Tag: character

What Makes a Heroine?

May 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

 

 

   A lone woman alit from the caboose of an early morning freight train.  She stood, silhouetted against the pale dawn, a tumble of black curls cascading down her back, a shabby valise crumpled at her feet.  She was the kind of woman who drew men to her like foxes to a vixen.  Yet, when they looked into her eyes, they averted their gaze and slunk away.  She saw too much, this ripe, fecund female; saw the hunger in their bellies, the lust in their loins and the evil in their souls.  In her charms were both rapture and damnation.  Few men would risk their souls to claim the promise of her full hips and overflowing breasts.

   Exiting the school house Kirsten Swendsen narrowed her eyes to study the stranger who looked so at home in Glenrose, Saskatchewan. As the truth dawned, animosity shattered her schoolmarm serenity. Runaway, adulteress, unfit mother, indecent, wanton . . . the list of Kathleen Walden’s sins filled many a gossip’s chatter. Kirsten had no doubt the woman at the train station was Kathleen, come back to damage the lives of her children and husband again. Rage jolted along her veins. Without weighing the consequences, she stepped into her gig and turned the horse for Walden farm.  

 

   Here is the question. Which woman should be the heroine of this book? Kathleen has lots of baggage from a previous novel. Can a woman who has abandoned her children and disgraced her husband be convincingly rehabilitated so that the reader believes her wronged husband can love her again? 

  Kirsten is a schoolmarm in every sense of the word. Can an opinionated, rule-ridden, super-achiever be a romantic heroine? Can a man who has loved Kathleen love her antithesis?

  As a reader, which woman would you root for?

  All comments gratefully received.

Visits: 180

19 Things I learned from Laurie Schnebly and Zoom

September 30, 2020 / / 3 Comments

My writer’s group, VIRA, held an all day workshop on Sept. 19, 2020 with Laurie Schnebly. The day was planned a long time ago — before Covid-19.  Since then our border closed, so Laurie could not come in person. Instead, we did a virtual workshop using zoom.  Here’s what I learned about zoom workshops.

  1. Commuting from one room in my house to another room in my house is really quick and easy.
  2. Showing up for a workshop in jeans is really comfortable.
  3. Seeing people only on screen is lonely — especially when many of them turn off their video.
  4. There is virtually no conversation between participants.
  5. The “chat” feature is really useful for catching up on missed information.
  6. A full-day workshop, even at home, is tiring. My brain was reeling by the time we signed off.

So, that’s what I learned on the technical side. On the creative side, the workshop confirmed what I already knew. Laurie is a terrific teacher. Here are some highlights from the day.

  1. From “Putting the Joy Back in Writing” I learned I’m not alone in finding publication can steal the joy I felt when I first put pen to paper (literally, I’m that old.)
  2. Determining why I write, either for myself or for others can put me back on the “joy” track and away from the “have to” track.
  3. Letting go of the results of writing and focusing on the process of writing frees up creativity.
  4. I should re-read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. It is on my bookshelf.

 

From Braiding Your Book I picked up pointers on

  1. Genre Expectations and the need to fulfil those expectations for readers.
  2. Plot – it’s all about goals and conflict, with the love story added in for my genre.
  3. Plot has a shape — the writer must build hope, then dash those hopes and build them again.
  4. Character is the third strand in the braid. 
  5. A character’s origin (backstory) is an invaluable aid in figuring out who your character is and why (s)he acts as (s)he does.
  6. A character’s belief system is key.

 

From Blurbs & Promotion to Suit Your Personality I learned

  1. I’m not the only one who is really poor at promotion because I dislike it.
  2. Laurie’s background is in advertising so it’s not surprising she suggests a blurb is an ad.
  3. Seeing promotion as an advertisement for a product makes it less intimidating than seeing it as a judgement on my worth as a human being!

 

As you can tell, we had a very full day. I was exhausted from listening, I can’t imagine how Laurie kept up her enthusiasm and humour all the way to the end and then took questions.

As a bonus, she held a draw and I won free admission to one of her courses. With so many wonderful choices I had to wait over the weekend until my brain had returned to full function before I made my pick. In March I’ll be taking Plotting Via Motivation.  It’s one of the earliest courses on offer, so I can still take some of the later ones too. 

Visits: 890

Writing from Inside

September 14, 2016 / / 0 Comments

When I first joined a writer’s group, a common theme in the advice part of the meeting was keeping point of view pure.  By that I mean that stories were to be told by only one point of view character and everything that landed on the page had to be observable by that character.  We were to eschew omniscient author — therefore nothing like “it was the best of times it was the worst of times.”  “Head-hopping,” that is moving between one point of view character and another, was forbidden.  One analogy that was used to emphasize the purity of POV was to imagine the story unfolding before the author’s eyes like a movie.  If the author couldn’t see the event on the screen of her mind, neither could the POV character.

It was a useful analogy and one I’ve used myself, but like all “rules” in writing, it can be taken too far.  The biggest drawback, in my opinion, is that it turns the author and therefore the reader, into an observer rather than a participant.  The screen in my mind may allow me to see a brawl in the street, but I am distanced from it.  My character should be in there swinging.  He should feel the anger that provoked the fight, smell the sweat and fear on his opponent and struggle for breath when a blow hits him in the solar plexus.  He should also be involved emotionally.  Robots may engage in battle in modern movies, but for a story to grab me I want a real person, with real feelings.  I want to ache with him, dream with him and hope with him.  Watching him on a screen won’t do that.

Instead, I suggest the writer try to get inside her character.  You still only write what he can see and hear and touch and smell, but you also know how he feels.  I heard a female author of romance once talk about taking on a man’s pose as she sat in her chair.  She rubbed her chin as though she had whiskers, stuck her legs straight out in front of her, put her hands behind her head and leaned back — all actions she associated with men.  Then, when she felt herself inside a man’s skin, she’d write the scene from the hero’s point of view.  It’s an intriguing thought.  I’ve been watching a lot of baseball lately, so I see men scratching and spitting.  Don’t know if I’ll go that deep!

I’m writing western historical romance, so sometimes I’ll put on a long skirt and a buttoned up blouse and try walking about in it.  I don’t have a corset, but I can still experience the restricted movement such garments require, not to mention the stiff back.

Of course, some writers can get inside their characters without props, but if you’re having a hard time imagining the heart and soul of a medieval lady, try donning a wimple and see if that helps.

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