Finding the ‘Real McCoy’ In Characters When Writing Fiction by Kathryn Scarborough
When I wrote Das Medallion (The Locket), [please; not to be confused with Jackie Chan's movie The Medallion, which seems to come up and want to download each time I save on Das Med...],the heroine, Margaret Richardson, had a real bitch for a mother. But now in Deception, the prequel to Das, not only is Elsbet Von Rippenhof beautiful, talented, and a great talker, she is, underneath, a devoted mother. She is also naive and so in love with the movies, (the book takes place from 1931-1945) that some of her actions mimic those of the film stars she so admires. So Elsbet goes from cold hearted only out for herself in Das Medallion, to becoming absolutely myopic when searching for ways to keep her daughter and mother safe from ‘the thugs’, as she calls the Nazis in Deception.
It is true what is said, that fiction characters seem to have a personality that develops on their own. People and characters are like onions; each time you peel away a layer, there is another to be discovered under it. When you read a book that ultimately goes into the recycle bin, isn’t it because those characters seem like they were made with a cookie cutter?
Characters like people, must have layers of personality, quirks, flaws, and so on. I love to read a romance when the hero is shorter than six-three, is a little thin on top, and a little nuts about keeping his car clean. I mean, doesn’t that sound like a REAL person?
Characters that you make up develop by what goals you set out for them, what motivations you have for those goals, and what conflicts they must overcome to achieve those goals. And along the way, maybe they’ll tell you that when they get nervous they pull out a nail file and do their nails, or that they bluster about to cover up their insecurities.
Elsbet, a character that I was really concerned to write about because I didn’t LIKE her in Das Medallion, developed all on her own. Before you start thinking that I’m ‘psycho’ and that I talk to the people on the page like those crazy ventriloquists talk to their dummies, let me assure you that this is all part of the creative process.
Elsbet finds that she is pregnant (with the heroine of Das Medallion) and knew she had to keep the pregnancy secret because she’d have to spill the beans that her husband was English. (Where do you suppose that would have gotten her in the Berlin of 1939?) She hid herself away somewhere quiet where she had lots of time to think and and when she did so, she began to write a journal, and each entry began “My Dear Child”. That was a surprise to me! The journal will be found and read by none other than her grandson in Book III of the Das Medallion trilogy.
So you see, characters will lead you to places you may not have planned or only had a vague notion of. If they aren’t cookie cutter cut-outs, the scrapes you’ve set up for them to get out of will show up their personality, ‘warts and all’.
About the Author
Kathryn Scarborough resides in North Carolina. Her book Das medallion (The Locket) can be purchased on Amazon.com
The prequel to Das Medallion, Deception, will be out before Christmas and will also be available at Amazon.com