TT: Alan Gets Into Someone’s Head

JANE: So, Alan, last time you mentioned that the biggest challenge you’d faced when you started in on writing fiction was getting into character’s heads.

Here’s Edna!

Did your writer’s group exercise based around writing a character sketch give you any insights into making a character come alive?

ALAN: Yes, I think so. I chose a picture of a cleaning lady and wrote three brief character sketches that described her as three very different people. Then I took one of those character sketches and wrote a (very short) story about her with a proper beginning, a middle and an end. I’m quite pleased with the results. All I’ve got to do now is try and work out how I did it…

JANE: Maybe if we step back and look at those three character sketches, you’ll have an insight.  Are you game?

ALAN: Yes, indeed.

JANE: First, though, I have a question for you.  Why did you pick a cleaning lady?

ALAN: As soon as I saw the picture, I remembered an incident from when I was a student. We had a party, and wrote a message on the wall: “We love Mrs Francis our wonderful cleaning lady”. She had to clean it up the next day, of course. But she did it with a huge smile on her face – she really was a lovely lady and I remember her fondly. I thought I could use that anecdote in a character sketch. And I did!

JANE: That’s neat!  I have another thought on that, but I want to hold onto it for later.  So, how about those character sketches?

ALAN: The first two character sketches described Edna, an office cleaner. I used almost exactly the same words to describe a nice Edna and a nasty Edna. It was a useful exercise on how important the choices of words and similes are. For example, the nasty Edna had “formidable curlers that looked as if they could put a permanent wave in the girders of the Eiffel Tower” while the nice Edna had “formidable curlers that only came out on Saturday when they gave her lucky hair for the bingo”.

JANE:  Nice variation on a theme.   Another good thing to remember is that the point of view of whoever is viewing Edna might influence whether they saw her as “nice” or “nasty” based on their own past associations with women who wear curlers.

So, what was the third sketch?

ALAN: The third character sketch was a longer piece that described Edna’s life in a small Yorkshire village in (probably) the 1950s. She was an amalgam of various such ladies that I remembered from that time. There was a little bit of my grandmother in her, and a little bit of a friend’s mother…

JANE: I’m curious.  Why did you name her Edna?  Was that the name of one of those ladies?

ALAN: I have no idea, except that really is her name. If she had a different name, she’d be an imposter. And no, I do not know anyone in real life called Edna…

JANE: Character names can be like that.

So, which one did you choose to write your story about?

ALAN: The nice Edna from the original character sketches. She helps Phyllis from Accounts Receivable with the month end report by applying a little bit of homespun wisdom and a dirty joke. It’s only 500 words, but I think it works quite well.

JANE: Sounds intriguing.  I know that sometimes there are contests for very short stories.  Maybe you can try your piece there.

Earlier, when you mentioned you’d chosen a cleaning lady, I mentioned I had a thought but wanted to hold onto  it.  Now I’ll trot it out…

One of the ways to avoid writing cardboard characters is to think of actual people you know – or as you did with Edna Three, several actual people you know.  A really good exercise is to write a story using real people as characters rather than thinking of them as abstract concepts like “detective,” or “biologist,” or “ship’s captain” or “cleaning lady.”

It’s astonishing how much we know about even casual acquaintances.  Yet, if asked the same questions about a character many writers would just look puzzled.

ALAN: Can you give me an example?

JANE: Sure.  There’s a clerk at my local grocery store I see regularly.  The longest conversation we’ve had is probably less than 120 seconds.  Nonetheless, I know she hates hot weather, doesn’t like bananas, struggles with her diet, is a former smoker, has a small dog she’s very fond of, and watches football.  She is not patient with people who don’t hold up their end, but can be surprisingly kind if someone really needs help.

The green grocer at the same store is divorced, but gets along well with his now adult children.  He’s afraid of flying.  Although very friendly, he prefers to work with stock to being put on a register.  He likes small towns, enough so that he gets up very early to commute in for his job, rather than live closer.  He’s fully bilingual in Spanish and English, switching between languages depending on who he’s chatting with.

And that leaves out physical descriptions entirely.  And names, both of which tend to be the first things many writers – both new and experienced – think about when putting a character together.

ALAN: That’s clever. I’d never thought of approaching it that way. I think I sort of assumed that successful story tellers had characters just walk into their fingertips and then drop straight out on to the page. It was a bit frustrating that it didn’t work like that for me.

JANE: Well, sometimes they do just appear – and start running the show.  However, not every character does.  I want to clarify something.  I’m not saying that all your characters need to be copies of people you actually know.  Far from it!  However, I do think you should have the same sort of “gut feeling” for your characters that you would about a casual acquaintance.

Now, mind you, I’m not saying that all this needs to come out on the page, but sometimes knowing these little things about a character helps give them more dimension.

ALAN: Thank you – that’s given me a lot to think about. Meanwhile, from hints that Lyn has dropped, I think the next few meetings of the group will be concentrating on how to make a place seem real. I’ll let you know how it goes.

JANE: That would be delightful.  Maybe in a few months we can pick up this theme again.  Meantime, I wonder if our readers have anything to add about their experiences with fiction writing or in writing groups.  (We had a little last week, but I’m inviting more!)