layering
December 2, 1998
6:51 a.m.
Sometimes characters come to you like they do in real life. You know what I mean? You meet someone, and you talk to them. You learn a little about them--where they live maybe, or where they work. Then a little later you find out they're married and either have kids or don't. You might find out where they went to school, and where they were born. Another conversation shows you a few personal events, things that begin to really define the person and let you start to understand how they work and how they think. I'm thinking of this as layering. It's on my mind right now because I'm in the process of layering a story. I "finished" the first draft yesterday morning (although the ending was pretty scketchy), and then went back over the first half this morning. The first pass was the story. Bare bones. This happens, the characters feel this way. This results. Now the people are coming through, and I'm really enjoying them. I've learned more about who they are. I like some of them better, hate at least one of them more, and have sympathy for each in their own way. When I was at the Writers ot the Future week, I gave someone a critique that was something like "Great story, but I want to see you give the main character a little more respect." This is what I meant. Mike Resnick says that his characters always do exactly what he tells them to do. And I agree with him. My characters do what they need to do to make the story work, otherwise, I have to come up with a new character or make a substantial change to the story. But sometimes, for me, the story arrives before the characters and then I have to have patience. I have to take time to talk to my characters, to get to know them so that I can treat them with respect on the written page. Some characters just have to breathe. And I think a good writer, a storyteller, finds a way to let them.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"He enjoyed long stretches of pure delight such as only a seaman may know, and moments of high, proud exultation that only a discoverer can experience" Samuel Eliot Morison on Christopher Columbus |
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