Living the Fictional Dream

One of the things I really love about a writer is when their supporting characters have just as much spark, as much life as the main characters. Without good supporting cast to round out a story, the story can feel flat or limited.

I think really fleshing out the supporting cast is a skill that can take a while to master, too. I know when I’m writing, I get involved in the main plot and with the main characters. The other characters aren’t always a high priority.

But, let’s look at to examples that illustrate how important the supporting cast is. First, look at the Batman movies in the 80s and 90s. They were all about the comic book stereotypes and the flashy action. Big names, too. But character depth? Not so much. Especially for the supporting cast. With Keaton’s Batman, some. Jack’s Joker, too, a bit. But Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl? Why was she even there? Commissioner Gordon? I don’t even remember who played him, he was on screen so little. Harvy Dent was played by someone completely different than Two Face, and you had to really listen to even realize they were the same character.

Now, look at the new Batman movies — Batman Begins and the recently released Dark Knight. These movies know how to use all the characters to create a world that feels incredibly real. Part of it is the writing, that we get to know all of these characters. And part of it is the incredible acting that allows the characters to make the most of every small moment, every glance, every movement. Alfred, Lucius, Gordon, Dent… they were all amazing. The Joker, of course, was blow-away, but in some ways you knew he would be going in. The Joker is one of Batman’s biggest rivals, if not the biggest. He had to be great. But the awesome thing is, none of the characters in these movies are wasted.

Return to Me is a move that does the same thing (though light years away from the subject matter of Batman). Bonnie Hunt wrote an incredible love story between two unusual people, but what really makes the movies pop are the people the hero and heroine surround themselves with. The quartet of old guys playing poker in the back of the restaurant. The loyal, obnoxious, ladies’ man vet. The pseudo-sister, her husband, and their passel of kids. This movie could have been just another hum-drum romantic comedy, enjoyed and then forgotten, but the memorable cast of characters sets it apart from the pack and makes it something special.

So, that is the lesson that we must take to heart today. Don’t just use those supporting characters as plot points — give them personality, give them uniqueness, love them!

P.S. In other news, I want to give a quick shout out to Jens. Congrats on finishing that novel! Way to go!

Lately, my muse is whispering superhero fiction in my ear. I believe I blogged a little about that a few days ago. I’ve written two superhero stories already, one of which was published by and the other accepted by A Thousand Faces. I have two more written and in the revision process (sadly, I haven’t been able to get a lot of feedback on them — everyone is so busy for the summer — but I shall muddle through), and ideas for another one or two.

I’ve been trying to figure out what is so interesting about superhero fiction. I’ve always been interested in superheroes, but I’ve never been much of a comic reader. I find the characters in comics fascinating, but I never really got hooked on them. Even though I think that comic art can be gorgeous, I personally prefer more meaty prose to pictures. But I definitely appreciate the art of comics. And I’ve always enjoyed the various superhero movies and TV shows, even before special effects got good enough that Marvel started selling rights to Hollywood willy-nilly.

After thinking on it for a while, I’ve decided that the thing that makes superheroes interesting is how they put the normal life stuff into a grander more life-and-death perspective. If I have a bad day, I suffer, and maybe my friends or family suffer a bit. If Superman has a bad day, Metropolis and even the world suffers.

It’s especially interesting to me when superheroes have to deal with the mundane. We’re so used to that image of the perfect superhero — the one who swoops in and saves the day without wanting anything in return, the one who thinks of others first, the one who fights for truth and justice because it’s the right thing to do.

But what happens when s/he is out of the public eye? What do they really feel? What is their life really like? Do they hate cleaning the house, or is it no big deal since it’s done in five minutes anyway? Superheroes doing housework, superheroes having issues with their spouses, superheroes on blind dates, superheroes feeling like they aren’t part of the “cool” superhero crowd… all interesting to me, as is how they might deal with it.

And, let’s face it, it’s also awesome when superheroes toss those emotional mundane issues aside and show up to save the day despite their personal lives. Also, with superheroes, anything can happen — the possibilities are endless with that amount of power at your disposal.

Though, how is all this superhero stuff so different than, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer? That show was founded on the premise that “high school is hell.” We saw all the traditional teen stories — the prom, losing one’s virginity, dealing with a divorced parent dating again, having friends suddenly change on you to hang out with a new group — but we saw them through a filter of the supernatural. It was looking at the same thing through a different lens and finding a story there there that resonates.

Despite having more supernatural origins, Buffy herself was a superhero of sorts. Not in the traditional cape-wearing, radioactive-spider-bite way, but she had superpowers of her own. She had mundane things to face, and she had to burst in and pummel her way to saving the day on many occasions, despite boy problems, friendship issues, and anything else that came along.

So really, superheroes are another realm of genre fiction, just like fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. Probably some of all of those. So, perhaps my muse’s new interest in superhero fiction is just another facet in a life-long interest in genre fiction.

Either way, I’m definitely enjoying the flight, and I’ll ride it out however long it lasts. Maybe when it’s over, I’ll have enough superhero short stories for a collection. I think, though, that eventually I’m going to need to give my superheroes’ city a name. I can’t keep calling it “the city” forever!

So, if you’re out there and have read this long, what do you think makes superhero fiction so interesting? Or, if not superheroes specifically, what is it you like about genre fiction in general?

The SED contest continues. I’m proud of myself because I have, thus far, written a story every day. Just six more days to go. Here’s hoping I can keep it up!

This contest made me realize just how many fictional worlds exist in my imagination. When I can’t think of something to write for my daily SED story, I find myself turning to these fictional worlds and writing about an aspect of them that I haven’t yet explored, perhaps a small subset of the culture or a minor character who deserves his/her own story.

Of course there is Tyden, the medival-style fantasy world from the novel that is in a constant state of revision. That one is the most fully formed of all of them. But in the past year or so, several more have sprung into being.

There is my science fiction universe in which the Moon has several self-sustaining colonies. Sadly, none of the stories I set there worked out quite the way I had planned, but that world is really vivid to me. I’ve named all the colonies, worked out where they are and what their resources are, and everything. Maybe someday it will actually see the light of day!

I have two urban fantasy universes (distinguished from a fantasy world because they are layered on top of the real world instead of being created completely from scratch). One is a Y/A universe inhabited by Sirens. My 2006 NaNo novel was set in this world. Sadly, novel revisions aren’t coming along quite as swiftly as when I wrote the whole first draft in one month!

The other is a world of Thropes (short for Therianthropes, which means shapeshifters of all kinds). My shapeshifter universe has a whole Thrope society made of of werewolves, werecoyotes, werepanthers, werefoxes, wereleopards, wererats, and more. I’ve written two short stories set in this universe, one of which, “Alpha,”  will be published in Electric Spec at the end of the month.

I’ve recently created a super hero universe, as well. The first story, “Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less,” was published in A Thousand Faces, issue 4, and the second of which, “Bridge Club,” will be published in a forthcoming issue of ATF.

There is my fantasy world (loosely based on 18th century Earth) in which people who survived the fall of Atlantis roam the Earth, first seen in “The Widow and the Stranger,” published in Allegory e-zine. And I have another medieval-style fantasy world about immortal sorcerers who devote their lives to a mysterious Game. One story set there has reached round two in a flash e-zine, but I haven’t heard back about it yet. Oh, and there is my Christian vampire hunter world — more urban fantasy — only one story so far (scheduled out in Afterburn SF early next year), but ideas for several short story ideas have occured to me. And, there are a few others, less well defined than the ones mentioned above.

All these ‘verses beg the question — how much room do I have in my imagination anyway? If my imagination is anything like the Book World in the Thursday Next series (which  highly recommend if you’re looking for smart, funny, highly literate fantasy), things must be going amok in there!

But, that’s why we’re in this writing game, isn’t it? Because these worlds and characters are there in our minds just waiting for their stories to be written down on paper (or via the keyboard). We don’t do it for the money or the glory (there isn’t much of either of those to be had). We do it because we enjoy it (at least sometimes), and because the stories are out there waiting to be told.

If I don’t tell the stories of all my imaginary worlds, who’s going to?

I wrote a little flash piece a while back about two ex-lovers having a confrontation. Of course, there is magic and a fantasy world, as well, but the crux of the piece is the painful relationship between the two characters. The woman in the piece, Viola, is the villain, in as much as one can be in that situation. It was her choices that forced the friendship between the two to end after the love affair was no more.

When I first wrote the story, I really hated this character. Viola was total scum in my mind, her only redeeming quality being that she did actually love the guy in her own selfish way. But, since then, Viola has surprised me. She inspired the SED story that I wrote today, which was from her point of view.

There is something about her — some spark, some flash that makes her leap off the page — and that surprises me, because she wasn’t supposed to do that. She was supposed to lose, however ungracefully, and then go away, leaving her ex to his own happy ending. But Viola was not content with that.

One of my graduate school writing profs gave the class a bit of advice that I’ve never forgotten. He said that everyone is the hero of his (or her) own life story. If you approach creating a character from that perspective — the perspective that in the character’s mind, he or she is justified in her actions and deserves to win in the end — it makes the more well rounded, more real. And, apparently, once the character is that real, she’ll take on a life of her own in your imagination and on your pages… like Viola.

Last night, Stephen and I watched the last three hours of this season of Lost, and I really enjoyed it — probably more than any episodes of the show since season 1. If you gave up the show during the downturn of season 2, I would highly recommend catching up. It just gets better and better. That said, while this post is going to talk about writing, there will also be some spoilers for Lost, so read at your own peril.

Sawyer has long been one of my favorite characters on Lost. Since we first met him, I was sure the character had something more than a cocky attitude and a charismatic smile. I knew there was a hero underneath, masked by all the hurt he’d endured over the years, starting with what happened to his parents. However, my opinion was met with vociferous resistance in some quarters of my acquaintance, especially because every time he did something “good,” he would soon follow it up with something selfish or his self-serving motives would be revealed in the end.

But in the current season, Sawyer has finally been revealed as a good guy, albeit, reluctantly so. The other people on the island have become his friends (at least some of them), and he actually cares about them. He’s done many things for Kate, just because she wanted/needed him to, proving genuine feelings for her. He left the safe house to rescue Claire in the commando attack. He trailed her into the woods and took care of Aaron when she was gone (I will never forget that scene of him holding the baby in the clearing where Claire disappeared!). When Locke and Ben wanted Hurley, Sawyer wouldn’t let them take him, only backing down when Hurley told him to. Despite antagonism in the past, he refused to let Jack go to the helicopter alone. And when all he had to do was jump on the helicopter and leave, he organized the search party to find Hurley. And his bad-boy-gone-good thing was cemented when he took that flying leap from the helicopter and swam back to the island on the off chance that without his weight Kate (and the others) would be able to make it to the freighter before the helicopter ran out of fuel.

My growing enthusiasm for Sawyer’s character got me to thinking about characters in general. What is it about Sawyer that makes him such a great character (to me anyway), and how can I think about that in light of developing characters that other people would feel that way about? And while I was thinking about all that, I read this article at author Shanna Swendson’s blog. Check out number 3 on her list of why it’s important to talk about TV, which discusses characters who earn their fans love.

This is totally Sawyer — he started out a snarky conman with only a charismatic grin to cover up his selfishness, and over four seasons, he’s become a guy that you can count on in a pinch. I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a reformed bad boy, but his heart has finally been tapped, and watching him you get the feeling that once he cares for you, he’s going to be behind you all the way.

But I think there are other lessons to learn here, too. Stalwart and true heroes and heroines can be good characters, but it’s that flaw that really gives a character oomph (at least for me). The flaws humanize them, give us something to relate to, and, darn it, just make them more interesting. It is way more fascinating to watch someone struggle than someone who makes the “right” choice as a matter of course and without thought. And a story of being redeemed is so compelling.

Who is more interesting? Max or Michael on Roswell? Jack or Sawyer on Lost? Logan or Duncan on Veronica Mars? Luke or Han in Star Wars? The Phantom or the Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera? The list could go on and on. And in my experience, in the fannish communities out there, it is the scoundrel or the reformed bad boy who have the passionate fans.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like all of those characters I listed. They all have their place — sometimes you need the stalwart hero type. And some of my closest friends eschew the scoundrels and are devoted to the heros. So, in that sense, it’s all a matter of individual taste. But, there is something to be said for writing what one enjoys. If you don’t, it’s more like work, and who would get into this fiction-writing business if they weren’t doing it for the love. No one is doing it for the money (at least, not until they actually land an agent and a six-figure book deal!).

Another thing to consider is that we need all of those types of characters in our arsenals as writers. There are some things that a stalwart hero is just not going to be able to do, and that’s precisely when the scoundrel is needed.

In any event, as a writer, I would love to create a character that makes someone else as excited about a story as Sawyer makes me about Lost — if I can do that, then it’s definitely worth it.

So, if you’re out there and still reading this, which one do you prefer? The stalwart and true hero or the reformed bad boy/scoundrel? Or someone else entirely? Who has you screaming at the TV or paging through the book faster to find the next page where s/he appears?

When I start a story, I’m not the type to fill out endless character profiles. I have a basic idea for a character, and then start writing. Afterward, though, when the first draft is done, those kinds of tools are invaluable. The help me to make the character more consistent. This is for novels. Short stories… character consistency is a little easier to get… or at least to see when you don’t have it.

The more realistic the characters are, the better the story is. Over the years, I’ve found help with smoothing out those fictional personalities in what might seem, at the surface, a couple of unlikely places.

The first one was a book called What Color Is Your Aura by Barbara Bowers. Now, I don’t know much about auras and I’ve definitely never seen one, but it has an interesting way of categorizing and describing different personality types.

When I read the descriptions of the different personality types, orange jumped out at me. I didn’t know it when I wrote the first draft of a novel-in-progress, but I had created an orange character — a minor character who was a physical being, an adrenaline junkie who lives for physical challenges like fighting. Realizing that about the character, I was able to refine him. Even more, I was able to understand why he did some of the inexplicable things that he did. Understanding his motivation made me better able to write from his point of view. And the aura book helped me do just that.

The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman gave me more insights into familial relationships, especially sibling relationships. I found it an interesting read as a sibling myself, but it was also fascinating as a writing resource. It helped me get out of the older sister compliant point of view and to understand some of the other possibilities.

So, I guess the point of this post is that you never know what’s out there that can help you better your writing. Neither of these books is about writing per se, but both have helped me in that area. So, as writers, we should keep our eyes and ears open. Anything might be just what you need for a particular story, even one later down the line.