Panel Discussion - Releasing Your Emotional Investment

This is the last discussion in my series of panel questions.  It is an interesting one for authors.  With all the emotional investment an author pours into character’s soul, how do you manage to release yourself from that bond?

J.M. Pierce:

Having a full time job with a wife and two kids forces me to write after everyone has gone to bed. As I write, I definitely get wrapped up in my character’s emotions and then when I call it a day, it can be difficult to disconnect myself from those emotions. If I’m excited I’ll typically have a beer and watch a little bit of T.V. to settle down. If I’m sad or troubled, I will go into my kids’ rooms and sit with them for a bit. Regardless of my success or lack thereof, I’m a lucky man and my kids show me that every day.

Blog: http://failingtest.blogspot.com/

Brendan Carroll:

This is a wonderful question and one that I have not heard before. Upon pondering the answer, I suddenly realized that I do not have to place myself into the souls of my characters, but rather the reverse. My characters all seem to be a part of my own soul. They are always there, waiting and watching for the opportunity to express themselves. My characters’ lives play out in black and white on the pages of my novels and if I disregard their opinions and feelings, their wants and needs, they are not averse to badgering me until I put pen to paper or, in most cases, put fingers to keyboard. As a series writer, it is my belief that I never really release the bond that exists between myself and my characters, but rather simply carry them with me everywhere I go. I am constantly seeing things from a variety of POV’s as I go through the daily rigors of human existence. In this way, I can bring my characters to life with very little effort. Since I have always cons idered myself first a writer and my mundane life an annoying secondary necessity, I am not overly concerned with making clean separations between the two. This could be perceived as a great advantage for me or it could be that I am suffering from a terminal case of the Walter Mitty Syndrome. Either way, my characters and I remain inseparable.

Blog: http://redcrossofgold.blogspot.com/

Olivia Darnell:

Whenever I write, I usually have to have some sort of background music and a prop or two to set the mood.  In Misguided Souls, I had a number of references to things from China including tea and blue willow dishes.  When I was writing or editing that particular novel, I would put on some soft music and fix a cup of hot tea in my favorite mug and burn a floral scented candle.  These would help put me into that trance-like state that authors often refer to as the Zone.  It can certainly be an all-consuming state wherein only you, the keyboard and the story exists.  Friends and relatives who happened to be around when I was busy writing would often tell me that they had tried to talk to me and I had completely ignored them.  I always explained that I was not trying to be rude, but that I was simply temporarily out of touch.  It is funny that Panel Question #7 includes the word ‘soul’ which is also in the title of my book.  My characters are certainly a part of my own soul and when I need to leave them behind and return to reality, I feel sad because it seems that they feel betrayed that I would leave them, but the real world is where I live most of the time.  When the tea is gone, the candle snuffed and the music finished, I have to mentally tear myself away with something in mind that needs my immediate attention, i.e.:  a chore or an errand that can no longer be delayed.  By plunging directly into something entirely unrelated to the book, I can bring myself out of the Zone with minimal emotional disruption; otherwise I might just go there and stay!

Blog: http://oddoliviadarnelldoodles.blogspot.com/

Paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3416561

Laura Vosika:

Sometimes, it's easy.  I walk away from the computer and go about my business, whether that's picking up kids from school or teaching music lessons.  At those times, it's an abrupt switch.  At other times, it doesn't happen so quickly, and it can be a little disorienting to start piano lessons with half my mind still in a medieval Scottish forest.  So far, I have not found a solution except focusing on what's at hand, and in time, I find I'm fully present...in the present...again.

Website: www.bluebellstrilogy.com

Blog: www.bluebellstrilogy.com/blog

Panel Discussion: Who is Your Favorite Secondary Character?

Noah Mullette-Gillman:

In the third act of The White Hairs, Farshoul finally climbs down off of the mountain, and there’s an old man that he meets there. He’s a simple farmer living in an agrarian society, taking care of his grandson who suddenly finds a gigantic furry man in his garden! He doesn’t panic, or get upset. He begins scolding the creature, as if he were a misbehaving child. The old man manages to get through the defenses of a character who had become very hard and cold and lonely at that point. He knows when to give Farshoul space, and when to demand answers out of him. He does a heck of a job manipulating him into getting his life back together!

I didn’t plan to create him. I didn’t know he was going to appear before he did. And he shocked me! I had no idea that I could write the sort of playful dialogue that comes out of his mouth. It was an unexpected visitation!

Have you ever heard of a game called “Alien intelligence?” All you have to do is have two people, and decide that one of you is possessed by a vastly more wise and advanced mind. The other person then asks them questions. The “possessed” player then just answers as if he were much smarter than he really is. It’s an interesting thought experiment, and if you try it you’ll see that the results are surprising! Writing the old farmer was a little like playing that mind game. He was/is smarter than I am! But I wrote him….!!??!!?!

Website: www.noahmullette-gillman.com

Email: noah@noahmullette-gillman.com

Philip Chen:

Mildred, a sweet and kindly Norwegian grandmother, has to be my favorite secondary character. Mildred is a pleasant looking senior citizen who owns a hobby shop in Crookston, Minnesota, where she retired after a long career as a State Department researcher, work that often involved extended overseas travel.  Her long-suffering husband is glad that Mildred is finally home in the Red River Valley of the North where he can pursue his love of farming.  Mildred and her husband especially like to dote on the many grandchildren and their own four beautiful daughters. But Mildred has a secret. One that she keeps hidden, even from her beloved family. It has to do with a very special skill that made her very valuable to the government and she is once again called into action.

Although Mildred started out as a "fill-in," her character started to demand more attention in the story.  As you will learn on reading Falling Star, when Mildred starts asking for something in her sweet unassuming way; you'd better listen.  Listen, I did and soon this colorful character went from secondary status to being one of the principal characters in my ensemble cast. 

Website: http://fallingstar1970.wordpress.com/

Email: philip.chen@eighteastlawn.com

Dawn McCullough-White:

Of all my characters, it's got to be Black Opal.  He's complex.  He's a highwayman, notorious for his skill with a sword.  A fop with an eye for fashion, and a charming libertine.  Think of the perfect dinner party guest, someone fun and witty but probably not the person you would want to live with.  That's who he is... sort of. 

I adore this character because he's so human, he has some terrible traits, it's very easy to work this character up into a heated argument because of a perceived threat of a possible rival, and yet he is not faithful at all.  He is very sensitive about his appearance (he's been scarred by smallpox, something he contracted as a boy) and wears heavy makeup to try to hide his disfigurement and yet he's very vain, which can be a real problem for someone with scars and one working eye but he's charismatic and has no problem charming people.  He's also very optimistic, seldom bitter at all, and generally puts his life on the line to save his friends.  He's dashing.  Really, what's not to love?  He's a character who just keeps growing and showing me more interesting facets of his personality.

I enjoyed this character in my first novel Cameo the Assassin so much in fact, that much of the story in the second novel (Cameo and the Highwayman) is about him and explores his back story. 

Website: http://dawnmccullough-white.com/

L.C. Evans:

This is actually kind of a tough question because I like most of my characters, even the ones who are the most flawed. But for secondary characters, I'd have to say it's a tie between Mama in We Interrupt This Date and Joe Tremaine in Jobless Recovery. Mama is bossy, opinionated, gossipy, prone to melodrama, and stubborn. She's also a mama to the core. She'll fight a tiger for her daughters and her grandsons. Now that her daughters are grown, she adopts the babies--a couple of Chihuahuas she spoils rotten. And Mama is a lady. She likes flowers on the table and she goes out of her way to be polite to guests, even though she has no trouble gossiping about them after they leave.

Joe Tremaine, on the other hand, though he can be quite a charmer, doesn't hold back when it comes to speaking his mind. He's a survivor and bends the truth beyond all recognition when he has to. He'll do anything to protect and provide for his daughter Lark, even if he has to lie and steal. Or worse. At the same time, under that tough exterior he's terribly vulnerable, a fact he'll never admit, and Joe's a good friend to have in an emergency. 

Both Mama and Joe became real to me while I was writing about them. They also gradually revealed themselves to me in ways I couldn't predict, and to me that's one of the very best things about writing. 

Website: http://lcevans.com/

Jobless Recovery, Second Edition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN9GC1i7cCA

Consuelo Saah Baehr:

Secondary characters are a gift to the writer.  Often we create them with more freedom. They can be idiosyncratic and deeply flawed but somehow they are likable and stay with us.

Slivowitz, the banker, is a very minor character in my historical novel, Daughters.  He only appears half a dozen times in the story yet his impact on events and on me is indelible. We first meet him when one of the main characters needs a building loan. Jerusalem at the time was very cosmopolitan and branches of all the European banks were represented.  Nadeem goes first to Banco di Roma and Deutsche Palestina Bank.  Both turn him down for lack of collateral.  Then he goes to a private banker whose office is above one of the stores on Jaffa road.

The sign said Slivowitz Trust, a simple engraved brass square set discreetly at the side of the building next to a steep staircase.

“Slivowitz Trust?” asked Nadeem of the bespectacled man dwarfed by a large mahogany desk heaped with ledgers.

“Slivowitz Trust.  Trust Slivowitz.  I’m Slivowitz.”  He said this without lifting pen or eyes from paper and Nadeem, having no alternative, delivered his proposal to the top of Slivowitz’s head.

There is much more to Slivowitz than his conversational style. Even though his appearances are few, his persona stays with us.

Panel Discussion - How Do You Handle Pesky Interruptions?

Authors use all kinds of ways to carve out some private time to write.  How do you handle pesky interruptions when you're "in your zone" writing?

Consuelo Saah Baehr:

In the Paris Review interviews, it was always interesting to learn how writers structured their writing time.  Most of us have heard that Hemingway always rose at 6 a.m. and wrote standing up, in longhand, until he had fulfilled a certain number of words.  Probably no one would ever interrupt Hemingway, but for most of us who are wives, mothers, friends, etc, interruptions are inevitable. There is no sure way to take up the exact thread of true concentration once it has been broken. However, it is not productive to imbue “the zone” with so much power that we despair if we are interrupted. The mind reacts to our emotional commands. My advice is don’t send the command that interruptions will ruin your “zone.”  Often, it’s not the interruption, but the annoyance we feel that ruins the moment. Be matter of fact about interruptions. Keep reinforcing the message that while you might not get the exact thread back you will get something just as good or better. I wrote four books while my three children ran around tormenting each other. My mind did not receive the message that repetitive screams, shrieks and whining would disturb my train of thought. So, I just wrote.

Email: consuelo.baehr@gmail.com 

Camille LaGuire:

I go to Taco Bell. I know, I know! But I'm serious. When I was a student many, many years ago, I had a long gap in my day and couldn't go home. Taco Bell was the first fast food restaurant in our area to offer free refills on pop - so I would sit there and write. Now I find that nothing stimulates the creativity like the smell of bad tacos.

Blog: The Daring Novelist, http://daringnovelist.blogspot.com/

J.M. Pierce:

Being a husband and father of two with a full time job can make it tricky to find quality writing time. When I'm at home, it NEVER happens while the kids are awake; it's just impossible. At work, I'm lucky in that I have my own office so on the days that I don't have to pick my daughter up from preschool, I can close the door and spend my lunch getting a solid hours worth of writing in. The people at work know that I'm an author so no one bothers me unless it is an emergency. So to answer the question, I completely avoid writing in situations that allow for interruptions.

Blog: http://failingtest.blogspot.com/

John Hendricks:

I like to think I'm generally a nice guy, but I know I'm rude when it comes to my writing. I'm not sure I'd recommend rudeness offhand. I think it would look bad. However, it does work. I've perfected holding up my finger in that gesture that signifies very haughtily, "I will be with you in one minute." Most people won't bother persisting to talk to you once they've seen that. Do I like being rude? Not generally. I take no particular pleasure in snubbing people. At the same time, I think it's true that most people are more sociable than writers. Writing at length is a solitary task and it requires focus. People my age were often taught in school to believe sharing is this excellent thing and that anyone who didn't share all they had probably wanted to be a junkie when he or she grew up or, at least, wasn't a very good person. I'm selfish with my time when it comes to my work, but I had to learn to be selfish. If I hadn't, I'd never finish anything and, in the long run, frustration would have made me even more rude. So mild rudeness mitigates future extreme rudeness in my case. Not a bad trade off if you ask me.

Discussion Panel - Plot or Character, Which Comes First?

I’m starting a new feature for the blog – panel discussions around common issues that authors face.  I think it’s a great way to get a unique perspective inside the author’s mind and I thank each one of them for taking time out of their busy schedules to participate in today’s discussion.

Today’s panelists are: Philip Chen, Tonya Plank, Daphne Coleridge, TL Haddix, Danielle Bourdon and Consuelo Saah Baehr.  

Our first question was posed by Philip Chen:

When conceptualizing a new book, do you start with the story and the populate the plot with characters or do you have a specific character(s) and let the story surround them?

Philip Chen

When I write, I usually start with one character who is placed into a situation.  Once there, the character starts by responding to his environment and the story progresses.  So I guess I start with the character(s) and then let the story unfold as each of them starts telling some aspect of the overall story.  As the need arises for more characters to fill in the gaps to the story, I will introduce them and they will develop as the story goes on with their own particular point of view.  As the story develops, my job is to integrate these individual stories into one coherent novel.  As a result, some characters may find themselves diminished in significance and others gain greater strength.  This is what happens to the main "starting off" character in Falling Star, Mike Liu, who becomes only one of an ensemble cast toward the end of the novel.

Kindle book link for Falling Star, (The Watchers):

http://www.amazon.com/Falling-Star-The-Watchers-ebook/dp/B003YCPK4C

Web page is: http://fallingstar1970.wordpress.com/

Email: philip.chen@eighteastlawn.com

Tonya Plank:

For me, it depends on the project. With my first book, I started with the main character. My first book, Swallow, is about a young female attorney with a psychosomatic disorder called Globus Hystericus. I created the character and her main conflict first. I had the character in mind as someone who's very accomplished but still has very little self-esteem; she's from a small-town, working-class background and through hard work winds up graduating from a prestigious law school, getting a big lawyer job in Manhattan and then being surrounded by all of these very privileged people who talk down to her in ways that neither she nor they fully understand and that really eats away at her sense of self (there are gender issues as well, stemming from her father's job as a pornographer and his treatment of her). Anyway, I created the character first, and her disorder and its various ramifications, and then let her work out her problem, from figuring out what it stemmed from through a psychologist, to taking positive actions to doing something about it. I didn't really know how she was going to work it out from the start.

But with my second novel, which I'm currently working on, I'm doing the opposite. I was really affected by a trial I covered. It was a shooting, and all the witnesses had a different perspective, and I found even when they conflicted with one another, they were all valid; just different. And there were lot of racial issues involved, and testimony that really stunned me. I just felt there were so many important issues and so many things that floored me about that trial, that I needed to write about it. So, now I'm creating a story around that. But I'm really creating my own original characters and developing their back stories, giving them entire lives of their own, rather than working from the real people involved. I have enough experience with my former job as a public defender to create full characters on my own. But I have to say it's much harder doing it this way, and the ultimate story about how the shooting happened may change!

Thank you to Philip for asking such an excellent question!

The Kindle store link to Swallow:

http://www.amazon.com/Swallow-ebook/dp/B0032FNZZC

Website is: http://www.tonyaplank.com

Danielle Bourdon:

I start with the characters first, usually, and build the story around them. Thus far in my novel writing, I've never thought too far ahead, or plotted out scenes or huge arcs. I have a vague concept and use that as my jumping off point, then let everything else take shape as I go. Sub-characters come along as I'm writing.

There has been a time or two that I've had an idea crop up when I'm least expecting it, so I'll jot the twist or turn down on paper (or whatever's handy) so I don't forget. Other than that, I just wing it!

Kindle Store link: Bound by Blood:

http://amzn.to/9AnSCb

Website: www.daniellebourdon.com

Email: daniellekbourdon@gmail.com

Daphne Coleridge:

This is an interesting question to answer because it invites us to consider whether a writer begins the creative process with a character or with a storyline and if it is possible to develop the work logically from either point. I wonder if writers could be divided broadly into the logical and the intuitive in approach – either way being equally valid and effective. The intuitive may begin with little more than a swarm of impressions, images, and scenarios that swirl about their brain and eventually coalesce into an organic whole in their own time. I’m far from convinced that all writers know where their work is going when they begin to write. I find nothing in The Hobbit to convince me that Tolkien had envisaged Middle Earth and all its history which he went on to describe in such spectacular detail in Lord of the Rings.

As for J. K Rowling; the two dimensional, archetypal “mean” teacher that is Snape bears no relationship to the subtle, restrained, flawed yet heroic character of her final two books. In other words, I think writers often begin with a germ of an idea or a ghost of a character and then, somehow, the work takes on a life of its own. I believe there are also writers who plan their work meticulously and have both plots and characters under tight control, ending up with brilliantly clever work. I belong to the “intuitive” school and begin a book with no more than a vague notion and a sharpened pencil. There is no “right” way to go about writing a book – and that is the joy of being an author – especially when your characters do drag you to places you did not expect to go.

Kindle store link for The Artists Model:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Artists-Model-http://www.amazon.com/The-Artists-Model-ebook/dp/B003NX6Z00

Kindle store link for Purple Lake:

http://www.amazon.com/Purple-Lake-ebook/dp/B0043EWZR0

T.L. Haddix:

For my Leroy’s Sins series, the characters definitely come first, at least since book two.  Book one was a little nebulous on the subject of which came first, but I knew as soon as I started making notes for book two that it was based around two specific characters, Beth and Ethan.  Book three is the same – I know who the primary characters are going to be.  I’ve not really sat down and started writing it yet, so I’m not sure what the story is, exactly, but I know who the players are. 

For my non-Leroy stuff – short stories, comic books, etc., it tends to be the opposite.  The story seems to form first, at least a rough idea of what I want to accomplish.  After I come up with that, I have to figure out what kinds of people are going to populate the story.  Who would the character have to be in order to accomplish X,Y and Z?  Would a person who kidnaps people and kills them, for example, be the same kind of person who is a pillar of the community?  Why or why not?  How would the people around this person react when they found out?  Would they be surprised, or would they nod knowingly?  So, in that case, the needs of the story lead to the development of the characters. 

Kindle store link, Secrets In The Shadows:

http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Shadows-Leroys-Sins-Book/dp/0984528105

Under the Moon Shadows:

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Moons-Shadow-Leroys-ebook/dp/B004089EU0

Website: www.tlhaddix.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tlhaddix

Consuelo Saah Baehr:

When a book idea shoves its way into my consciousness, it is always through the sensibilities of a strong central character.  The character checks in with a specific "voice."  The character stands there and declares:  I am this person.  I act and talk and feel this way because of everything that has happened to me up to this point.  I am about to have an important emotional event, maybe it will be a transformative event and if you listen to me, I will help you write about it.

The first fifty pages are a self-conscious effort to capture the "voice". If the voice sounds right,  the supporting cast "appears" as needed. I make no conscious effort to create anyone.  They just appear.  I know this sound like BS, but it is true for me. Along the way some characters become more important than others, but always the populace is there to create an ambiance through which the main character acts, reacts, lets herself be known, presents her view of life and values, etc.

Kindle book link:  Daughters:

http://www.amazon.com/Daughters-ebook/dp/B0041844C2

Email: consuelo.baehr@gmail.com