on characterisation and sin

hello?

is anybody here?

anybody at all? seems like we might be alone in here today, which is good because i really wanted to get a few ideas on characterisation down on paper, so to speak. and now while there are no distractions will be a good--

Characterisation? What are you on about, Dave?

oh. it's you.

Good to see you, too. What's happening?

nothing. i was just finishing up. on my way out of here. got to get to my draft, you know.

The Shadow Without. Yes, I know. The one where Kelsey may, or may not, sing.

that's it. anyway, been good to chat to you.

And what about this characterisation business?

it's nothing. it can wait till another day--

You've forgotten, haven't you? You can't remember what you were going to say?

of course i remember what i was going to say!

Well, go on, say it!

no! you'll mess it up. trivialise it, or take me off topic and it will all look a bit half ar... half done.

Come on, Dave. I promise I won't ask about Kelsey's singing anymore.

or try to get me to ask her for a date?

Won't even think about it!

all right then, but any stupid comments and i'm out of here.

Cool!

okay, so it's important to know your characters. that's a given and it's a standard line in any of the texts on writing, but i mention it because it is really important. if you are a writer like me who doesn't plan too much, who doesn't plot too much, preferring to let the characters tell me the story then it is even more important.

Got it.

if we go back to the last example where we were talking about Kelsey singing then i need to know more than if she sings or not. when i go through my edits i need to be able to pick whenever Kelsey is acting out of character--

And how can you tell?

let me stick with the singing bit. i need to know not just if Kelsey can sing, i need to know what she sings, and when she sings. is she likely to burst into song in the shower or on a fine sunny day? does the sight of a grand piano send her off into operatic solo? is she want to break out into some Ella Fitzgerald number? or is she a modern girl into trash metal? or the the less than mainstream of a PJ Harvey or such? now i happen to like this girl and i happen to be rather fond of PJ too, so Kel is probably going to like her too. there's another thing, i need to know what Kelsey thinks when somebody calls her Kel--

What does it matter what you call her, or what music she likes?

i was getting to that. it is that acting out of character bit. Kelsey has to be Kelsey all the time. if she is the type that would smack you for calling her Kel, and instead she hears the name and goes weak at the knees, then she's acting out of character.

I bet she'd go weak at the knees if I whispered Kel in her ear!

stop it. we've finally started to get to the mechanics of writing.

Okay, so Kelsey starts to act out of character. What does it matter? You've already said you let the characters tell you the story, what if she likes acting out of character?

that's the crux of it really. people don't act out of character. not unless they are really, really stressed. they might show behaviour that you haven't seen before but even a changed behaviour has to be within character.

You're losing me, buddy.

i wish.

Huh?

let me put it like this. if Kelsey is straight, and she is. she's in a relationship with Jetta's best friend, so i can't just have her going off on a lesbian affair.

You can't? Bummer.

well, i can but i would need to put some clues that this is possible in her characterisation prior to her going off with the busty blonde.

Why put it in the characterisation rather than the book?

haha, good joke.

Thanks, I do try. What is it that acting out of character does? Why is it so bad?

it's one of those things that causes readers to turn off. to jump out of the story, or more probably, be kicked out of the story, land back in the chair and ask 'What happened there?' anything that causes the reader to stop and shake their head and ask that question is bad. the hardest task for the writer is to capture the readers attention. to lose it is perhaps the biggest sin.

Lesbian affairs with busty blondes. How's that supposed to make me lose attention? Where's my copy of your book?

i didn't say that's in the--

Man, can you keep it down? I'm trying to get some reading done in here!

of singing, and knowing your characters

Hey!

hey, indeed...

It's been some time, Dave.

has it? seems like yesterday.

Yesterday? No way! I've been waiting ages. AGES! For you to come back in here...

i popped in last monday. i don't think that qualifies as ages ago.

Not to you, Dave, but to the rest of us who are waiting for your next words of wisdom it seems like forever!

now you're being silly. there's no one else here--

What? You are never here! How can you tell how many people are here? Or how many have been here? Waiting?

waiting for what?

You tell me! You're the one who keeps us waiting!

i don't keep you waiting. i don't keep anyone waiting. i just pass through. i just write through. remember? on my way to my draft?

Yes. Yes, of your book, The Shadow Without. Of course, I remember, it's just that...

what?

No, you'll think I'm stupid!

why would i think you're *ahem* stupid?

Because you don't answer our questions!

our questions?

You're laughing at me now, aren't you?

no.

You are!

no. i am not. i am concerned that you spend too much time in my blog, but i am not laughing at you.

Really?

truly.

Then you'll answer our questions?

yes, i'll answer your questions. except...

Except?

except there is the problem that there is only you in here with me. so this our bit is kind of disconcerting...

Oh, don't worry! I'll just ask the questions for the others.

there are NO others! i don't think i can do this...

Sure you can. And don't worry about the others. I don't see them either.

i'd close my eyes, but i can't type that way. and it wouldn't help because there are no--

Look, Dave, I won't mention them again. Serious.

serious? glad you mentioned it. i have to be going, i must get to my draft--

Of The Shadow Without? Fantastic, Dave. Glad you bought it up. See, I've been thinking about the characters in your book.

you have?

Sure I have! And I mean't to ask, do any of them sing?

what?

Do any of them sing? Like Kelsey? Fine girl that one. I bet she has a fine voice, doesn't she?

possibly...

Possibly? What do you mean? You don't know?

actually, i do know. i am just puzzled by your question. why do you ask?

Well, while I was waiting, you know, for all of those ages, I didn't really have much to do so I read that quote from DH Lawrence that you say 'sings to you' and I wondered if your characters sing?

that's not a bad question. now you've got me wondering if there is anyone else in here.

There isn't now! They've all left. Got sick of waiting for you--

*sigh* why do i bother...

To tell me.

to tell you what?

To tell me if any of your characters sing!

yes.

Yes, what?

yes, my characters sing.

Do they? How do you know?

they are my characters!

So Kelsey DOES sing! On what page?

i didn't say she sings in the book.

If she doesn't sing in the book, how do you know she can sing?

because, and watch my lips, s--

I can't see your lips!

then watch my fingers. on the keyboard. she is my character. i know everything about her. all that she has done. all that she wants to do. all that she desires, everybody she desires. that's what being an author is about. understanding your characters. so, yes, i know she can sing.

You know everything she does?

everything.

And everything she thinks?

of course.

So, you'd be able to ask her for a date?

yes, i could ask her out on a date.

Not with you, Dave. With me!

stop! you're asking me if Kelsey can sing?

That's right.

and you're asking me if she can go out on a date?

Thats right.

with you?

Fantastic, Dave. Do it please!

sorry, buddy. i don't know anything about you.

Oh, come on! We're old friends now!

can't do. not with Kelsey.

Please! I'm begging you, Dave.

sorry, buddy, can't hear you.

Just one date!

just passing through, buddy. just writing through...

of rules; the breaking thereof...

right! today there will be no comments on capital letters, prologues and people dying. got it?

What about pasta?

no pasta either.

No Pasta? What are we going to eat then, Dave?

haha, good joke, very funny...

I do my best. Today I want to ask you about the writing process.

you do?

Oh, so now you're the comedian! I shouldn't have to tell you that visual jokes don't work in a blog, Dave, so pretending to fall over in shock is not going to generate any laughs.

but i was shocked. you really want to talk about the writing process?

Certainly do. These characters in The Shadow Without, Jetta Coorain and his mate Samuel Robinson and Kelsey Prant; how do you think them up?

well, i'm not sure about other writers but i just listen to them.

Listen to them? Like voices in your head?

yeah, something like that. i get little snippets of dialogue from them, just bits and pieces. then the other characters start to interact, like answer back, that kind of thing. and the more dialogue i hear, the more answering back i hear and the more fleshed out the characters become. soon i hear most of a chapter, just the critical moments, but enough to sketch out the scenes.

You're hearing and you're sketching, so where does the writing come into it?

when i have enough detail i just sit at the keyboard and let the characters do their stuff. so in the opening chapter, Jetta walks into the cafe and the cook tries to kill him. that's what i started with, i sketched it out and wrote it up--

And then?

then i asked Jetta why the cook was trying to kill him.

You mentioned that death, not me! I didn't break the rules, okay? Look, I've read that first chapter--

what a surprise...

--and Jetta eventually works out that his grandfather is trying to contact him via the Song Stones but it is the stones themselves that have led the demon Molongo directly to him. Are you saying this is what Jetta told you? After you sketched him out?

that's what i am saying.

You're not bipolar by any chance are you?

not that i know, why?

No reason, really. Just that sometimes you kind of flip out, don't you?

flip out? no, not at all. i simply use all the tools at my disposal, without prejudice, to create the best stories i can. i believe The Shadow Without is one of them.

Even though you ripped the story off one of your own characters?

and you call me bipolar...

on being God...

How many people have you killed since we last spoke, Dave?

what the! oh... hello...

One? Two? Ten?

i'm not sure what you mean.

Come on, Dave, how many people have you killed since we were last here together?

umm, i don't know. was i supposed to kill somebody?

Sure you were! It's what writers do all the time. You get us interested in somebody, then you kill them off.

we do?

Don't get all coy on me. Of course you do! Tell me how many people die in the first chapter of your book, The Shadow Without?

hang on, that's different! that's setting scene. that's making the bad guy bad. that's--

How many?

a couple. i guess...

You guess?

well, it depends if you include the prologue...

How many die in the prologue?

i'm not sure. maybe twenty or thirty...

TWENTY OR THIRTY? Bloody hell, Dave, you've gone all mass murder on me!

that's ridiculous! it is a mining tragedy. the people die in a mining disaster. it's not murder.

Sure it is!

no, it isn't.

It is, and I'll prove it.

fine. prove away!

Drop the Prologue.

what?

Drop it. Or have the miners saved at the last minute. Don't collapse the tunnel on them.

the tunnel doesn't collapse on them!

Then how do they die?

it's a poisonous gas thing...

Murderer!

it's not murder, it's a tragic mining accident. bloody hell, it's based on a real life tragedy at Mt Isa where miners were poisoned in a terrible accident!

So, change history. Don't let those poor buggers die!

i can't change history! even though The Shadow Without is fiction, i want it to be based in some historical fact.

Why?

it adds to the relevance of the story. it grounds the abstract and the fanciful in a little bit of reality.

By killing people?

no, not by killing people! by using historical events, real tragedy as a base for actual fiction.

I say it again. Drop the prologue and stop killing people.

why do you do this? why do you come in here and annoy me with this kind of inane chatter?

Why do you kill people, Dave?

i don't kill people!

You writers are all the same! You have this corrupted kind of God complex. You create life just to take it away!

oh, for crying out loud! i'll drop the bloody prologue altogether! as long as it stops your whining!

Thank you, Dave, but...

but?

I am still worried about that first chapter...

what? what about the first chapter?

Those two people who die in it? Do they really have to die?

of over-cooked pasta and ideas that won't hold shape

Hey, Dave, good to see you back!

oh, it's you...

Yeah, I was just sitting in here wondering why you changed your blog description from 'These are the thoughts and musings...' to 'ideas and musings'?

really?

Uh, huh.

well, i wanted to make it closer to what i intended in the first place. see, thoughts and musings are a little too close in a literal definition but i had wanted to make a distinction between idle thought and actual method and i think the combination of ideas and musings gets that across better.

So you were editing your blog. I thought you'd only do that to your book?

only to my book? i wish. you see writing is about editing as much as creating the story. well, it is for me. ideas come to me easily enough, i don't have to look too far inside to get whole swags of things to write about, but they come to me in a very soft and pliable form. perhaps pliable is not even right; it's still probably too firm a word. my ideas come to me like over-cooked pasta. they squirm like worms within a bowl as i pick them up to taste their usefulness and drip and run from my fingers like watery sauce spread too thin over the same pasta. so i edit and edit again. some of my ideas hold their shape and succeed and others fall back into the bowl to remain simply as pasta. make sense?

I think so, yes. You edit your work and have a thing about pasta and pasta bowls.

*sighs* what are you doing in here, anyway?

I've been waiting for you to tell me more about this story of yours, The Shadow Without.

like what?

Like how this character, this Jetta Coorain, how he saves the new President's life.

you want to know all that without reading the book?

Go on, Dave. It's not too much to ask.

all right, but just this once. Jetta's grandfather is alerted to the presidents' danger and being an old man, has to enlist Jetta's help to save the Pres. and the bad guy finds out that Jetta's grandfather has found out and sets out to have both he and Jetta killed. so, of courses at some stage, Jetta will be faced with having to save either his grandfather or the president, perhaps the most powerful man in the free world...

Cool! Who's he choose?

remember what i said about reading the book?

Oh, come on, Dave! What if you edit that bit out of the story? Then I'll never know!

true. it could happen that way, then you'd have to make the decision yourself...

Myself? Who's writing this thing? Me or you?

me, hopefully. if i edit it out in this book, then i'll put it in the next book for you.

Thanks, you're a great help. At least I know the hero survives!

true, again. and that is the nature of heroes, but at what personal cost?

Personal cost? How much is this book going to cost me?

not you. the hero.

Oh, yeah. I get it. Who else dies?

no more. i'm just passing through on my way to my edits...

On your way to kill off someone, I bet!

on not being confusing...

Hi, Dave, good to be back here!

oh, it's you again.

So, you were telling me about your novel, The Shadow Without, and how it's not confusing...

was i?

Yeah, kind of like off the air...

off the air? we're not a radio station!

I know that, Dave. Between posts then! You were telling me about your book between posts.

no, i wasn't.

I know you weren't! We're just pretending, it's a figure of speech, it's like--

and you tell me my work is confusing...

Forget it! I never mentioned it!

good!

So, this book of yours, Dave, it's about a Shadow?

yes

A shadow that is without something?

yes

And you're not going to get all confusing on me?

no! it's not confusing

It's about a shadow and what?

the shadows are minor players. it's really about a man that has some different kinds of powers who happens to be the only person who can save the new president of the united states from being killed on a visit to aussie.

Dave, I don't want to get personal, but do you have a problem with capital letters?

that's a silly question. this is the net, this is a blog, it's not a book. any more silly questions and i'm outta here...

Okay, Dave. Relax a bit. These special powers, what are they, and why does this character have them? And who is he anyway?

that's better! Jetta Coorain is his name. he can talk to some animals, and understand what they say, a bit like Doctor Doolittle, I guess. and he can move with preternatural speed, like one of Anne Rice's vampires...

Hey! You just used capitals--

don't!

Didn't cross my mind. Back to these special powers, how are they possible?

Jetta's grandfather participated in some pretty heavy alchemical experiments that left his descendents with some 'out there' kind of mutations.

Yeah? What kind of experiments? What other mutations?

sorry, you'll have to read the book...

What's the President of the United States got to do with the story?

he's the target the bad guy is after.

When you write about the President, you do use capitals, right?

last chance, buddy!

Okay, okay... so, why the President?

because the bad guy is interested in the power attached to the man, not necessarily the man himself.

What if Hilary wins the election? She's not a man. Is that going to ruin the story?

not really. it'll just be her life that is under threat in the book.

Interesting. Look, it's killing me. I have to ask. Do you use ANY capitals in The Shadow Without?

that's it. i'm outta here...

of blog titles and things...

Well, thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Dave.

pleasure. what would you like to talk about?

I'm thinking the title of this blog for a start. What's that all about?

you mean, A man writes through?

That'd be it, Dave.

i guess it is just my take on the ephemeral nature of blogs.

So, you think blogs are short-lived, or is this a comment on the whole of the blogger world?

no, i don't think blogs are fleeting or short-lived but i wonder about the web-surfing culture or phenomenon. it is the casual reader who is the transitory element here...

Ah, this is a site for men then, transient men, to surf through?

what? why should it be restricted to men?

You tell me, Dave, it's your blog name!

the title refers to me. i will pass through on my way to my novel draft. well, i won't passs through, i will write a bit while i'm here, so i will write through. oh, and by the way, i'm a man. a man writes through. get it?

Oh, you could have been a bit clearer, couldn't you?

i didn't ask you to stop in here, mate! any other questions before i leave?

Um, this book you're writing, The Shadow Without, it's not as confusing, is it?