Game of Characters

In my last three blog posts, we discussed Building Character: How to Bring People (and Aliens) to Life Through Words. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here. This month, I thought I’d share a characterization game my daughter and I used to play. 

A few years back my daughter (now 20) came to me with a list of Disney princess movies she used to watch over and over when she was younger, and asked me to list my favorite princesses in order from most favorite to least favorite. What my writer brain heard was, "Which heroines do you like the best and why?" We each put them in our desired order and then shared and discussed our lists. Then we did the same for the Disney heroes, the Disney villains--which was an interesting discussion about what makes a villain enjoyable to watch--and then she surprised me with wanting to list the sidekicks in order. 

Hmm...first we had to decide who the sidekicks were. Disney movies tend to have a bunch of them. For example in The Little Mermaid, Ariel has Flounder, Scuttle (the seagull), and Sebastian the crab. This got us into a fun conversation about sidekick characters and mentor characters. The writer in me was totally geeking out! After explaining what a mentor was, we decided that Flounder was Ariel's friend-sidekick and Sebastian was her mentor-sidekick. In Cinderella, Jacques and Gus are Cinderella's sidekicks while Fairy Godmother is her mentor.

This game was fun for a number of reasons. The writer in me enjoyed talking about what made good heroes, heroines, villains, and sidekicks. The mom in me enjoyed learning more about my daughter and why she liked certain characters over others.

I challenge you to play this game at home with your family or maybe with your writer friends. You don’t have to use Disney princesses. Why not make a list of 8-10 starship captains? For example, in no particular order…

James T. Kirk (Star Trek)
Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager)
Han Solo (Star Wars)
Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly)
Peter Quill aka Star-Lord (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Lone Starr (Spaceballs)
The Doctor (Doctor Who)

The catch is that you cannot simply list the characters in the order you like best. That's too easy. You must discuss the reason WHY you chose one over another. You'll learn more about each other, plus, if you're a writer, it's a fun way to discuss something you love--characterization--without boring your family.

So who was my favorite Disney heroine? Well, it was a toss up between my two favorites: Beauty and the Beast's Belle and Mulan. Belle is adventurous. She sacrifices herself to save her father (very heroic). She stands up to the beast (a pretty kick-butt thing to do). And she loves to read!

Mulan is not a princess. She's better. She's the hero of China! She pretends to be a man to save her elderly father from going to war (again heroic). She trains hard in the martial arts and fights the Huns (very kick-butt). She uses her wits to solve problems (smart heroines are awesome).

But there can only be one winner. I chose Belle over Mulan because, like me, she loves books. :)

Who was last on my list?

Snow White - a woman happy to cook and clean for seven men. Is she crazy? I can't relate.

If you'd like to play this game in the comments section, these are the nine Disney "Princess" movies we used: Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Tangled.

Or play using the starship captains named above.

Or feel free to make your own list and tell us about it in the comments. 

 

Stay safe out there,

~K.M. Fawcett

Author and Martial Artist

www.kmfawcett.com

Working with your characters

 

One of the nice things about writing is you connect with your characters. They become very real – and that has to happen so you can write their stories in a convincing manner. You'll often hear writers complaining because their stories have stalled. They want to write a scene but the characters aren't having any. They stand there with their arms folded and refuse to go where you want them to go. Or your characters take over and heads in a completely different, totally unanticipated direction.

It's happened to me. Of course it has. When I was writing Morgan's Return, the sequel to Morgan's Choice, Morgan's original mentor, Admiral Makasa, played an important secondary role. I felt it was important that he was more than a cardboard cut-out, a two-dimensional figure in a Fleet uniform, so after much intense navel-gazing, I added a scene of Makasa with his grandson.

The little boy dangled in the harness, chortling with laughter. "Do it again, Padra, do it again!" Smiling, Makasa sent the toy ship whizzing around the yard again, low over the bushes, zooming over the pool, tilting down the garden paths, while all the while young Obra crowed with glee, his chubby little hands tight on the crash bars.

Makasa's daughter laid a delicate hand on her father's shoulder. "Father, he'll be sick."

Makasa zoomed the toy fighter around a clump of rushes. "Nonsense. He's loving it. He's a natural born fighter pilot."

Her lips taut with disapproval, she said, "Long before that he'll be a sick little boy. Anyway, I'm to tell you there's a message for you. From work."

His hands faltered on the controls. Work? They knew better than to interrupt him on his day off. "Tell them I'll call later. Who was it?"

The interesting thing is that later in the story this scene gave me an important hook to explain something Makasa does. I had no idea that was going to happen – but the subconscious mind is a remarkable creator.

I've found the best way to get out of story binds is to talk to your characters, especially when they're in that arms folded, stubborn mood.

"You don't want to do that?" I ask.

Character shakes head.

"Any reason?"

Shrug. (But I get the idea it's not something she's comfortable with.)

"Okay. What do you want to do?"

At this point, you relax and chill, letting your mind drift in neutral. Eventually, your character will talk to you, maybe throw up suggestions, alternatives.

And sometimes it's the other way around. You write a character's story and you find you want to know more. I'd written Morgan's backstory, how she became a Supertech, before I wrote Morgan's Choice. (It's called Supertech, a longish short story)And Supertech became the lead-in to Morgan's Choice.

I also knew a certain amount about Admiral Ravindra – his background and what made him a little bit different to other Manesai admirals. One of those things was, that against all custom in his social class, he had a tattoo. But when I wrote the book, I didn't know how he acquired that tattoo. And I began to wonder. What would make the son of a dynasty of admirals make the mistake of having a tattoo? Tattoos were common in the lower ranks, but disdained by officers.

 

So, I wrote that story. It's called Ink – how and why Ashkar Ravindra acquired a tattoo.

I actually think it's one of the best stories I've written. It's not a romance but it gives an insight into Admiral Ravindra.

You'll find all the Morgan Selwood stories - including Ink and Supertech, on the series page.