Character Qualities #3

What can you tell about a person by the hat they’re wearing? Is it possible to base an opinion on someone’s character or personality because they’re wearing a hat or not? My manuscripts take place in the mid to late 1800s, a time when hats were seen on almost every head. Women wore bonnets and fancy hats, some with elaborate decorations. Men wore Stetsons, top hats, bowlers.

Today hats aren’t as popular. Some people never leave home without one, others don’t own one. A few wouldn’t be caught dead wearing one.

As a writer, I may see someone in town and decide that I need a character like that person. In those cases, I know nothing about them but what I saw. Maybe a man with a bushy mustache that bows on the sides until it touches his chin or a little girl with white ringlets and sparkling eyes.

It’s easy to do because those details stand out. But what about a group of men standing around talking among themselves? Let’s say there are ten of them, teenaged to seventy. Two are bare headed, one has a bandanna wrapped around his head, three are wearing baseball caps, one has on a stocking cap and the other three are wearing Stetsons.

I know what I’m going to think when I see them, based solely on their headgear. If you’ve been reading my blog posts, you have a good idea of which ones I’m going to look at and think hero material. Those Stetsons are going to get it every time.

But that’s because my heroes have always been cowboys. You can expect every one of my manuscripts to have a main character in a Stetson. And he isn’t wearing it because it’s part of his clothing, or because he wants to keep the sun off his face. He sure isn’t going to put it on to look cool. He wears it because it’s part of who he is. It’s as much a part of him as his hair.

Now that’s making assumptions about someone’s personality based solely on his hat or lack of one. I can’t know if one of those men got his Stetson from a machine in the store, right before he walked outside (but I can guess if he’s wearing flip flops with it), or if he’s wearing it because his son gave it to him and cried because he wouldn’t wear it.

So yes, I’m guilty of making assumptions based on hats. There are some I don’t notice, others I dislike, and a select few that will catch my attention every time. Blame it on my grandpa. I can’t remember him leaving home without a Stetson. And he never wore anything but cowboy boots. He was my first hero.

Which hat draws your attention?

Character Qualities #2

My last post got me to thinking about character qualities, not just in my manuscripts but in real life. What makes a person the way they are? Can we tell someone’s personality by what they wear? Because I’m pondering these things I’m going to focus my blog posts this week on this topic.

Before I get too deeply into this I want to remind myself, if no one else, that Matthew 7:1 tells us Judge not, that ye be not judged. I am not in any way judging anyone with this post or any others like it.

As a writer I have simply found myself looking at things a bit differently. Seeing people in ways I didn’t used to. I also have to know my characters as well as I know myself. To do this it helps to notice how certain people act.

If I have a persnickety character, one that nitpicks about everything, complains about others, it helps if I can remember someone with that type of personality. My heroine in my work in progress is a strong woman whose fiancé refers to as a feisty handful, at best. She’s mouthy, she throws things when she’s angry, and she’s loyal to a fault.

Everyone has their traits that may be good or bad, usually both. Depending on who’s describing us we can come out as lovable and loyal or a pain in the backside that isn’t worth giving the time of day to. Hopefully, we get the first description a lot more than the second.

Now we are all guilty of judging others in one way or another at some time. It simply can’t be helped. We do it. Should we? No, but it happens. Writers are a bit different in this regard. We get to create whole people. Their past, their future, their everything is in our hands. Even whether they live or die.

I’m what’s known as a pantster in the writing world. I write as I go. I don’t plan my manuscripts. Occasionally I will ponder a few things for my work in progress, try to figure out if my character should or should not do something, but even then most times I wind up just typing and letting the story go where it wants. As a result my characters take shape as I work. They tell me who they are instead of me telling them.

But what makes them who they are? Can you tell what a person is like by watching them?

Character Qualities

I’ve heard it said that writers are different. We see things in a way most people don’t. One of the Ten Commandments for Authors is thou shall not be kind to your characters. I struggle with that one sometimes. After all, I like most of my characters. In real life, we’d never think of sending someone sailing off a cliff, shooting them in the leg, or turning an angry bull on them, but that’s what we writers do on a daily basis. And it’s only one example of how different we are.

Artists study faces and scenes to pick up on the little details they want to create. My sister loved drawing from the time she was small. She notices the tiniest details about things. Writing is kind of like that. I never would have thought so until I became a writer.

Now I notice things I never saw before, think of things in ways I never would have considered before I wrote that first manuscript. Hand me a rose and I see what everyone else sees but I also look deeper. To recreate that flower in a story I need to be able to show my reader what I’m seeing. What does it look like? Feel like? Smell like? What is the exact shade of its color?

In the last week I’ve been given a couple of wonderful opportunities to practice those newfound skills. In two very different ways.

 The first chance came when I was presented with a group of men. Now these weren’t just any men. Every last one of them had the potential to make it into one of my manuscripts, either as a hero or as a secondary character. I easily picked out the secondary characters, not giving them all that much attention, after all those characters are pretty easy to write into a story. And they can look any way you want, act in pretty much any manner. But the heroes? Now they have to be the stuff dreams are made of.

No matter their build or height, they have to be strong and morally upright. They have to respect others, love the Lord, and care for women and children. And standing before me was a couple of perfect examples.

So I did what any writer would, right? I studied them. Watched their mannerisms, the way they interacted with others. Put together personalities based on what I saw in a short amount of time. One was a loner, stayed on the edge of the group, strong, silent and intriguing. The other one a confident man that neither seeks attention nor turns away from it.

Was I right in my assessment of these men? Who knows? I did not know them, don’t even know their names.

As for that other chance to pick up on things that most people wouldn’t pay more than a passing fancy to…people are like spices. I overheard a conversation on this very topic. And guess what? Those women were right. Some people are salt, others cayenne pepper.

My daughter and I ran through our family members matching their personalities to spices. Mild, easy going people got labeled as salt. Headstrong, hard to handle people became cayenne pepper. The ones in the middle became garlic powder, lemon zest, and dill.

Which spice are you? Which one do you think I am?

You Know You're a Writer When...

You know you’re a writer when…

You spend the last of Mother’s Day thinking of your work in progress and planning the demise of your heroine’s mother.

Yes, I really did that. After coming home from church, no less. My manuscript started running a bit slow and I needed something to spice it up. Nothing like a death to do that. So I was running through my list of non-essential characters. Do I kill off the ten year old kid? Nope, I draw the line at making children die. Just can’t do it. That leaves…the ranch foreman, some unknown or little known person, or my heroine’s mother.

Perfect.

The woman was fun to write. A little loopy. Okay… she’s a lot loopy, but she added humor and depth to the story. But, hey, she’s not essential and I needed something to make my story move. So, bye-bye Mama.

Now I’m working on a funeral. Not my favorite scene to write but not as hard as weddings. For some reason writing weddings is difficult for me. I struggle through every word of a wedding scene. Not a good thing when 90% of my couples are married or get married by the middle of the book.

How did you spend your final hours of Mother’s Day?

What a Week!

What a week!

If you’ve been following along, you know that my daughter and I double semi-finaled in the ACFW Genesis contest on Monday. That has kept us busy thinking and learning this week. Then this morning I woke up to discover I was one of the winners of the Seekerville blog’s Perfect Pitch contest. The prize? My proposal will be read by a Literary Agent.

To say my head is spinning right now is an understatement. As a relatively new author, I have read lots of blogs and comments that say things move slowly, expect lots of refusals. I was ready for that. I entered the Genesis for the chance to get feedback, not expecting anything else. And that was enough. I just wanted to know if my writing was good enough to warrant all the time I’ve been putting into it. I guess I got my answer with that double semi-final. And now, winning the Perfect Pitch on the heels of the Genesis.

I can honestly say the manuscript that won this latest contest was one I didn’t plan on entering in a contest. I had every intention of writing a different story when I started it but I woke up one morning with these characters in my head. I knew their names and their history but little else until I sat down at the computer. Their story unfolded, word by word, day by day, in two weeks. And I fell Stetson over spurs in love with my characters and their story.

When it came time to enter the Perfect Pitch their story went in because it was the only finished manuscript I had that wasn’t entered in the Genesis. It was a simple case of process of elimination. I had nothing else I could enter. And look where the manuscript I never planned to write got me.

As for that other story…the one I’d planned to write? Well, it’s still waiting for its turn.

How do you choose which story running through your head makes it onto your computer? And were you ever glad you changed your planned work in progress?

The Call

Today was the day.

For those of you entered in ACFW’s Genesis contest, you know what that means. For those that don’t…it was the day we found out who made the semi-finals. I started this day fine. No nerves. No worries. Just a calm acceptance that whatever happens, happens.

Then the phone rang.

And I jumped. My heart slammed into my throat. This was it. Only it wasn’t. My sister’s face greeted me when I picked up the phone. So much for calm and accepting. After I completed that call I went back to working on my work in progress, a bit more nervous than I had been.

A couple hours later the phone rang again. Same reaction. I jumped to answer it, my heart firmly lodged somewhere between my tonsils and my eyeballs. An unknown number greeted me this time. With a swipe of my thumb on the screen, I chunked my calm acceptance out the window.

The woman on the other end asked for me by name.

And I knew.

This really was it. It was what I’ve seen referred to as the call. Now I know why. My hands started shaking and my knees threatened to revolt. I heard the words I’ve been waiting months for. One of our manuscripts made the semi-finals.

Nine minutes later, I repeated the process. Two out of three manuscripts made it. Four more to go. But the phone refused to ring again. Then the official email with a link to the list of semi-finalists came through. No more need to jump when the phone rang.

We made it in two categories. The other four did not. Funny how a person can be excited and disappointed at the same time. Those four manuscripts were the ones I had pinned my hopes on. One of them was the original entry in the contest, and the instigator behind getting me in the whole thing. The other three were put in because we could, not because they were the ones we thought might make it. Yet, two of them did.

Now we get to play the waiting game again. Then will come the possibility for another call…or two. And in the meantime, I’ll go back to my work in progress. Keep clicking at the keys.

My most heartfelt congratulations to everyone that sat by the phone today and got the call. From one wanna-be-published author to another, I wish you the best of luck.