WEAPONIZING your CHARACTERS

There is something brilliant in selecting a weapon for a character that not only works for what must be done story-wise, but which defines the character in specific and perfect ways.

Wasn't that fun?

Not always, but often, there is more going on than just arming your characters. Sure, it could be a world where blades are commonplace and no one is startled by seeing a man with a blade on his belt. But maybe it is a world where only certain people have blades. Then it is a status symbol, displaying power and evoking responsibility. Or maybe, as the Walking Dead franchise is pretty good at showing, the taking up of the weapon is symbolic of the change of mindset in the character.

Did the character fashion the weapon out of ingenuity and need?

Was the weapon a gift of rank?

Was it earned or taken by force?

What did the character go through

to get to the exact place in time

where he could claim the weapon?

What did possessing that weapon mean to the character?

You could feel what the weapon meant to him, right?

Approaching with disbelief, yet in need.

The childlike wonder and joy in claiming the weapon.

The confidence gripping it bestowed him.

The freedom from the chains it gave him.

And what about a character who does not need a visible weapon to

Destroy an Enemy With His Mind?

And what about those who are not the obvious product of fiction,

but who are real and could be in line behind you at the grocery

or in the apartment upstairs, or the cubicle next to you?

 I'm talking about the subtle, sweet faced character armed
with something that cuts deeper, slower,
and does every bit as much damage
as a well-honed and poison-tipped blade.

"If that's how you remember it."

"Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse where the abuser manipulates situations repeatedly to trick the victim into distrusting his or her own memory and perceptions. Gaslighting is an insidious form of abuse. It makes victims question the very instincts that they have counted on their whole lives, making them unsure of anything. Gaslighting makes it very likely that victims will believe whatever their abusers tell them regardless as to their own experience of the situation. Gaslighting often precedes other types of emotional and physical abuse because the victim of gaslighting is more likely to remain in other abusive situations as well."  (Article this is from is HERE)

I don't think this would be easy to write (both emotionally and tactically), though with the latter the problem of showing the reader everything the victim-character is buying little by little while the reader screams, "You know better!"

Taken Over: When Your Characters Grab the Wheel

How do I feel when characters take a left when I very distinctly remember instructing them to go right?

I live for it. It's the reason I write. It means the characters and their story have escaped the confines of my tiny mind. Whether taken over by gods or demons or the spirits of the abyss, I neither know nor care. Except for the fact that it does happen. If my characters don't dig their heels in, glare at me and tell me I'm wrong, then the story has no life. It doesn't breathe on its own. And I shove it into the book graveyard - the box under the bed. Really. This is why there are monsters and a birthday Grumpy cat in my office. They remind me to leave room for the weird and unexpected.

This means I can't outline. Not the way our resident plotters do. I find I have to hold plot very loosely, ready to let it go at any second, otherwise, I strangle it. It's the strangest thing. I'd so LOVE to be able to outline a story and write it beginning to end without wondering where the hell I'm going and why. (and why are we in this hand basket?)

After some trial and error, I've come to find that I can't write from WHAT (what happens). I have to write from WHY. Why these characters? Why are they here? Why are they the way they are? There are a few whats in that, too. What do they want and why do they want it. What are their fears? Their beliefs? You've heard me talk about it before, but I'm gonna say it again. Break Into Fiction. This is a character motivation driven method of plotting. No claim that it's better than any other - only that it's the way that makes the most sense to me. It's detailed and drills down into stuff that would make just about anyone else other than me cry. (Go to the live workshops for Break Into Fiction and I guarantee you'll see someone cry before the weekend is up, though usually happy tears...mostly.)

I end up with thorough understanding of my characters -- where they start and where I need them to end up. I know where the book starts. I know the inciting incident (in fact, I generally know these prior to sitting down to work through the character templates).  After working through the templates, I usually know where the book ends and in general  what has to happen to make these people earn their HEA. If they get one.

But just for example, my first book, Enemy Within. I had that book plotted. 100%. I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen. I started NaNoWriMo that year full of great hope and grand ambition. I blew through 25k words in no time.

And then everything stopped.

November ended and I was still staring at my blinking cursor. Finally, after a week and a half of me twisting and turning and trying to make deals with an uncaring devil, one of the characters took pity upon me and whispered inside my head one night that the thing I thought was the ending wasn't the ending. It was the end of the first act. Oh! Well okay! Let's move that right on up here and look! I'm writing! Wait! That was my carefully laid plot...and it's gone. I didn't drift in the void for more than a day, however. That was the point at which the characters stepped forward and took the reins of their story.

Is it an efficient way to right? Ye gods and little fishes, no. But it is the way this whole process works for me. I hope it's tidier for you. But if it isn't, all I can suggest is that you breathe and leave some space in your plans for everything to go wonderfully sideways.

While Linda's Away...

Linda's off waging war against...things I can't mention or she'll have to kill me.

In the absence of her sagacity, we present a video lecture on character introduction, development, and believable change by Hollywood greats.

Writing Characters For Film & Television from the Film Courage Screenwriting Series

(search YouTube for that phrase)