Category Archives: Characters

Hada’s Fog Chapter Seven: Suspicions

Lilli's shoes black

Lilli’s shoes in Hada’s Fog. novel by J. Kleist-Corwin

The last scene in Chapter Seven is posted on Hada’s Fog. (See menu above.) Suspicions reign in this scene. Bira, Hada’s daughter-in-law, suspects Samuel is attracted to 15 year-old Lilli. Lev, Hada’s husband, challenges Samuel about unfairness toward Abe, the younger brother.

Hada doesn’t think about what Bira implied. Samuel defends his actions in regard to Abe, and Hada wants to stop the men’s argument.

Hada’s Fog is not in the mystery genre. But suspicions can create tension in stories of any genre. Suspicions aren’t dissolved easily. Keep it going for future conflict, but the reason for it should be logical.  If what a character suspects turns out not to be true, writers need to show why it looked like it could be. Readers don’t want to think the character is just paranoid.

Did another character make contradictory statements that caused mistrust in anything he/she said? Did one character, out of jealousy or revenge, cause another character to be suspicious of someone else? Do all the other characters think the suspicious person is overreacting and then it turns out that person was correct?

For what purpose in the story was the suspicion important?
In the next chapter, Lilli and her father, Dario, come to Thanksgiving dinner.

 

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Kayak Trend

Kayak-cedar jpgHave you tried kayaking?  It looks easy and smooth and it is, when kayaking on a clear, still lake.  BASK is a San Francisco Bay area kayaking club. They offer safety clinics to teach the beginners how to participate efficiently and successfully. The advanced members are patient and help kayackers brave waves, learn how to rescue someone who falls into the water, among many other techniques.

A small subgroup meets weekly to kayak at night in the bay. https://www.bask.org/

A character who likes water sports would make an interesting addition to a story.

Kayack labeled chartkayck with a person paddling

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Roles of Minor Characters in Fiction

minor charac with cut it signMinor characters in fiction are supposed to complement the major characters and move the plot forward. A simple definition, but Orson Scott Card wrote an article for Writers Digest that explains other ways to use minor characters.

Card describes the unimportant minor characters he calls  “walk-ons” or placeholders. They are not important to the story except that they are “background; they are part of the milieu” like the cab driver, the bellman, or horn-honkers who stare at the protagonist in a traffic jam, to name a few. They vanish and are never seen again, often forgotten.

A minor character who is “on stage” for a longer time than a walk-on and for a purpose will be memorable if the writer makes him/her unique, “eccentric, exaggerated, or obsessive.”  “Like flashbulbs, they need to shine once, brightly, and then get tossed away.” Remember, this kind of minor character cannot be in the beginning of the story or the reader will think he/she is a main character. The minor character deserves attention otherwise why is he/she there, however, don’t let the minor character steal the spotlight away from the main character/s.

minor charac deserve attention   minor charac shifts spotlight to him

In Norman in the Painting, I wrote Jack as a walk-on, but he kept entering more scenes and now he is a minor character who has an arc. He starts as a jerk, Jack the Jerk, as Jill, the protagonist calls him. Card would say he is memorable because of exaggeration. When the tension in the plot rises into danger, Jack is there and not as a jerk.

 

The recent scene in Hada’s Fog I posted, (see Menu Bar) introduces a minor character named Annabel Lee. She deserves attention, she needs to be memorable, because Hada will be contrasting Lilli, one of the antagonists, to Annabel Lee’s personality in future chapters.

 

Annabel Lee is obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe. She’s eccentric in the way she looks and acts. Her exaggerated friendliness, although sincere, is a bit over the top with meeting people in the baggage department for a few minutes. Does she move the action forward? No. Will she appear again in the story? No. Her purpose is to show through interaction that Hada can be friendly, caring, and light-hearted, a side of her the reader doesn’t see too often.

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Story Prompts About Characters Meeting

Miles Apart

The romance genre isn’t the only one to have two people miles apart who come closer and meet. If you aren’t a romance writer, think of a story line that brings two characters together. In a  mystery or thriller, one could be a criminal and the other a law enforcer who knows about the criminal and waits for him to arrive. Make the reader care for both characters while you build tension in the arc.You could show the meeting from two viewpoints in alternating chapters or scenes.

In historical fiction, research two important figures whose meeting makes a difference in their society. Maybe add the difficulty of neither of them understanding the other’s language.

In YA (young adult), two girls who were best friends in school were heartbroken when one had to move away, but a couple years later she moves back. How does the one that remained feel about her friend’s return? Has her life changed and does she wonder if the other girl will fit into her life now?

Similar circumstances can be created in fantasy, westerns, women’s fiction, or any other genre.

Take a few minutes to brainstorm and let me know if any ideas worked.

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Writing Scenes with Gifts

giftHow does your protagonist respond to gifts? If your book is a romance, you probably have a scene where the female protagonist receives a gift. How do you show her surprise, her shyness, her faking that she likes it, or her joy because it’s perfect?

In a mystery or a thriller, does the criminal give a deadly gift? Is the receiver suspicious or duped into thinking it’s a nice gesture? How would you show the response?

I watched a video today about people’s reactions to receiving a puppy as a surprise gift. The expressions of children who have wanted a dog for a long time, had big eyes and a frozen body posture at first.  Many covered their faces to hide their overwhelming feelings, and then cried with joy. Interestingly, very few reached for the puppy as if in disbelief that it was for them. When someone placed the puppy in their arms, they held it and leaned their cheek on the dog. Adults opened their mouths in surprise and immediately picked up the little animal with happy squeals of delight. By the end of the video, I had tears from seeing so many people loving their new puppy.

What kind of gift would you add to your story?

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