Finding A Character's Voice

    Character development is one of the things I look forward to in writing fiction. I’m not sure I really understand the process, although I’ve been writing fiction and inventing characters in my head for years. Two thoughts immediately come to mind: 1.) You can’t rush it. 2.) It’s really mysterious, and I can’t tell you how to do it. Does that sound like I’m trying to evade the whole topic? Let me explain.

     I believe a great many writers start out by writing about people they know and give them another identity. Well, why not?  After all, we’ve been told by all the experts to write about what we know. But be careful about taking the easy way and basing all of the characters in your fiction on the people in your life or even those you’re simply familiar with through the media. This could get you into trouble. Of course, if you write about Uncle Slim, the black sheep of the family, and change his name; I doubt there will be any repercussions. Uncle Slim will probably not read your book anyway, but if he does he most likely won’t recognize himself. He might go so far as to be highly critical of the character and think you have captured the essence of disreputable behavior. Then you can either laugh or breathe a sigh of relief. But if your character is recognizable as a prominent figure, or someone who might take offense and take action against you (as in sue your pants off), it is advisable to disguise them as much as possible. But what about political satire, you ask? Go for it. Politicians are fair game. Just watch Fox News.

     So what did I mean by saying you can’t rush character development? I’ll give you an example. In my newest book, Murder at Canterbury Faire: A Dr. Emily Goldman Mystery, the main character is based on one of my favorite professors in undergraduate school. Dr. Emily has many of the mannerisms, eccentricities, and even the physical appearance of my former professor. Their fields of expertise—Anglo-Saxon and Medieval literature, are the same. But that’s where the similarity ends. My professor was not Jewish, not a sleuth, and certainly not a Yankee. Most importantly, I know that if she were still living she would be pleased that I used her as a model for one of my characters.

     I won’t reveal how many years have passed since I was in undergraduate school, but it’s been a while. In an interview I gave recently about Murder at Canterbury Faire, I mentioned that I had been thinking about the character of Dr. Emily for around ten years. I knew I would use her at some point in writing a mystery, but I wasn’t certain what the mystery would be about, and so forth. Just let me say that Dr. Emily was always around in the back of my mind, and she slowly began to develop. Actually, she became quite real to me, as a separate individual from my dear professor. That finally gave me the freedom I needed to write the book. She wasn’t real; she was finally a fictional character. I could look at her objectively without feeling that my professor was looking over my shoulder. So, don’t worry about taking your time in thinking about your characters as they develop their own voice. Some characters become real very quickly in the imagination. Others have to ferment a while.

     My second point in this discussion is that character development is mysterious. It’s great to sit around thinking about different characters you might write about rather than wasting your time watching some of the shows on television these days, but eventually you have to put the pen to the paper. I believe I’ve talked about this before. You have to start writing! Once you struggle with the beginning of your story, perhaps start over a few times, and maybe even change the point of view, you might be lucky enough to experience the mysterious part. What I’m talking about here is having the character’s voice take over. This may sound crazy to some people who have never experienced it, but suddenly the character is in charge, or so it seems. The dialogue begins to flow and you find you are simply typing what the character has to say. Sometimes the character or characters take over the whole plot line of the story.  Through some process that I admit I don’t understand, they can change the direction of the story or introduce new ideas that seem to have come from out of the blue. This is why writing is so exciting! I suppose the most logical explanation is that the writer’s subconscious mind takes over rather than a fictional character. I told you it was mysterious! Taylor Caldwell, a famous author of the last century, claimed that her books weren’t written completely by herself; something took over and told the story. She claimed she simply wrote it down. I wish is was that easy!

Murder at Canterbury Faire: A Dr. Emily Goldman Mystery is available through cahabapress.com or at Amazon.com