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A Rose By Another Name

5/20/2015

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What goes into building a character? One of things that makes most romance novels unpalatable to me is that the characters are usually pretty cookie cutter. A handsome man, a gorgeous woman and ... yeah, I keep waiting for the rest. Occasionally I encounter a romance novelist who goes beyond that level to something deeper and I almost feel like I could become a reader of romance, but the next novelist of that genre proves there are few exceptions to the rule and I return to fantasy or literary fiction because of the characters.

By the way, I feel the same way about sit coms on television. The occasional sit com that gives their characters personalities can win my viewership, but most ... don't waste my time.

So what goes into building a character? Too many components for a single blog post.

Let's start with ...

What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. And, yet, that is not entirely true.

Characters drive my novels and I suspect they drive yours too. Often we spend inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out what a character's job will be or what they look like. I recently was talking to a local writer who is reading The Willow Branch and she noticed that my character names are ethnocentric. All my Celdryans have vaguely Celtic names. My Svards have Scandic names and my Kin have long names based on Asian naming conventions that end up shortened. She wanted to know why I would go through all that trouble. She admitted that she changes names for her characters frequently ... something I had noted as an inconsistency in one of her manuscripts. She didn't understand why I would "waste" so much effort on mere names.

This might surprise nobody, but fiction differs from reality. There's actually a whole lot more mystery in real life. My husband's last name is distinctly Irish and it tells a tale only known in Ireland, where my father-in-law was surprised to discover that everybody knew where his ancestors came from without knowing anything more than his last name. My maiden name is Swedish and it tells those who in the know what the first name of my great-grandfather was, because when my grandfather left Sweden, men still took their father's names as their surname. These examples aside, most of us go through life not knowing these things about each other. We may not even know these things about ourselves. So it's not surprising that writers tend to give short-shrift to naming their characters, but authors shouldn't.

In a novel you have a limited number of words to define your character—to make readers immediately relate to him and his story. That makes names an important tool for building a character. For example, someone named Bruce tends to seems strong and masculine, adding an important descriptor to the story. A girl named Ariel seems delicate and feminine.

For example, the first among the ensemble cast of the Daermad Cycle is the healer Padraig. By choosing that name I accomplished a couple of things without having to do a lot of explanation. First, I set the tone for the book as being a Celtic fantasy. By spelling and pronouncing it the way I did, I also subtly hinted that this world wasn't Ireland. The Celdryans are a long time gone from Celtic Europe, so they don't spell their names the same as we would expect in our world. Without having to explain that journey, I established the fact quickly.

On the other hand, the character of Ryanna is introduced as Morynsionryanna. That's a long, complicated name that puts her father's home village first, followed by his name, followed by hers. She is of the clan Moryn, daughter of Sion, and her name is Ryanna. By doing this with all the Kin in the book series, I assure that my readers will immediately know that this character is Kin. I wanted to avoid stringing a meaningless collection of letters together so that the name appeared alien. I wanted the full name to be just a bit difficult for the reader to give the sense that this is a culture with which they are unfamiliar, but then I quickly introduce the character's given name, so the reader doesn't have to struggle long.

Choosing names is not the easiest task in the world, as my local writer friend can attest. Still, there are some wonderful resources for choosing names. I have a collection of Baby Name books that provide typical names and their English translations based on their different origins and languages. That comes in very handy for old Celtic names in the Daermad Cycle. The Internet was a great source of the Irish, German and Wendat names for Transformation Project. I picked a couple of towns in Kansas and found names I liked from their telephone directories.

So what’s in a name? A lot. Characters, and their names, should be well-defined before you even begin writing because names can define an entire story. At the very least, names should add to the story, like props in a movie. They should help the reader envision and relate to a character by providing a physical or personality description. Writers should give character naming as much thought as you might naming your own child because, in truth, your characters are your offspring.


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Where Does a Writer Start?

5/4/2015

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They say the best place to begin is the beginning.

I’m writing my first short story in 25 years. I used to write short stories often and even had a few published in smallish Alaskan anthologies that no longer exist, but a quarter century is a long time not to use a set of muscles.

So where to begin? Over the years, my short stories have become novels and I write novels by the discovery method. I’m a good way into the narrative before I decide how it will end and then I draft some plot points to get to the ending. I then go back and rewrite to correct all the inconsistencies left in the wake of a discovery writer’s pen.

I don’t have that kind of time or space in a short story of 10,000 words due in August.

Where do I start? I’m a character-based writer, so for me there is no story until a character presents himself, but this story will be a stand-alone companion within the larger universe of the Daermad Cycle where there are abundant characters for the choosing. 10,000 words is a daunting limit I’ve grown unused to. Suddenly that blank computer screen intimidated. I think I know what brand new writers must feel.

Where to begin? Gulp! Uh…. Wow, that sure is a blank screen!

 I have a lot of writing heroes, but when it comes to shorts, Ernest Hemingway ranks near the top. What former journalist can resist those succinct yet eloquent sentences? In his book A Moveable Feast, Hemingway recommends that I find “one true sentence” that is the message of the short. It’s the truth, the controlling idea, what I want the reader to come away from the story believing.  What idea do I believe that I would I want to grab the world by its metaphorical shoulders and shake my readers until they listen?

I wrote that down on the computer screen and other words followed. While plotting my draft to reach that statement, I realized that it is one of the overarching themes of the Daermad Cycle. I’ve been following Hemingway’s advice (read decades ago and just rediscovered in time of need) without realizing it.

If you are a new writer just starting out, the blank screen (or paper) is intimidating. The good news is that you probably aren’t writing to a deadline. You can afford to write a mediocre short or even a novel with no ending because you haven’t made any promises to other people. That gives you time to experiment, discover and explore. Consider entertaining Hemingway’s advice. Find a statement you really want to make and try writing to demonstrate that truth, to express and then prove that central idea through the narrative structure of the story. Present the truest thought you can conceive of without resorting to explanation.

By just writing that one sentence you overcome the hardest part of writing – getting started.


Lela Markham, author of The Willow Branch and Life As We Knew It.
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