Directory Writing Workshops

Workshop: Developing Characters With Character

Dancing Word Writers Workshop

with Eva Marie Everson

March 10, 2002

Hosted by: Anne McDonald

Dancing Word Publisher/Editor

*This chat has been edited for clarity

Anne McDonald:  I'll open in prayer, go over protocol, then introduce our guest.

Anne McDonald: Lord, thank You again for Your faithfulness, grace and mercy. Thank You also for Your calling on our lives. Help us to learn our craft and put it to the best use possible. Please bless each participant tonight, and give a special blessing to our guest, Eva. Guide and direct our conversation. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Ok, protocol reminder....type ! for comments, ? for questions, and ga when you are finished....please wait to be called on in turn.

Tonight, I'd like to introduce Eva Marie Everson. She's been busy this past year or so putting out four books...(Am I right, Eva?)

Eva: That's about right. Somewhere in there.

Anne McDonald: Tonight, she's going to share her techniques for developing characters with character. Please give her a warm welcome.

KiwiElle: welcome

terri-p: clap,clap,clap

nbandrews: welcome

Eva: thank you Annie etal

Eva: Let me begin by asking how many of you played with dolls when you were little? and you can answer me or just nod at the screen. ga

KiwiElle: both of us LOL

terri-p: Nope.

Mimosajo: :::::::::waving::::::::::::

nbandrews: some

Vickie: nope - tomboy here

Eva: Well, I did. I played with Barbie and Midge and Ken and Alan I had the ENTIRE clan of Mattel dolls. I played with them every day, too. Each one had a name, each one had a story.

Anne McDonald: (lucky duck. I had paper dolls)

Eva: (I had those too) and the stories I made up for each of them continued day to day; personalities grew.

I'm glad you mentioned paper dolls, Annie. What is the difference between paper dolls and Barbie dolls?

Anne McDonald: Y ou have to use more imagination

KiwiElle: (I loved paper dolls! I made my own!! And Nessie played with marbles that each had their own personality!!)

Anne McDonald: (lol, Kiwi)

Mimosajo: Dimension and touch

Eva: Exactly. Dimension especially three dimensional vs. one. Have you ever read a book where the characters seemed flat?

Anne McDonald: yep (Dick and Jane)

Eva: It's not a lot of fun. Now think of a book you've read where the characters are ALIVE and even when you put the book down, you feel as though the characters are still with you. That's a good read! Characters push a story along...

Anne McDonald: Dee Henderson's characters in her O'Malley series.

KiwiElle: We just said the O'Malley family!!

Eva: there you go

KiwiElle: LOL

Eva: Think about Scarlett O’Hara. WHAT would GWTW have been without HER and her personality? She was a character we actually cared about, though sometimes we wanted to knock her in the head and maybe even whack her across the tush. But when she was hungry and vowed never to be hungry again...we felt for her because Ms. Mitchell had painted this spoiled child who was really a strong woman and who was about to learn that the hard way.

Now...with all that said, when I develop characters, I spend days and days and days with them before I ever begin to write about them. One of the things I do is to go thru magazines until I find a model in an ad, etc. that I feel looks like the character I've pictured in my mind. I tear it out and begin an actual file on that character. What is one of the first things you'd figure you have to do for your new character?

Anne McDonald: Get them to stop waking you up in the middle of the night.

Eva: Well, yeah...they're known for that. Anyone else have a guess?

terri-p: name them. ga

Eva: there ya go. Name will depend on:

1) What part of the world they live in
2) ethnical background
3) era they are born in, etc.

There are some websites for "baby names" that I go to...looking at the person in the photo...studying the variables...until I feel as though I've hit the right name.

Why was Scarlett named Scarlett, do you think? ga

terri-p: Red hair and hot temper? Ga

Eva: Exactly! What a perfect name for her! When I named Katie in Shadow of Dreams (my first novel)...I actually named her Katharine...and spelled it with an "A," not an "E" which denotes an old world breeding. Katharine Elizabeth...because Elizabeth was a very popular name back in the late fifties when she was born, but there was more. Katharine's grandmother was also Katharine...as we are known to do in the south...but she was called Nana Kate. Kate called Katharine "Katie" and expected it to stick but Katie's mother refused...would only call her Katharine. Can you see where this is leading? Mother and daughter issues abound!

bee: Conflict, conflict, conflict.

Eva: Yes. Yet...with a name like Katharine/Katie I knew that as Katie she is fun loving and a friend to all. But in the board room, KATHARINE is a take-charge woman of power.

Now...the next thing I do is begin to ask myself things about the character: date of birth, parents, relationship to parents, siblings, relationship to siblings, what were the formative years like; early school years; How did she/he get that scar on her/his leg; first boyfriend; first kiss; first heartache; if she could be anyone in the world, who would it be.

I really DIG into the personality of the character…best friends, favorite color, favorite drink. I grab fashion catalogs and determine how he or she would dress, home furnishing magazines and look for the style of decor they would have in their home. When I find them, I tear them out.....And....they go into the file.

Anne McDonald: I got a software program where I can design the character's home ga

Eva: cool!

Robert: So you decorate them, Eva?

Eva: Robert, absolutely! I could literally WALK into their homes (in my mind, of course)

terri-p: How do you store the loose pictures? I'd lose them.

Eva: in manila files

Robert: Ever get into them? Or is it merely decoration?

Eva: Hold just a sec...and I'll open for ?'s. Where was I? Oh, What I'm saying is that your characters must be REAL to you in order to be REAL to your readers. Once I have the ground-work done, I begin to get into their personalities. WHY does she hate loud noise? WHY does he distrust people? That sort of thing. If a character hates being around children, I want to know WHY

I may not USE everything I know about the character, but it's important that I KNOW the character. Once I have ALL my characters built, then I can begin to bring their stories together…plot weaving...which is another workshop! :o)

okay...questions for now?

terri-p: Do unplanned characters ever pop into your stories while you're writing? If so, what do you do with them?

Eva: ah., yes!!! and I just love it when they do! What I do is stop writing and build the character....of course if I'm in the middle of a scene, I finish it then build...and then go back and add to the scene In my second book, Summon the Shadows ...which comes out in May, I had that VERY thing happen. I had a character who was only to have a few lines. 'WELL.!!!!! Did she ever COME TO LIFE on the screen of my computer and DEMANDED to be reckoned with! I'm very pleased with her.

Robert: You are inside of them first, right?

Eva: Robert, yes I DO get inside of them. Sometimes it's scary and I have to ask for time alone afterward.

Anne McDonald: Terri asked about storing pictures...

Eva: yes

Anne McDonald:I glue mine onto paper and put them in specific binders depending on the story.

Eva: I actually frame them and set them on my desk while I'm working with them. Sad...isn't it??? framed photos of people who don't exist! LOL

Vickie: What magazines seem to have the best pictures?

Eva: oh, goodness...well...it's according to the character. If I’m writing about a teenager, I grab a "SEVENTEEN" or something like that..."Town and Country" for my rich people :o)

Anne McDonald: There are a number of terrific magazines that you can choose from...

Eva: Absolutely...I have a HUGE stack of nearly every basic magazine like "Country Living"...etc.

Anne McDonald: I go to the used bookstores a lot of time to pick them up. (In fact, I've got tons of extras if anyone wants to pay for shipping)

Eva: I go to the library's bookstore and get them for nickles and dimes

nbandrews: What about pictures for historical?

terri-p: There are great western magazines with pictures...I think it's "American West."

Eva: mostly what I'm looking for is a face. There are also websites to tell you about dress, etc of the different eras. One of the things I like to do is to "go for a walk" with my characters. I literally GO for a walk...and chat with these people giving them time to get to know me and me them...THEN they wake me up at all hours of the morning! :o)

Anyone else?

Vickie: How much of the storyline is planned ahead of time?

Eva: before the character or before I write?

Vickie: before you write

Eva: I'd say between 90-95% For Shadow of Dreams, I spent three to four months in prep. (the other percent allows the characters to have some room to dictate)

nbandrews: do your characters do things you weren't expecting?

Eva: ALL THE TIME! and for me that's fun! Like the character I just told you about in Summon. Her name is Victoria--Victoria Thomas Whitney. What a rotten little thing she is…selfish! Selfish! Selfish! LOL

She pulled out a cell phone in her ONE big scene and ended up with a larger part. I had NO idea she was going to do that.

Anne McDonald: Eva, do you ever get movie flashes of your characters, or do you just hear them?

Eva: Annie, I have a background in theater and dramatic arts...one of my directors told me once...that he could put me in a blank room and tell me to act out a scene and I'd see every little piece of it in my mind...so, to answer you...everything becomes real to me. I can SEE the people...HEAR the people…for me, they ARE real

Eva: I nearly hate to see a book come to an end...and their surroundings become real too.

Anne McDonald: I hate it when I get a movie flash while I'm driving...it's quite disturbing at the time. My characters aren't known for biding their time.

Eva: true. one last thing...to tell you the importance of getting to know your characters, etc. When I wrote Shadow of Dreams (by the way, nominated for a Christy and noted by CBD as being one of the top suspense novels of 2001)....grinning.....I wrote about a character named Marcy. My content editor loved her and encouraged me to do a little more with her, so I did. If you read some of the comments at Amazon, etc. you will see the number of readers who mention her!! They want her for their best friend. SO! when I wrote the sequel, she got a big role! :o)

Mimosajo: Do you re-write and if so, how do you go about it?

Eva: Books aren't written, they are re-written. My chapters will go thru anywhere from four to ten re-writes. Sometimes, as you move along in your story, you end up heading in a new direction and you have to go back and rewrite. Then, of course, when the content editor gets it, you rewrite again.

nbandrews: Do you complete a 1st draft before rewrite?

Eva: No, I rewrite a chapter several times before I move on. Then, when it's done...I'll go over the whole thing again then rewrite/edit with the content editor.

Anne McDonald:  Eva, thank you so much for coming. I surely appreciate it,

Eva: Thank you! There is SO MUCH to say about characterization and it certainly can't be done in one hour, but this is a GREAT place to start. I'd like to encourage each of you to build characters every day. When you're in public, notice the people around you..think up stories about them…that sort of thing.

You can build characters you don't even use...ever...but the exercise is worth it.

Anne McDonald:  Take a notebook with you on your times out.

Eva: Absolutely. I play a game with myself when I'm in airports--wonder what HER name is, HIS occupation--that sort of thing.  Thank you again for having me!

Eva Marie Everson

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