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Monsters, Characters, and Voices

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I got very little sleep last night. The saga of Sookie continues, so please excuse me if I sound less coherent than usual. Also the novel has crossed 100K and when I mentioned this fact to Mod R, instead of being supportive and saying things like, “It will end eventually,” she basically said, “All the words! Yay!”

On to the questions.

So do you write “start to finish” or does your manuscript contain fleshed out scenes interspersed with notations like [Catalina talks with Grandma] or [Kate & Curran make a baby]?

Start to finish. There are writers who write out of turn, like Nalini Singh, I think, but we don’t. For us each scene builds the character development and plot tension based on the previous scene.

For example, there is a scene in Maggie where a character is leaving for a while and originally that scene was meant to be just a get the “get the facts down” type of scene. But in the previous scene, which is a part of that same conversation, they discuss the backstory of the villain and it’s very sad. Things happened in their childhood that wrecked their life.

That scene has primed the main character’s and the reader’s emotions. They are not coming to this conversation in a calm, detached state. Now this other character is leaving and it’s sad. Instead of a dry reciting of facts envisioned in planning, this is now a scene where the character feels vulnerable and is desperately trying to hide it. But that flow of emotions, for us, can only happen sequentially.

There is only one rule in writing – do whatever works. If you can’t finish a book without writing your favorite scenes first, do that and ignore the paragraph below.

However, if you are an aspiring writer asking me for guidance, my advice is to write sequentially when possible. Cherry picking and writing only the scenes you like can hamper the emotional flow and rob you of some narrative discoveries a writer makes along the way.

Another caveat – sometimes the scene simply doesn’t work. We have done the thing before where we finished a scene and it’s just not right. We don’t know why it’s not right, it just isn’t. Rewriting it endlessly can quickly become counterproductive, so sometimes we leave the scene in whatever messy state it is and resolve to fix it in the edits.

Sometimes you just have to move on past it and get some distance.

Do you ‘hear’ your characters in your head when they talk & you’re writing? If so, do they still sound as they did originally, or have their voices changed to sound like the audio narrators?

Let me preface that with most writers are empathetic and neurotic, but most of us don’t hear voices in the clinical sense. When a writers says things like, “This character just wouldn’t shut up,” they are trying to define inspiration and since it’s intangible and eludes definition, they find creative ways to describe it.

That said, audio narrators have a significant impact. If I have to consciously think of a voice, Hugh D’Ambray defaults to Steve West for me and Orro now goes straight to Scott McCormick.

(related) I am struggling with all the theory about creating good characters, and you always have such a clear way of explaining even for woeful laymen. All the terms and how they relate to each other are confusing me. Just when I think I’ve understood how the Wants and the Needs affect the Inner and External Conflict and how the conflicts relate to the character arc and the Wound and the Lie…wait, what was Needs again? Help!

You are making this too complicated. ::insert smiley face:: I never once sat there and thought, “Here is my check list of Wants and Needs for this character.”

This salad of Capital Terms sounded like some writing teacher nonsense, so I googled it.

::sigh::

I once broke down the three act structure on Twitter in, I think, 4 tweets, in response to a writing teacher who charged hundreds of dollars for a three week course on it. This sort of silliness causes actual harm, because to be able to charge a lot of money for something or to sell a whole writing book based around a particular concept, you have to artificially complicate it to justify the price tag.

Furthermore, all of these concepts are borrowed from literary criticism. This approach forces you to analyze the character before you have written them. You can’t create and critique at the same time. It’s like being pulled in two different directions with equal force. You will just end up spinning your wheels.

Writing isn’t about literary analysis. It’s about getting the story on paper. Anything that gets in the way of telling the actual story must be purged with extreme prejudice.

Again, if this critical approach works for you, ignore the below.

If however, all the terms are messy and confusing and too hard, then –

::raises computer mouse:: By the power vested in me by my 17 year career, 29 completed novels, and 27 appearances on the the major bestselling lists, I now absolve you of this mess. You never have to look at another Capital Letter Characterization Term in your life, if you don’t want to.

Characters occur organically. They grow from our experience and who we are. If you try to take a mechanical approach to it, you will likely become frustrated and produce stilted characters.

Let’s try a writing exercise. Look at the people in your life. Someone you know well, your brother, your sister, your weird best friend. They don’t have to have the main character energy, you just have to know their quirks, their manner of speech, and their character.

This character walks out of their house or apartment and sees two or more people dragging this thing on a leash and it looks distressed and injured.

Fluffy by Sandara

Now open a fresh file. Describe your hero coming out of the house. Describe what they see. What does your best friend/brother/sister/character do? What do they say? It doesn’t have to make sense, you don’t need to think about the overall plot, just literally sit there and ask yourself, “What would Bob say?”

Write it out. Don’t overthink, don’t analyze, just channel that person in your life. It should flow, because you know what they would do in this situation.

Be honest. There are as many choices here as there are people, from offering to buy the beast, to threats, to walking across the street and pretending that you never saw it. If your chosen person would duck their head and walk the other way, write that.

Chances are you know exactly what they would do. You don’t need to think of their Wounds and Lies, or whatever. The sum of their experiences and their ethics will do the creative heavy lifting for you and will determine their actions.

Wrote it out? Good. Pick someone else. Do about 5 of these.

Chances are, one of them will be super easy to write. Pick the easiest one.

Congratulations, you have found your POV character. Throw another conflict at them. If they now have the creature in their possession, what are they doing with it? If they ignored it, have a distraught little girl with her mom run up to them and ask them if they saw the little beast.

Later, if you are so inclined, you can think in detail as to why your chosen POV character reacted a certain way. What choices did these people make and why? They are people you know well and intimately. Use them as the basis of you characters. Use their experiences and circumstances, things that have shaped them. Complexity will come with time. For now just keep writing with this character, even if the plot makes no sense. Keep throwing challenges at them. The more you write about them, the firmer will your grasp become, until you come to the place where you don’t have to think about their reactions, you just know.

Have fun with it. Writing comes from the place of play. Play. Entertain yourself. Less stuffy definitions and more Exploding Toddlers. (That is an actual writing term, meaning a sudden escalation in intensity that drops out of nowhere like a body falling from the ceiling.)

That’s how you start. Happy writing.

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Comments

  1. To be fair, I also drooled at the manuscript length 😋.

    It’s too early for Elf on the Shelf, but I’m taking my Mod on the Word Count duties seriously. We want MOAR!

  3. Supportive words, “it will end eventually” (and it will be great and well loved by the BDH)! I do think that Mod R spoke for us all, though! Thank you for your writing commentary, it’s always interesting.

  5. I hope the new meds work well enough for Sookie that her problems get better. That way you’ll have less stress.

    Thank you for the tutorial.

  6. I do like your explanations of how writing works for you. Especially since you are so clear about knowing that other methods work better for other people.

    Ignore the ‘more words’ crowd. We all will be delighted with ‘better story’. But we know we can count on you for that.

  7. I took a creative writing class and with each assignment, I was getting stuck on the Principals of Structure my teacher wanted. A classmate/friend told me to just write. When I was done, I’d be able to check off the assigned list and could always add anything that was missing. Too many prompts/principals really caused mental paralysis.

  8. I think writing courses at the college level can ruin a writer as they try to be literary masterpieces and if that is not what you submit then the instructor will destroy your work.

    Just write stories. Put pen to paper, fingers to keyboards and write.

    A class in grammar and the structure of the language you write in is helpful.

    My agency had to hire editors for our college graduate analysts as they were writing reports the same way they write text.

  9. I’m not an aspiring writer, but I really enjoyed this post, so thank you.

    Also, “All the words, yay!” Hear, hear, Mod R!

  10. I love you all. Ilona, Gordon, Mod R. Seriously, just knowing that there are people like you out there in the world restores my faith in humanity and brings me joy.

  11. The reason I ended up studying philosophy is because I discovered that critiquing books can hurt my enjoyment of reading them. (And if you disagree with the agreed consensus it does not go well. Especially if you try to point out the hypocrisy of presuming to know exactly what a long deceased author was actually thinking when they wrote XYZ.)
    I imagine trying to be creative under this type of duress would not only hamper the process but produce a less enjoyable result. Be a critical thinker not a critic.

    • My personal favorites are the ones who think it doesn’t matter what the author was thinking, only what the reader thinks. Gotta love someone who will argue with the actual author, if living, about a character’s motivation and behavior.

    • agree totally! it why I loved Twain’s forward to Huck Finn:

      NOTICE

      PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

      He also said the Great Books were books we thought we were supposed to read but didn’t want to ( ya know, the exact opposite of an IA book, books that are great bc you want to read them, HAVE to read them *lol*)

  13. I wrote out a relative seeing the critter in my head and had to stop right away because if the reaction he would have. “What the f@!k is that thing? Honey! get my gun! I have to kill something!”

    • Please don’t stop! The gun misfires and injures his hand. Blood and curses everywhere. Does the critter have healing powers? What happens next? How does your relative get his comeuppance, and how does he grow out of his zenophobia? What kind of person does he become?

      I’d read it. If his hand were suitably, painfully damaged, I mean.

  15. “Writing comes from the place of play. Play. Entertain yourself. Less stuffy definitions and more Exploding Toddlers.”

    Love this!

  16. THIS!!!! This is why I love your books soooo much! No matter where you place them, the characters are PEOPLE! You writing of your characters is clear. Even when the main character has gotten themselves in a “hawt mess” it does feel like slog through a swamp to reach understanding. Yeah, I am not eloquent but y’all get what mean, lol.
    It is also why I snatch whatever new books drop as soon as I can get them in my greedy little paws lmaooo

  18. Our vet is one of the first in the area to get that new arthritis drug and they say it will be a game-changer for old sore dogs. You commit to 2 treatments to make sure its working…but cost is still cheaper than the NSAIDS we’re using now. I hope it rolls out to Sookie’s vet soon and she can get some relief. That being said…thank you for the lovely writing lesson. I’m having a done of fun with it

  20. My sons both *do* stories. My older son writes. My younger one does d&d story lines. I hear him with his writing partner say “just a minute I’ll ask her.” And he comes downstairs and says “Blah blah blah blah. mom what would you do?”.

    Is your NPC based on me?

    “Yeah, she’s a wise and beautiful high priestess. and she’s going to try and kill everyone in the party after they steal her dog.”

    Fair enough.

  23. Great explanation! (and when I laughed at the computer mouse absolution, Dad asked what I found so funny LOL). There is nothing worse than someone who tries to make things more complex than it needs to be, and I greatly appreciate your straightforward and crystal clear explanations that convey information rather than muddle it. Thank you.

  24. Love it! Thanks for sharing how to start writing a character. I’m going to try that. I’ve been wanting to start writing fiction, but haven’t known where to start. This is a great starting place.

    Hope Sookie is feeling better soon.

  25. Jenny Crusie ends all her writer blog posts with “Many roads lead to Oz”, whic I think is a great way of saying do what works.
    And Hugh is now Steven West to the point where GA’s version was almost a jolt (love me some GA- but Steven West!)

  28. I want a Fluffy.

    Having said that, I would suspect that writing random scenes and then pulling them together would make continuity problems/ internal contradictions more likely. Then again, that was the way I wrote my college term papers: throw the whole thing, research and all, up into my subconscious, jot down paragraphs as they occured (or try to memorize them), then sit down and write the thing. Revise as needed…

    Mind you, this was also in the days of typewriters. And I don’t touch type. Final drafts were a b*tch to type…

  29. Mod R, you’re the best. The Horde is so fortunate to have you on our side as you wade through the book draft. 🥰 👻🐈‍⬛

    Writing papers…that brings back memories of me with my history degree. I had to write papers all the time. There were times I thought I was drowning in them.

    Exploding toddlers…sounds like the BDH when we’re on a shipping thing or on a rant about something. 🤣🤣🤣

  31. MOAR Exploding Toddlers definitely feels like a BDH shirt for unknown future store ideas! I wonder if Mod R keeps a list.

  32. I LOVE the voice for Orro. He reminds me of Maury Chaykin’s Nero Wolfe (tv adaptation of Rex Stout’s mysteries for those who might not be familiar). Given Wolfe’s love of food and general attitude, this seems a lovely choice for Orro. I don’t know if it was deliberate, but I love it.

    I also ADORE the choice for the vampire engineer Hardwir. I shall not spoil for those who haven’t listened.

  33. Playing is how we learn, and works at any age.
    Making mistakes while we play keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously.
    And laughing keeps us young!!

  34. The “authors hearing characters’ voices” question reminds me of a blog post I’ve been trying to find, but I’ve had no luck. It was a post where Ilona mentioned something about some authors talking about their characters like they’re real “people” with agency. Like how sometimes authors talk about outlining their book to go a certain way, but then when they’re writing out a scene, their characters decided to do something different and steered the plot in another direction from what the author had planned. (And maybe Ilona said that wasn’t always a good thing?)

    Anyone know the post I’m talking about?

    • Hmmm. I can give you a post on outlining, but not containing the criticism about agency of characters https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/on-outlining/
      Characters are ideas in the author’s head. Whilst it is a bit odd to claim that they do things the author doesn’t want, as Ilona says here, it’s probably a more dramatic way of expressing a sudden spark of inspiration or losing control of the plot somewhere 🙂
      Edit: I found it! https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/characters-part-2/ It mostly refers to it being no bueno when a writer uses characters having their own agency as an excuse for the narrative not progressing- essentially waiting for a subconscious solution to a block 🙂

  35. After reading this I’m wondering if there is a Jeaniene Frost-based character somewhere and which she would be… 🙂

  36. Yes! Yes! Yes! Want ALL the words…Or as many as you need to tell the story. And…Yeah, if it isn’t fun for you to write, (other than in the sense of you are creating something gruesome to make the villain look really, really bad), then chances are it won’t be fun to read.

  38. Dear Ilona,
    Thank you for this glimpse into your writing process. In the season of Preptober and NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as “Panic, Procrastination, and Generalized Anxiety about the thought of actually letting stories out of my head”, it really helps to learn about how Real Authors do the Thing.
    I have no idea why I went all Capital Crazy in saying that, but anyway, yeah. Thx!

  39. Re: character voices
    In the past, I have not been a big fan of audiobooks. But I have to say that the Graphic Audio version of Innkeeper, for me, has some of the most perfect voices for characters. I tend not to like when a single reader does all the voices – the opposite gender voices often seem “wrong” and become a mental sticking point for me, another added layer of “suspend disbelief”. But the voice actor who does Sean, for instance, really makes Sean come off the page for me. I’d prefer it if Graphic Audio toned down some of the background noises and music, but I really like the voices.

  40. I was so surprised the first time I listened to an Innkeeper Book
    that Dina was pronounced Deena rather than Dīna like Dīna Shore
    or “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dīna”. After all, she’s in Texas.
    Ilona, Did you mean for her name to be pronounced Deena?
    I love your audios anyway I can get them, just asking.

  42. My biggest take-away is to always be super-nice to your author friends, because chances are you’ll end up in a book! The worse you are, the worse your character will be, suffer, etc. 😉

    Can’t wait for Maggie! Bring on allllllll the words!

  43. I have question about why all the “He said, She said”s are left in authors’ audiobooks when we are so obviously listening to a dialogue. I recently listened to another NYTBSL author’s book where the MCs were in dialogue that must have gone on for a whole chapter, with Umpteen “He said, She said”s with no interruptions for narration. The narrater was doing a great job with separate character voices, so it was just so distracting and interrupted the flow so annoyingly, that eventually that became the focus.
    I listen to about 20 novels /month. If the extra words were cut out of the audios, I’ll bet I could fit a couple more books in.

  45. Mod R love your new icon. I was wondering if it would be possible for HA to publish all of the drawings/characters from the Innkeeper Series. I love the ones in Sweep of the Heart

        • Not really, I’m afraid I’m not an audio book expert 🙂.
          I know that traditional audio adaptations are unabridged, meaning the text is rendered exactly as it is in the published material, and readers vastly prefer and are owed this (for example, if there are any accessibility issues, it is unfair to have the audio readers receive different material than the visual readers).
          If there is an over abundance of action beats, the editor should have seen to that before publication, but there is generally not a separate edit for the audio version. Unless we’re talking about abridged adaptations, like Graphic Audio, who employ a varied cast of actors and who indeed trim indicators like the ones you mention.

  46. Wow! It hasn’t occurred to me in years to write but with a few paragraphs you made it almost seem possible.
    Nah, I’m too lazy but really..
    You are truly amazing at what you do and make it sound easy but I have read enough bad fiction to recognize a true artist. Pair two up and we have bliss.

  47. When I am writing ( for my own enjoyment) I simply write most of the time, in sense I am telling a tale unwinding in head. I will have a broad idea of the plot, some of the main characters will be popping into my head, but from there I just write. I
    don’t think of Maslow, I think of the character,who I see them as, then write about them ,how they react, based on this.

    I agree that the terminology is based around literary criticism. there is kind of an analogy in music I think ( our son is a classical chamber musician/ violinist) . With music there is a ton of music theory and ages of music criticism. In things like rock and pop music few musicians sit there and think of the nuances of music theory when writing songs, they work out the music by various means, when it sounds right they move on.

    Even in classical music, while composers knew a lot about music theory,they still were writing what they envisioned in their heads. few like schubert literally heard it on their head and wrote it down, some crafted it section by section, others heard it, wrote it then tinkered with it ( the manuscript for handels messiah is online, it shows everything handel did). In the 20th century you did/ do have people who do that kind of analysis when writing music because the structure became the goal…and it is unlistenable to be blunt.

    in other words, I agree with Illona, just write it, don’t worry about Maslow’s hierarchies of needs ( can you just imagine Maslow on Kate? ‘she likes to stabby’

  48. You make a note of writing in sequence. I can tell when someone ‘cherry-picks’ scenes because the author makes incomplete or just bad transitions.

  49. This:
    “::raises computer mouse:: By the power invested in me by my 17 year career, 29 completed novels, and 27 appearances on the the major bestselling lists, I now absolve you of this mess. You never have to look at another Capital Letter Characterization Term in your life, if you don’t want to.”

    a) I wish I’d been able to read this about 30 years ago.
    b) this is why I read your work. Thank you for the results of your work, and even more for staying true to yourselves throughout it.

  50. Kim Harrison calls them burning bunnies, but it’s the same metaphor. a long time ago she made a charm bracelet for her dead witch walking characters and it included a burning bunny. Hopefully to attract them and not to keep them away.

  55. Poor Sookie. I hope you get the latest pain meds and that they help.

    The writing advice (lol at the Word Salad of Capital Terms) is super helpful and reminds me of a 3-year, 9-semester “editor certification” course that I recently found and would probably have signed up for if the total cost were not over $12,900. (Eeep.) I’ve done a lot of editing work and some beta-reading over the past decade on a volunteer basis and have been exploring how best to start doing it professionally. I realize it’s outside your wheelhouse, but if you have any advice on that front, I’d be grateful!

  57. ::raises computer mouse:: BEST paragraph/ advice ever! Made me laugh and feel relieved all at once. Thank you!

  58. ::raises computer mouse:: BEST paragraph/ advice ever! Made me laugh and feel relieved all at once. Thank you!

  59. Not to be totally off topic here, but I just realized that if belief can bring a hodag into existence, then somewhere out there buffalo have wings.

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