Exercise - Through Others' Eyes

Go for a walk. Choose a setting where you are likely to encounter some unusual and entertaining species . Every time you see a new animal (human and non-human), imagine the world through its senses. See yourself walking along, the scene between you and the creature you are possessing. Hear, smell and taste the world from this being's point of view. Feel the breeze through fur, or tattered clothes, or?

Describe yourself from this creature's vantage. Are you a potential friend? An enemy? A meal on the hoof? What does this animal think of you? What are its motives toward you?

Now broaden your connection. What experiences might your opposite have had that would lead him to think of you the way he does? What kind of 'inner sensations' are being triggered by your presence? Your counterpart may be afraid, or angry, or curious, or hungry. What prevents him from acting on his emotions? Perhaps you are bigger and stronger. Maybe your observer has an instinctive fear of humans.

After your walk, write about your encounters from your point of view, but incorporating the types of reactions you experienced emanating from those around you.

The Experience of Writing

As a writer I get to experience the world in a unique way - or I should say in many unique ways. Part of the pleasure for me is the detective work of getting to know my characters 'inside-out' and seeing their worlds through their eyes.

Diana and I travelled to the historic Gold Rush town of Barkerville, BC this week as part of my research for Stained Glass. The question we encountered all the way up the famed Cariboo Wagon Road was: "Barkerville in March? Who goes to Barkerville in the winter time?"

A writer and an artist, that's who!

Wandering around the deserted, snow clogged streets of the town gave me an idea of what the main characters in Stained Glass might have been seeing and feeling during a winter sojourn in their remote community. That sense of 'being there' is essential, and for me making that connection between then and now, me and them, here and there is the groundwork for a successful story. It's also fun, in a quirky sort of way.

Sources and inspirational techniques for me include:

• Actual trips to settings where a story takes place;
• Conversations with people who have lived the life you're writing about;
• Visits to the library and the archives;
• Meditations on the lives of my main characters;
• Enactments, where I become the characters I want to write about;
• Collaborations with people who are in the roles you want to portray.

The secret is: You really have to like engaging in these kinds of activities. It has to be fun. You have to laugh when people ask you questions like, 'Barkerville in March? Are you nuts?' And sort of agree that you are.

A house with many windows

flickr image by Uncle Phooey

An exercise I find useful in developing both character and plot is imagining my story from every main character's point of view, and having each character write an account of the story in a letter to me, the author. These sketches don't have to be long. A couple of hand written pages is usually enough. But they have to touch on the salient points of the story from that character's point of view.

One of the interesting outcomes of this exercise is it begins to define me as narrator as much as it fleshes out the characters. In a future entry I will talk about that invisible character behind any work of fiction, the narrator. You never really meet him, not even in autobiographical works, but this spirit shapes the entire work and is, in fact, its voice.

So these letters are an appeal to a subtle yet powerful deity. I find it works best if I imagine each character trying to make his case to a tetchy, somewhat arbitrary judge. A dear-sir quality pervades the letters; but also a hello-it's-me tone. They are emphatic attempts to influence the narrator's telling of the story in the writer's favor.

Most importantly, they are to be written while the author is immersed in each character's persona. That's key. These are not abstract impressions of what the characters might write, based on the author's research and ideas. They are actual notes, dashed off in a moment of enthusiasm, or rage, or sadness, or despondency by a character relating his role in the story. A sense of urgency and a desire to be understood impels the writer. The predominant traits of the character should be evident in the letter: meekness, haughtiness, arrogance, callousness, stupidity... those personality traits have to show up. Which means the writer has to get thoroughly into the role as his pen channels the character's version of events onto the page.

It's common knowledge that every witness to an event has an entirely different story to tell. You can take that adage a little farther by likening the story to a house with many windows. Each of the characters gets to look in through his own window, but the full layout and the details of all the rooms only become visible to the narrator. You can turn that around, too. Each character can look out of his own window into the great beyond, but only the narrator will have a complete view of the encompassing sky.

Getting Into Character

flickr image by Josh.Liba

As an author I have to 'get into' the skins of my characters. How do I do that? Every writer uses his own set of rituals and techniques, so what follows is an overview peculiar to me. Since character is the heart and soul of my stories this is a topic that will be revisited many times, I am sure.

To begin with, there are three sources of inspiration for developing character: research, association and philosophy. Each of these breaks down to its own facets, which we may explore later. For now, I'm going to develop a 'big picture'.

Before we go on, though, it's worth asking: what am I looking for? What do we mean when we say we're 'exploring character'? The sense I have when I set out to write a story is that I am on a historical quest. I consider myself a biographer of sorts, who is investigating the habits and actions of real people; not a daydreamer, fantasizing about purely fictional beings. That mind-set gives a tangible cast to the characters as I investigate.

Research delves into the hard facts of who my character might be. I read books about their eras, visit places they might have been, get a sense of their vocations. For example, the protagonist in Stained Glass, a novel in progress, is an Anglican priest. Step one for me is to establish contacts with practicing Anglicans to flesh out the religious parameters of his life. What was it like to be in seminary? What are the day-to-day duties of a priest? How does a life dedicated to Christ alter the world view of a priest? The book is set in the 1870s, in the Gold Rush Town of Barkerville, BC. The archives at Barkerville will yield a wealth of imagery and journal entries that will further flesh out the life and times of my characters. Research, for me, is like hunting through a crowd, looking for evidence of a character that already exists - things my character might have experienced, internalized and become.

Association brings into the mix all the people I've ever known, who might share some of my character's traits. There is an intimacy to my 'real time' relationships that adds depth to my appreciation of a character. Although I haven't had close contact with any Anglican priests, for example, I did attend Norwood United Church as a child and can remember vividly my interactions with Reverend Kennedy, the minister of the day. Although he was not at all similar to the protagonist in my story, there are some character traits that translate: the tone of voice he used in delivering his sermons; the way he greeted members of the congregation as they entered the church; the swish and billow of his robes; a certain professional aloofness. Other personalities in my life are also great reference points: teachers, psychologists, close friends.

Philosophy (or call it psychology, if you prefer) helps me extrapolate and discover elements of character that I might never have encountered or imagined. My philosophical framework is a home-made 'schematic' I call The Tetrahedron. It categorizes experience into physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual realms, which are all interconnected. Physical experience manifests as pain or pleasure; emotional as love or hate; intellectual as right or wrong; spiritual as infinite or finite. Although this is purely conceptual - The Tetrahedron does not exist - it is a marvelous construct for analyzing human motives and the factors that distort human perspectives.

Introduction

Next time you sit down at your computer to bash out a short story or - god have mercy on your soul - the first episode of a full fledged novel, stop! You're not ready! Don't do it!

Writing isn't about getting words onto a page. It's about exploration of self, character, setting, symbol, plot, structure, style... It's a way of experiencing the world and inciting readers to laughter or tears through the magic of your story.

Getting to that magic is the essence of good writing. Too often we are in a hurry to see words on paper, to format them, edit them, fire them off to publishers. We make the mistake of thinking that writing is about the physical act of scribbling words on pages or setting neat columns of type on a computer screen.

In a results-oriented world this isn't surprising. When was the first time you were told to 'stop daydreaming'. Were mom or dad frustrated because they wanted you to get into the car 'right now, Mister!'? Or was a teacher frustrated that you weren't paying attention to what was etched onto the board? Or did your boss catch you staring off into the distance in your cubicle?

We have been trained not to daydream, not to enter that realm where magic happens; the job ahead of us is to train ourselves to daydream effectively. You can use other words if you want: remember, envision, imagine, and so on. It all amounts to the same thing. As writers we need to engage in purposeful daydreaming so that we can make our visions real to enchanted readers.

First, though, it has to be real to you. We have to know our characters: have lived inside their skins, spoken in their voices, suffered their betrayals and committed their sins. Only then are we ready to actually sit down and write anything other than a sketch or outline.

The topic headings to this blog all point back to this introcution for now. But in the coming weeks, months and possibly years, we will be expanding upon them - and adding to the list - so that as StoryBuilders we will have a fantastic resource to share.