Wednesday, March 2, 2016

ISWG-Knowing Your Characters





It's the first Wednesday of the month and it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group posts. If you haven't heard of the group, pop over to the blog and check it out, then check out the Facebook group. It's a great group full of supportive people including our leader Alex J. Cavanaugh. Who continues to motivate us even in his busy published life.

So I'm super insecure on a few things...like sending query letters and talking to agents and editors at conferences, but I'm pretty confident about knowing my characters are "realistic." So I'd like to share one of my techniques with you I'm using for my current WIP.

The main character, Brittney, has runaway from home and is going to survive on a trail until things get too tough. As an adult, my life has been pretty blessed. So now a days roughing it would be a Motel 6. To immerse myself into Brittney's life I had to become (kind of) her. I spent a lot of time on the trail she would be hiding on, looking for resources, places and ways to build shelter, how to avoid being seen and how to get to small communities if she (I typed I there, LOL) needed to. I also needed to know what tools she would need to build a shelter, to protect herself and to capture or catch food.

Shelter is pretty darn important, so that was my first focus. I thought about the surroundings and how I could use the leaning trees and the cliff faces to make a lean to with some smaller branches. I didn't have a hatchet, but I had a bow saw, so I cut down a smallish tree with it and cut it into pieces.

Then I thought maybe Brittany would chop down a tree with a hatchet. She might want to use bigger trees for shelter.
Let me tell you...know one though I could chop down a tree with a hatchet, but I did and I learned a lot.
The main thing I leaned is Brittany would not chop down a tree with a hatchet. There would be no reason to cut down a tree this big unless she was planning to build a log cabin, and she is not physically well enough to do that...so I learned a big lesson about my character that day. Plus I showed my husband, daughter and in-laws I would chop down a tree with a hatchet.


I knew Brittany would need fire, so I collected some tinder from the scrapping the bark off the first tree I sawed down and let it dry in an Altoids tin. It's a good survival tool to keep a little dry tinder in or other small items, like fishing gear. (I'll be trying that theory out later.) Plus, if you get a fire started you can save a hot coal in it and move it from one location to another. (From what I've read.)
 My good friend Lenny Lee send me a survival bracelet for Christmas and it has a fire-starter on it. So one night I worked and worked trying to get my box of tinder to ignite. Finally, my husband said go get some dryer lint and add it to the tinder. Wham O! I MADE FIRE!!!!!! It was so exciting! 


Sorry for the long post...I have been dying to tell you about how I get into my character's head/life for a long time. I hope it helps some of you get into your character's head a bit more.

Have a wonderful month! Thanks for stopping in!

HAPPY WRITING!!!

21 comments:

  1. Wow! Way to go! You are amazing! You definitely embraced your character. I admire that you didn't give up. You showed tons of dedication.

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  2. That was a fun post! I would NEVER have thought of dryer lint. But would your character have dryer lint on a trail in the woods? Living in the rough is really not as easy as portrayed on TV that's for sure!!! Thanks for dropping by my blog!

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  3. Love what you did to get into your character's life. That's so cool that you started a fire! :)

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  4. You are so cute!!! I love your dedication to character and authenticity. You've really made me think about what it means to truly seep into a character.

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  5. What a great idea to really get into character and act it out as it were, Sharon. I took a course with a teacher who had once been an actress, and she advocated this approach, exactly!

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  6. Hi Sharon - well you certainly put the I to work for the she - so the she could tell her tale as she battered the rough route ... characterisation is so important. Our chalky cliffs here wouldn't help you .. but you'll have your own.

    What a clever idea from Lenny and then you used it - that's wonderful .. cheers Hilary

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  7. I just LOVE how you went through the motions with your character Brittnay! Experience and going inside their shows is what makes the character absolutely real. Love the pics too :) And awe Lenny's Christmas gift to you. What a cute idea.

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  8. hi Brittany! whoops! i mean blom! for sure you know how to get inside your character and that's gonna make her real when you put her into your story. wow! how cool is that! im glad you could use the survival bracelet to make fire! wow! how hot is that! :) hugs!

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  9. That's awesome you really did what your character would have to do! Not sure I could chop down a tree with a hatchet. I know I couldn't start a fire - tried to burn a pile of dried brush once. It didn't go well.

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  10. Love this post, Sharon! Thanks for sharing...I love how you get to know your characters in a real and tangible way - only writers would get this.

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  11. What an awesome post Sharon. You really dug deep in your characters' motivations.

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  12. Hello Sharon, I'm with IWSG and I'm also a member of SCBWI. You're brave to try those things your character is doing. I'll be curious to know what you and your character make in that fire.

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  13. That is so much fun!! I love that you not only did all that, but that you learned so much! Totally reminds me of reading Gary Paulsen's Hatchet :)

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  14. Great ideas and wonderful photos. Your husband helped with his lint idea. Good teamwork.

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  15. Great ideas and wonderful photos. Your husband helped with his lint idea. Good teamwork.

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  16. Loved the visuals in your post. What delving into character you have shown us. Thank you. :-)

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  17. Awesome. Loved this post, thank you.

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  18. Wow I had no idea. Do people really go to so much trouble. Love the post. I had heard of authors using their own pain but never any thing like this.
    I should make time to read more. Almost missed such a fun post. Thanks.

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  19. Can I just tell you how awesome that is? I would never chop down a tree with a hatchet. Starting a fire from scratch, that I would do/have done. Many, many times. My dad was a Boy Scout leader for 20 some odd years and I got dragged along, a ton. Way to get into the head of your character!

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  20. Hey, that is cool! What a great way to research--do things yourself. And rah for dryer lint! :)

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  21. I love how you worked through what your character would do in this way! Well done!

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