30’s). This character information which the one story house emphasizes. We’ll mark that as “Fodder.” 

Next, my kitchen. A great many families hang out in the kitchen. Activity thrives there. Look around. Everyone plants their flag, so to speak, in their surroundings. What’s on the counter that never changes? The wall? How about the refrigerator? Fodder! Here’s a pic of my refrig. There are things that never change and others that change with moods. Fodder! Do you see personalities reflected here? Look at the gold magnet or the retro magnet. How about the apron? 

We speak of the roaring fire by the wingchair or the mantle clock. What about the walls? The unchanging, personally decorated walls? Ah, more secrets of likes and dislikes! Look at this picture of my dining room. I have a deep love for Egyptian art. Did you know? You can learn so much from what people hang on the wall for permanent decoration. Secrets to their likes, dislikes or personalities. Let them be noticed.

I know we all enjoy reading about a character in their library. Big old volumes of books, shelves upon shelves, a footstool, a ladder, a cuppa tea and a late night read. But wait! There are nik-nacs, maybe china? Maybe bronze? Let’s look at a portion of my library. Oh my! The oddities abound. Statues and photos and hints galore. Most of these things do not change and reveal so much about me. Do you see the vampires or the dragons? How about the moon or the variety? So much fodder for a tale that reveals personality.

A home also offers insights into hobbies. Do you show a character’s pottery? Artwork? Greenhouse, perhaps? Do you know I like to take photographs? On the spare bedroom wall you find this framed piece, showcasing several photos. Mine. It speaks of some of my deepest loves. More fodder.

There is also a boom in contemporary fiction about professionals like the military, the doctor, the fireman or the cowboy. These people surround themselves with items that represent them or pieces that show something in their past that represents this profession. In my case, there are retirement cases for my husband and me, that showcase our years of military service. These can be the most personal mementos available. Fodder awaits!

Details are the decoration that gives a story depth and richness. Don’t miss out on a chance to provide unique depth to your characters by using the details that may never change. Understand and flesh out the things that make the characters real and you define them in a way that readers will relate to on a deep personal level. Oh look, your reader will say, she puts her daughters drawings on the fridge too. And she uses the magnet of her trip to Boston Harbor to hold it up. You know, the place where she spent her summers so long ago…

Fodder.

These are the lost gems that make the difference between good and great character development. Set your work apart by giving your readers whole characters they can never forget because in the end, the readers want more than anything to be those characters. Make it happen for them.

Thanks for coming by. Let’s make this a great month!
I remain as ever, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

Spring has sprung
in winter’s grip.
Summer’s begs that
either slip,
as Mother Nature
nurses her fat lip.

~Sherry Rentschler  (c) Apr 2018 in honor of the wacky weather

National Poetry Month arrived April 1 and during the next thirty days I take great pleasure discussing the ins and outs of free verse, making bizarre limericks, giggling over e.e. cummings, immersed in Baudelaire or Yeats, and wishing I was in Paris during the time of the beat poets.

For most folks, Poetry Month is something they hear about on Pubic Television (and therefore avoided) or from school (and therefore avoided), or in passing on the internet or social media sites (and dismissed as done by college kids or rappers). Such perceptions are a shame too, because National Poetry Month is all about discovery and learning, finding pleasure in seeing the world in new ways. 

Because we need to read poetry and let it help us discover our world in ways news and scholars and schools do not.

I heard someone say, “Poetry. Just rhyming words about things over my head.” Such remarks remind me that poetry doesn’t reach “the common man” because we never stressed the common man poems. It was all Iliad, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Keats. And we groaned, remember? (well, I didn’t, but my friends certainly did).

More, the above comment carries weight because poetry, once the style of telling stories has passed into the background. You don’t find it in Kohl’s or Walgreens or the grocery store. It’s not in the magazines (but once or twice a year) for April and perhaps Christmas. Kids talk about it at school just long enough to get to lunch where they can discuss “real literature” like Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, and Wonder, or discuss the latest comic book/graphic novel that became a blockbuster movie (Marvel, anyone?).

Sadly, the very people discussing the latest blockbusters and listening to their playlists on their phones, are missing some of the best moments in quotable literature. According to CNN, “Fewer than 7% of Americans polled in 2012 had read a work of poetry at least once in the past year — down from 17% in 1992, according to a national survey (PDF) by the U.S. Census Bureau on behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts. That decline in participation was the steepest found in any literary genre.”

What we need to emphasis to our children and each other, is poetry is the short, short, short, story. A poem can define a moment, bring us together in surprise or sorrow, encapsulate a thought, and help us to understand ourselves in brilliant and usually brief ways. Just look at Maya Angelou or Mary Oliver and how easily we come to share their understanding. No, you don’t need to read Dante’s Inferno (though you really would enjoy it), when you can read William Carlos Williams or even Dylan Thomas. Truth is simple. And poetic.

No, poetry isn’t mainstream anymore. But if you hang out on Twitter or Instagram and you search for poetry or poets, you’ll be amazed at the real poems being shared and quotes coming from them. Many don’t even realize the poem that originated a quote but are surprised to realize that poetry made the words quotable. Take the great poet, Alexander Pope in his An Essay on Criticism, Part II , 1711:

Ah ne’er so dire a Thirst of Glory boast,
Nor in the Critick let the Man be lost!
Good-Nature and Good-Sense must ever join;
To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine.

Poetry is more about us than we realize. Poetry is us. We sing it and the songs we sing become markers of our lives. We quote snappy lines, sometimes not realizing the words are ancient or even Nobel Prize winning. 

Do we need to know that? Nope. What we need to do is read more poetry. We need to not “go gentle into that good night” but rage against poetry’s invisibility. Help others to see the beauty all around them. Start with a child’s poem such as the insightful Shel SIlverstein. Or even Dr Seuss.  But let us dust off our old tomes and read….and celebrate Poetry Month, every month. Let our children become the natural poets of the future. Start now.

 There are so many good poets and poems out there. Sure we need to read the classics to discover the artful phrase, to understand the development of the art form, to hear the triumph in epic verses. But does that matter in the long term? Nope. What we need to do today is introduce each other to the modern poets and create a love for common words defining life in uncommon ways. To restore our wonder and excitement. To show us that we can know profound things and be better for the knowing. Poetry does this and so much more.

Let us read some poetry. Share with a friend. Just one poem. Maybe once a week or, better yet, once a day. Don’t do it with anyone if you are nervous or shy. Read it alone. Think and enjoy.

But read poetry. It will improve you, delight you, surprise and shock you. It can enrich you and prevent the inevitable ennui that comes with time.

Be invited in. See the world through rose colored glasses. Or in the boldest colors of reality.

Poetry matters.  Check out some of the ones mentioned here or ask your friends what they are reading. Go on an adventure and allow yourself to be surprised. See your world through creative, fresh eyes and maybe you’ll be inspired to write a poem or two yourself. Share with children and let’s all be a little more free verse in our lives.

Happy reading!
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

WELCOME TO THE BIRD FEEDER NEIGHBORHOOD

The calendar said it was Spring but this year I’m happy to say Winter has a firm grip and isn’t letting go. We’ve had snow flurries three times this month here, and poor New England is buried after four Nor’easters. I can’t say I’m happy for those up north but I’m delighted to be lingering under a blanket with hot tea, watching cold rain fall while I either read or write. Very satisfying.

My writer’s mind is always working but seems to work overtime during the fall and winter months. I suppose that’s why I enjoy doing National Novel Writing Month in November because it suits the weather and my “spring” fever that only comes in Autumn. When Winter arrives, I write and read like a mad woman, though much of what I write doesn’t ever see the light of day. Still, satisfying.

One thing I can tell you about writing every day is this opens your mind to new ideas and new ideas brings you more prolific moments. You know I like to take real life and turn everything into an opportunity for scene work, character development, or world building. Real life moments are what make me a better writer. Even dark and dank, (ma)lingering Winter ones.

For example, recently we put up a new bird feeder. This has been a never-ending source of incredible excitement for the local songbirds. For my husband and me too. We watch out our kitchen window as the cardinals and their mates (or potential mates) flitter and fuss over fallen seeds, the bluebirds, wrens, and sparrows becoming regular patrons. Doves rarely came to my yard before and now two pair seem to have moved in. And a gorgeous red-headed woodpecker that I saw once or twice a year is now a daily friend.

The squirrels are like potential shoplifters. We had to grease the bird feeder pole to keep one particular squirrel from climbing and pilfering the seeds. He seemed oblivious to the local bluejay security guard so we solved the problem. Just like a greedy kid, the squirrel will have to manage like everyone else. I’m keeping an eye on him.

I liken this whole moment to opening a new apartment building. Suddenly you get all sorts of people moving in and out, strange and beautiful. Dating and mating and married for life-ers. There are the fussy, the troublemakers, the slow movers, and the ones always in a hurry but going no where.

And just like real life, you get the ugly moments too. A raccoon died in the road out front of the house. A black vulture dragged it to the end of the driveway. Then into the side ditch. Then back onto the driveway. Then UP the driveway. That’s when the friends showed up. For two days, we watched this go on and then when the raccoon ended up in the middle of our drive, hubby loaded it onto a shovel and tossed it into the neighboring pasture (that’s called passing the buck). Now we see the vultures from a distance. Close enough to see them manage their meals but far enough away that the gruesome factor is mitigated. Let those demons attack elsewhere, right?

Same as it would be for my neighborhood apartment building. Death in the streets is a natural occurrence. Robbing and dragging. Gangs showing up for spoils.

The rains are back. The birds are scattering. They too need time in their cozy nests. I hear a redtail hawk overhead. Squirrels run for cover. Like sirens screeching by in the road, these sirens in the sky warn of danger and accidents. Like me, like people, the birds and animals know.

A doe and two young fawns make their way over barbed wire fence (what separates me from the neighboring pasture) and come to feed on unborn tulips and fallen bird seed. The birds scatter at first, then return, realizing the diner is big enough for everyone. It is a peaceful neighborhood and diversity is possible. Deer, dove, large birds and small. Oh look! A bunny. Ah, that was a nibble on the run much like young folks who are too busy to stop and chat.

(Not my pic, but funny)

Like a true diner, the bell over the door is silent but when the diner is open, it serves many and all.

Life is happening outside my window and in my writer’s mind it is a world not dissimilar to the one I live in. Even in the darkness, when I know the “others” come – the fox, the coyote, the possum, and raccoon – the 24-hour diner continues to serve, their world turns and life is a cycle of comings and goings, birth and death. But this “local diner” is now the hub of activity and feels comfortable.

Uh-oh, there’s the black cat that lives somewhere around here. I think of him as the mafia don, always looking for a payment. Everyone has fled and the cat sits atop my firepit surveying the scene. He’s looking mighty plump these days so business must be profitable. From the tail twitch, someone’s going to pay up soon. When he’s gone, the small birds return. Life goes on.

Thrones, anyone?

That’s the way our book series work, too. We build a world, make the lives, stay with them day in and day out, get comfortable with our characters, look for them, get to know them, need them.

Even when Winter has to let go for Spring, life around the diner will be a never-ending story to savor. I’m certain that’s when I’ll finally see the falcon who gives the hawk competition. Of course, the owl who cries “whooooo” as the police on patrol, lets me know all is well in the neighborhood.

Let the life outside your window give your imagination fodder for your characters as mine does. You’ll writing will sparkle with realism because it will reflect the life’s truth in microcosm. And the fun you’ll have is endless.

We’ve put up a hummingbird feeder close to the window. It’ll be like going to ballet. I can’t wait for that show to come to town. When Spring is allowed to arrive, that heralds the butterflies and bats, and finally Summer’s fireflies. It’s like waiting for the circus.

We’re putting in a birdbath soon. My own neighborhood bathhouse.Stay tuned! And keep writing.

I remain, Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

P.S. Look for my poetry contest!  Rules at the end of this week.