Can You See Them?

I have a confession to make.  When I write a story, or even when I read one, I can't see the characters.  

I don't think my brain works that way.  Maybe it did before it got crumpled, but it doesn't now.

Oh, I hear them fine.  And I do have a general impression of what they look like.  But I couldn't give their descriptions to a sketch artist and have them draw these people so they'd look like what I think they look like.  I couldn't pick them out of a line-up.  Because I don't think they look like anything more than an amorphous blob.

Looking for models for my book covers was the hardest thing.  My cover artist gave me a link to the site she uses and had me go at it.  I scanned hundreds of photos to find the best approximation of what Jo Mayweather and Jeni Braxxon look like.  I must've scanned hundreds more to find images for Accidental Death and Natural Causes, and those aren't even full face.  All I had to do was find a general shape.  

Once I'm made to go look for a character's face, then they have a face forever after.  Jo will always look like the cover model to me now.  So will Jeni.  Before that?  Not a clue.  Once I went looking for an image of Zeke - because I think someone asked me for it - and Zeke now looks like that dude.  (I'd show you, but the link to that model is broken now.  Oops.)

I have author friends who are all like 'this is what my character looks like' and they'll show a picture they found.  I'm a little jealous of those folks.  I want to see my creations in my head, but I can't.  

Thinking about it now, I can't really hold the images of someone's face in my head either.  Real life people are amorphous blobs, too.  :shrug:

As a result, I'm probably not the best at describing my characters in writing.  At least, I don't feel like I'm the best.  My readers are probably a better judge of that than I am.  The image the reader has in their heads probably isn't anywhere close to what I would have, if, you know, I had an image.  I guess that's okay.  I want the reader to picture the characters as they see them.  I guess what I do write as description is sufficient for that purpose.  

Like in Untitled Fantasy... Captain Vere, the head of the Academy, is tall and wiry with silver hair (not silver as in old, just silver) and a scar running down her cheek.  She's a battle-hardened lady and obviously tough enough to run an academy full of kids learning magic and skills for battle, but there's a sadness to her as she never really had a childhood of her own and her twin was killed in battle.  Can ya picture her?  

But let's take Aryl, the main character.  He's average height/weight for a 15-year-old boy.  He's a farm boy, so he's got some physical strength, but he's also way smaller than his friend, Galin.  Black hair, violet eyes.  And that's all I've got for him.  Can't picture anything else, so there he is.  And I need to go find a model for him so I can do the freakin' cover.  Derp.

His sister, Lyra...  White hair, violet eyes.  Pretty.  Or at least pretty to Galin.  I guess she would have a similar facial structure to Aryl... they are twins, after all, even if it's fraternal and not identical.  Since I can't see him, I can't really give you her either.  She's a wisp of a dream of a drawing of a person.

Galin... Aryl's best friend and sweet on Lyra.  Big dude for his age.  A 'pull the plow when the horses get tired' kind of guy.  

Anyway, I don't want to talk about every character here.  I have the basics, but I can't SEE them.  Wish I could.  Can't.  

What about you?  Can you see the characters you write or read?  Are they fully-formed or just blobs?  Does having a picture help?  Or when you see a pic of the characters do they totally harsh the image you formed on your own?

Updates and Changes

I started a paranormal mystery last night and sure enough, it had a black cat in it.  And this one talked, too.  Again. 

Other than the cover art for Ugly and the Beast, it's not that hard to change the cat from black to some other color.  At this point, any other color would do. 

I need to contact my ultra-busy cover artist and see if she can squeeze a quick change in.  If swapping out the black cat for another cat is too much work or requires extra payment, I may just nix the cat from the cover altogether.  She didn't charge me when I had her pull Mary off the cover of In Deep Wish, so there's hope. 

It's just as well I'm finding this stuff now.  Once the book goes live and people start reading it, it's a bitch to change anything in it.

If she can't do it, Kazimir (formerly Oliver) will remain black.  No help for that.  Can't have a black cat on the cover and not have the damn cat be black.

I keep having to change things in these books because I keep finding similarities to other books.  Which reminds me, Pinky isn't Pinky anymore.  He's still a pink hellbeast, but the name has changed to something more interesting because someone else had a hellhound named Blue.  Too same-same.  I like the new name better.  It has a story behind it - relating back to a manager I had once upon a time who wore the most garish pink nail polish, and her use of nicknames for everyone.  But I'm not talking about the new name here because it seems like every time I let a piece of info out, I have to change it and it's very confusing.

I rewrote the end of Ugly and the Beast, too.  Which I think I like better.  I kept the old ending, just in case. 

Anyway, I'm making headway.  I've re-read and edited the 9300 words I have for Cinder Ugly and will be adding new words to it starting today.  Not sure where I'm going but the fingers will do the walking and we'll see what happens.  Weeeeee.

And that's what's going on in my world. 

I'm still not posting here very often.  If you want more posts, visit The Writing Spectacle.  If I'm not here, most likely I'm there.

Changing a Character's Voice is Hard Work

Imagine you've typed along for weeks/months, building your world and populating it with unique individuals.  You've got a whole book.  Maybe more than one.  And suddenly, you realize this one character isn't as unique as you thought he was.

This hasn't been a problem for me.  Characters pretty much pop out of my head onto the page and I leave them as they are.  I haven't seen a reason to change any of them after they were already birthed onto paper. 

Then came Thomas... who popped into my head almost fully formed when I first started writing Ugly and the Beast.  But he was too much like another Thomas in another UF series.  So, he became Oliver.  And I wrote the whole book with Oliver being Oliver.

Except after I was finished and starting to write Cinder Ugly, I noticed a lot of other books had characters that were a lot like Oliver. 

Hit the brakes and hit the wall.

I'm too far along to completely change Oliver.  He's a cat.  He has to be a cat or there are several... tons... of scenes that don't work right.  He has to be a black cat - because I already paid for a cover with a black cat on it. 

Okay, I can do this.  In my head, I've reworked Oliver into Kazimir - an Eastern European aristocratic cat.  No biggie, right? 

Wrong.  I can't seem to get his voice to stick firmly in my head.  My head still wants him to sound like Thomas... err, Oliver.  And he's not.  He's Kazimir.  KAZIMIR.  Kaz-i-mir.  (Maybe if I keep saying his new name, it'll stick.)

I think I need to immerse myself in people speaking with that particular accent until I hear Kazimir talking in my head.  Right now, he's this bizarre snooty British/Russian/Geico Gecko with attitude and slang.  So, that definitely needs to change or it needs to be consistent.  And I need to make sure he doesn't sound too much like Grigori from the genie books. 

Gah.

Like I said, changing a character's voice is hard work.  But no one promised any of this would be easy.  And if they did... ROFL... right.

Now I just need to suck it up and move forward with this.  Maybe I'll sit down with my trusty notebook and have a little conversation with ol' Kaz on paper until I can hear him in my head. 

Ever have this problem?  If you're a reader, have you ever run across a case where the character's voice wasn't consistent?  Did it bother you as much as it bothers me?

What's in a Name?

Like Shakespeare said, 'a rose by any other name would smell as sweet', but I offer you this.  If a rose was actually called a schmerpdoodle, it wouldn't be nearly as poetic.  "My love is like a red, red schmerpdoodle." Umm no.

Romeo didn't care that Juliet was a Capulet, but you never actually hear her mentioned as Juliet Capulet. Which kinda doesn't trip off the tongue, imo.  (It's the rhymy end thing - et and et.)

Thinking of the names used in popular culture, would Will and Grace have been as successful if they were Mortimer and Eugenia?  Would Hannibal Lecter have been as scary if Harris had called him Burt?  Would Rose on the Titanic been as lovely if she was Myrtle?  Would Thomas Magnum P.I. have been as sexy if they'd called him Thomas Lipschitz? 

For that matter, would Jane Eyre have been as excellent a MC if her name had been Bertha Butts?

As you might've guessed, I'm stuck trying to think of a name for the heroine in my latest SCIU novel.  Hell, I can't even think of a title yet.  But for me, titles come AFTER I've started the book, and I can't start the book until I know who I'm writing about.  What is her NAME??? 

My first thought was to call her Grace.  But Dying Embers' MC is Jace.  Too same-same.  Then I had the idea to name her Ginny, but I already have too many J sounds in my heroine names - Jace, Jo, Jillian.  Plus, my villain's name starts with a G.  Then I was going to name her Megan, but I couldn't see her as a Megan.  Then I got the idea to name her Kara.  Kara is good.  It was one of the top girl names for 1980, which would make her 36.  Then I went about looking for a last name.  The problem with having a name that ends in a vowel is when you say the full name, you often end up blurring them together. Kara Toliver ends up sounding like Carrot Oliver. 

Yeah, I'm probably overthinking this.  The real crux of the issue is that I don't know her well enough.  Usually, the character pops into my head fully formed and her name comes along with her.  J.C. 'Jace' Douglas popped right in there.  And it took me like two seconds to make the JC stand for Jaylinda Charlene.  I could actually hear her mother calling her in my head. 

As an aside, the JC actually stands for the first initials of my parents' first names. Kind of a nod to them, if you will.  You know, I don't think I ever told Mom that...

Anyway, I'm still not sure what I'll be calling her.  When I find it, I'll know.  And until then, I have writing to do whether I like the name or not.  I can always use 'Find'/'Replace' later.

What are some memorable character names you've enjoyed?  Any that you really thought fit the character?  Any you would've renamed if you had been the writer?

Jo Talks Genies - Part Two

Sanderson here asked me an interesting question the other day. It's one I've been asked time and again over the years. 

"What's this whole 'freeing genies' thing about? I mean, why do you do it?"

First off, think about it.  A whole species of intelligent beings starts their existence out as slaves.  Who wants that shit?

Now, some have argued - the Council, for instance - that slavery is decreed by the gods and it's a way to keep being with incredible power from taking over and ruining things for the rest of the sentient life on the planet.  I figure if we're so damn incredible, we should be able to put a rein on our own damn selves.  All it takes is a little knowledge and a good moral compass.

Okay, so not everyone has that.  And lord knows, it's not like the best and the brightest of the lot get chosen somehow to become a genie.  Look at me.  I was an airhead without the common sense frogs are endowed with.  But I learned.  And the big Rules keep us from doing anything really stupid - like unmaking the universe.  What I started with the Network was a way to take the genies who might not have the knowledge or the good moral compass, and train them to be productive members of society.  So far, it's worked pretty well. 

I also admit there's a good amount of guilt behind my mission.  I got my freedom because my Master died, and then I spent it playing hedonist.  What a waste of forever.  Now I spent time trying to free other genies without someone having to die.  All it takes is a little wish and POOF they're free.  Or to use a phrase Basil likes to toss around - easy peasy.  If the Council or the Efreet or the gods don't like it, they can lump it.  (Or they can try to stop me - which is the more likely scenario.) 

If you're interested in learning more about genies, or my escapades of trying to do my job when not everyone wants me to do it, grab a copy of Wish in One Hand.  Right now, I have genies to wrangle and Efreet to chase.

Character Profile: Meet Ezekiel ben Aron

Ezekiel ben Aron

born: before Atlantis sunk beneath the waves, an original Israelite

Hair: curly black
Eyes: brown
Height: 6'
Weight: slim

Year of changing: I'm not sure they had calendars back then
Creator: Unknown

Marital status: currently unmarried
Djinn status: Free
Reason for status: He's says 'it's a long story', but I think he'd just prefer not to say.

Current residence: Mansion, south of Denver, CO
Current employment: Owner and proprietor, B.A. Security

Known associates: Hans and Frank (his bodyguards), Mary Killigrew, Jo Mayweather

Pets: After what he's seen and what he knows, he prefers not to have pets.