Create A Clinic Review

Holly Lisle's Create A Character Clinic is a very valuable resource for the fiction writer. Her exercises flesh out the characters and story in amazing ways.

I decided to use it to create the main character for a newly formed novel idea. This idea was very small. I only knew my inspiration -- how the world of online gaming connects people together -- but no idea of how to pull it off.

Through Holly's techniques, I found my character. And a load of surprises. Instead of a male character, as I imagined in my preliminary idea, my character turned out to be a young female in her twenties named Muriel. Also, instead of owning just one or two of the possible life and personality traits from my list of inspirations, she has nearly all of them now.

How could I possibly show a character with so much going on? At first, I balked when she developed so many traits. This was stepping out of my comfort zone with characterization. Holly's exercises and techniques not only show me how a character could work with so much going on, but also how the story itself could evolve out of those traits. I now have pieces of the beginning, middle, and end of my novel, and I know how to connect them.

What's really amazing for me is the fact that this novel is outside my normal genre.

The surprises Holly's clinic brought didn't stop there either. Characters around Muriel leapt out of the exercises and into my story. Her exercises not only fleshed out my main character and the story, but also brought life to the secondary characters.

Holly Lisle's Create A Character Clinic is one resource I'm going to use over and over again.

Click here to try Create A Character Clinic, by Holly Lisle for yourself!

Characters

The creation and development of characters have been on my mind today. I wrote two articles this morning, "Finding Your Characters" and "Motivating Your Characters". I'll have to determine where to send them. I'm sticking to online markets for many of my articles and will post here as they get out and accepted.

I know I said I would go through how I come up with my characters and so I will do so now....

Some characters come to me in dreams, some just jump off of the page and say "here I am!", and others take a little work.

In TKQ, Dagan took some work. I'm female and so it's easier for me to connect with the female mind. Taun came first, naturally. Just out of the blue. A little girl who was her father's joy. Loved and torn from her family at a young age. Her story was the first I wrote and I admit I had a torturous time getting it out. There were so many issues she went through and I wasn't sure how to get them on paper. My husband took a shot and helped me figure out where I had a good start for her and he helped me get the writing to make sense even.

I know, not everyone has a spouse to help and I was lucky he did. I knew Taun for many years, but didn't know how to start her story for the reader. I had forty pages of notes. Once I realized I needed to start at the mine, I started writing. The first words that came to my mind for that scene was "I go... I go... I go... He don't hurt me now." That wasn't Taun. That was a young boy from nowhere who I pictured her watching. That young boy doesn't exist except for that one scene, but his speech remains a focal point for Taun throughout the novel.

Later, after I had her start, the storyline let me know this wasn't a part for one main character, but two. And that's where Dagan came in. I didn't have him in mind for many years like I had Taun. From Taun's quest, grew Dagan's character and he became her equal. It was tough. I hadn't been used to writing from a male pov before. After many trials, I believe I got him right though.

Truthfully, the first character of all for the world of South Reach, which TKQ takes place in, was Druid Mage Kerix. Only he was the Druid Salsa. Don't ask me why, but he refused for over a year to let go of that name. Finally, after many words worth and references to tacos by my critters, he relented and told me his true name was Kerix. Seems he had a strange sense of humor.

Oriel was an interesting character. I just pictured this young woman sleeping in the forest, resting her head on a great forest cat's belly. The two were best friends and bonded. I tackled the question of how did she become friends with this forest cat ... why was she in the woods and what would make her be alone enough to partner up with a wild animal like that. The novel's story grew from her backstory.

I took on a writing contest about writing a story revolving around music in some form. I imagined music being the pull for a person to follow. I needed a person to follow the music. And that's how the character, Terra, came into existence.

For me, usually the story comes from the character. I get the character first and then the story. But once in awhile the story comes first and then the character emerges.

Dagan's Dilemma

In PoM, Dagan is troubled by guilt. And that guilt needs to give Dithron an edge. I know this. I know what caused the guilt. But I don't have what edge this gives Dithron, or how it stops Dagan from being effective. This has been in the plans for years, but I still don't have the 'how' of it. And it's bothering me. Now that I'm into the book this far, I need to know.

I'm also changing the Sol Nomen a bit. Instead of the bulky body structure that makes them too dwarfish or hobbit-like, I'm going to give them the body type of pygmy people.

Mainly in PoM, I'm making notes on changes, additions, thoughts, etc. I did have to stop and do some actual writing on a scene which will happen in the book after PoM. It was too fresh in my mind to wait. That book has been coming to me lately and will probably have an outline or synopsis appear in the next month or two.

I'm trying to get through my two chapters per day on TKQ revisions. That seems about the right amount that I get time for, but only just - with everything else that has to be done.

There are also some non-fiction reports in the works. One's coming together very well, and I have ideas on a few of them. I think they will be good candidates to break up into smaller bits and use in different areas.

Characters

A big discussion at the OWW workgroup has been about minor characters. I've never had a problem with them myself - and I have about 75 total in my first novel. I think I handle them well because none of my readers have had any problems with them. They naturally grow from the story and basically develop themselves - however little or much I need them to develop.

I would imagine the problem comes through when writers have a recurring minor character. If they are in more than one scene, then you would naturally need to know more about them. Again, mine tend to develop themselves as the story moves along.

There's one scene that will be a bit emotional that involves one of my main characters and two minor characters. My main character is a new King, caught in an ambush and trapped with his army. They are waiting for help to arrive, while many of them die from a poison. My king sits and talks with one of these dying men. The man is the first minor character, and he doesn't survive, so I don't need to know as much from him. Basically, some physical traits, that he's married with a kid, and as much as he reveals about loving his wife and kid. That's it. The other minor character is a healer elf. She comes into the scene for a short time, but I know a whole lot more about her. Her family, her background, her desires, plus more. Why? Because she's actually a major character in a following book.

Developing minor characters is something I'll have to sit down one day and really think about. And then write a piece on how I do it. I really can't say right now, because I've been just letting it occur naturally for so long, and not paying attention to the 'how' of the process.