Guest Post: John Connors on Character Work
One of the clichés of writing fiction is that your characters become real but that is entirely true. Not literally real of course; that would be very strange, but in your story telling head. There comes a point during the process, especially if you’re writing a series of books featuring the same characters, when you start to feel different emotions on their behalf. So when it comes to them going on a long journey you feel obliged to make sure they take something to eat even though different people have different hunger thresholds. I remember my early story drafts were full of more serious injuries but a lot of these were cut when I’d got to know the characters better. When it comes to dispatching them I became even more possessive thinking of how others would react to such a moment.
On the other hand there is no story without jeopardy which is why no soap opera marriage survives and why you have to put your characters in grave peril. You want to make it easy for them yet they have to go through the mill and be changed by what happened.
In the case of my man character Tom Allenby he was once a sketched and vague sort of person. At the early stage I wasn’t even sure whether he’d be a boy or a girl but as I’d been a boy it seemed a better idea to draw on some of my experiences rather than imagine what a 13 year old girl might be thinking. After all that’s the last thing in the world a 13 year old boy knows. Tom grew from there.
One thing I was sure of was to try and avoid some of the clichés of children’s fiction. Normally the young hero or heroine is downtrodden, shy, bullied, lives in a shoe etc. In other words the story is one of triumph through adversity. So I thought what it would be like to flip that over and start with a boy who is happy, confident and from a secure background and gradually whittle that away. This starts in the second book when he is shocked by the deaths of a number of bystanders during one sequence about which he can do nothing. Later he is faced with a difficult moral dilemma regarding another character. I will test him more and more as the books go on and feel every development with him even though I could get him out it by changing the plot.
In terms of thinking of characters I have avoided using anyone I know personally but some of them come from interesting sources. Lord Pennington in the first book for example is based on the character Sir George Uproar from a 1970s show The Ghosts of Motley Hall. In the second I imagined that Arthur Tyler was being played by Idris Elba. Actually this sort of imaginary casting works quite well as it keeps in mind the appearance of a character and makes them more real in your head. In the first book I always thought of Brenda Fricker playing Mrs. Barkley.
I think the point is that you have to do what you feel will help you arrive at some consistency. Holding the strands
of an entire novel in your head is a difficult thing to do so any shortcut you can use to assist you is surely worthwhile. I’m sure even the greatest writers based memorable characters on someone real.
Title: Living Things (Heart of the World Book 2)
Author: John Connors
Mixing myth and adventure, fantasy and realism, Living Things is the exciting sequel to Elemental and the second volume of the Heart of the World series following the adventures of Tom Allenby whose destiny is to defend the world in the place around which all of the planet’s elemental energy flows.Tom Allenby’s second incredible adventure in the village of Rooksbourne begins when he discovers that a girl called Ellie appears to share his powers of controlling the elements- but is she a friend or a threat?
What has happened to all the birds and animals in the woods?
Who is the mysterious figure dressed in a cloak of leaves?
What power is causing violent incidents to occur at Harrow Hill School?
As the truth unfolds, Tom and his friends battle a newly awoken enemy that wants to wipe out all humanity.
About the Author
John Connors was born and lives in Liverpool and Elemental is his first novel. However it has been written several times so there is now no longer a talking worm! It is the first in a series of books called Heart of the World. For more information on Elemental and forthcoming books go to www.heartoftheworldbooks.co.uk.
In real life, he works for an IT related company in management information statistics. He also gardens at the weekend. He has written a lot of reviews and articles for amateur fanzines as well as editing his own, the latest of which can be found at www.thiswayupzine.blogspot.com
The triumph over adversity angle can be a very powerful, rich creative ground. Nothing gets a reader emotionally invested faster than a kid living in a shoe – it’s just a fact of life. But what Mr. Connors did also holds great potential. In the end, the writing itself is the deciding factor that either clinches the deal or doesn’t – this too is a fact of life 🙂 Great post!
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