I don't always start out in love with my characters. Generally they present me with an intriguing scenario—a literary proposition, if you will—and I say, "Okay, let's see where this takes us."
During the initial test drive, they usually make me chuckle, but too often they exasperate me. Usually it's when I can't figure out where they should go next, and they stand there, shrugging, as if to say, "You have the story GPS. You figure it out."
This is the situation I found myself in with my current WIP. I had come up with the hero and heroine a long time ago, and I felt like I knew them pretty well. The heroine had starred in several important scenes in a different book, one in which her brother is the hero. But I had never seen her interact with the man who is her hero in the current manuscript.
So I had a basic premise for the hero and heroine, and they dutifully played their parts as I racked up the daily word count for NaNo.
Unfortunately they weren't doing anything to make me fall in love with them. That worried me. Every writer-mama loves her ugly babies to pieces, but the real trick is to make readers fall in love with these same characters.
Yet how could I manage that if they weren't really tickling MY fancy?
I debated whether to set them aside, although it would have been tricky since I'd written about 15k words, so starting over with something else would have made it difficult to finish NaNo. And I was determined to finish NaNo no matter what happened.
Luckily I discovered there's a reward for dogged persistence, which is a good thing, because I have a ton of dogged persistence in my system.
I was about to start writing a scene where the heroine is waiting, with her brother, at the hero's house. She is planning on presenting him with a certain solution to his current problem, which is also something she wants quite desperately. All of a sudden the heroine surprised me by being nervous at seeing the hero.
She is never nervous. NEVER. He is her brother's best friend, and she's known him forever. Yet, in this particular situation, she completely loses her resolve. (To be honest, I thought she should have done so a few scenes previously, and when she didn't, I couldn't help but admire her tenacity.)
When the hero enters the room, he sees her start to falter, and he rushes to help her. That was definitely nice of him, since up to this point he's treated her more like an annoying little sister who is thwarting his plans (which truly are important).
He is used to seeing her handle every kind of calamity with aplomb, so he teases her, and instead of continuing to fall apart. . .she pinches him.
And the hero laughs.
It's something they've gone through with each other many times while growing up, and they have this whole history I'd kind of overlooked, because I had focused on where they were going rather than where they've been. They had a fun, playful relationship that hadn't really exhibited itself until this scene, and it showcased their individual personalities as well as how they meshed with each other.
That is when I fell in love with them.
Maybe it was because they revealed a certain vulnerability or a spark of humanity I hadn't glimpsed before. Or maybe it was that intimate moment when they let down their guard about the pinching episodes that let me know they cared for each other and always had.
They had moved from an intriguing premise to people whose future I cared deeply about. Now I wanted to know how they were going to take this shared history and lifelong relationship and combine it with new challenges on the way to their HEA.
All it took was one little pinch.
When do you fall in love with your characters? What did they do to make you feel that way?
Similar to your experience, I fall in love with my characters when they are secondary characters. They capture my interest by being so ecentric that I know there's a mystery behind their outrageous behavior just begging to be explored. But the clincher, this-is-love-moment, has something to do with the sadness I feel about the contrast of those mysterious characters being alone at the end of the story when the hero and heroine get their happy ending. There's something in me that says I have to fix this! LOL
I'm pretty sure the attraction between myself and this "new" main character is strong enough last over the long haul of a novel, but I'm way behind on my matchmaking duties. LOL
Posted by: Melissa | October 07, 2011 at 08:33 AM
Melissa, secondary characters do have the freedom to snatch our hearts away. LOL And I got a little sad thinking about them being alone at the end of the story -- I hadn't thought of that before! It is like matchmaking. LOL
I think my brain gets started on their stories when I get a little stuck with the main characters. (In fact, I wrote an upcoming blog post on this topic just yesterday. LOL) They can seem a lot more appealing when we're not mired in the details of their story.
Posted by: Donna Cummings | October 07, 2011 at 09:00 AM
I usually write short stories so it has to be love at first sight with me.
The character usually has something important missing from life which attracts my sympathy. It might be a child who is missing a parent or a woman who is lonely and searching for a partner.
The courage and ingenuity exhibited in resolving the issues help to form characters that I can fall in love with.
I think that description is a strong feature of my writing, probably derived from much professional scientific writing. For love scenes however, or that moment when attraction is sparked, I find that a softer style is important.
Rather like dimming the lights and using candles for a romantic dinner. One has to turn off the spot light and allow the conversation and action to become dreamy, imaginative and full of latent warmth.
Of course no-one has published my stuff so what would I know? LOL
Fascinating as always Donna *smile*
Posted by: Quantum | October 08, 2011 at 04:42 PM
Q, I think I fall in love a little slower. LOL Maybe my characters take a little longer to show themselves, but once they do, then I fall, and I fall hard. :) And you're right about their courage and ingenuity being part of the reason why.
I also like your notion of turning off the spot light when it comes to love scenes. That's a great description (yes, you ARE good at that!), and I think it pulls the reader in even more, increasing the intimacy of those scenes.
Thanks for your comments -- you always give such great food for thought!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | October 08, 2011 at 07:39 PM
I love it when that happens. It's the little things! I have a couple of characters that I felt the same way about a while back. Now I can't get enough.
Posted by: Kari Marie | October 08, 2011 at 11:58 PM
Kari Marie, isn't it amazing? I miss my characters sometimes. And since they have more FUN, I'm also envious of them. LOL
Posted by: Donna Cummings | October 09, 2011 at 08:42 AM