Category: The How / Why / When of Writing

I found one of my best characters by paying attention and taking notes

One of my readers once asked how I come up with the complex characters for my novels and give them their particular mannerisms. The answer is complex: a mixture of research, a study of traits and personalities, close observation of people, watching their habits and quirks.

Many articles and books and creative writing courses have been written about character development, and my initial thought was to refer to those sources.

But as I thought about the question, I realized I had a good short answer: I listened to my dad talk. Thoughout his life, Dad invariably found himself connecting with the most curious and remarkable characters and, being the fabulous storyteller that he was, he loved telling the stories of these people.

In a book I wrote with him – “If You Can’t Pay Attention, Take Notes,” a collection of his sea stories – one of the vignettes highlights Dad’s friendship with an undercover NIS agent, completely unaware of the agent’s identity.

I was so intrigued by this character that I put him in a series of novels I wrote (the “Para Team 1” series) that involve an agent with a special unit of Naval Intelligence.

Here’s Dad’s account of the inspiration for my character, as told in his sea stories (more info about the book here):

When I was stationed in Norfolk, I met a fellow who worked in the Beachmaster unit with me. Mike was a second class boatswain’s mate and had been for a long time. You could tell by the stripes up his arm that he’d been taking the first class test for a while and obviously hadn’t passed it yet. The boatswain’s mate first class test was hard to pass.

That didn’t seem to bother him, though. He was a nice, easy-going guy – loved to tell jokes and play cards and fish. We had a lot in common.

Mike was married and had two kids. We went fishing all the time, and he and his wife came over and played cards with me and Pat. Over the course of a year, we got to know them pretty well. We even went on vacation together.

One day two military police came to the door of our building. Mike was standing between them. The MPs asked to come in to talk to a particular chief who was on duty. I told them it was a secure building and I couldn’t let them in, but if they would wait there, I’d go get him.

I found the chief and took him to the door, and the MPs arrested him. The whole time Mike didn’t look at me. I was worried about what kind of trouble he was in.

I found out from some others in the building that the chief they arrested was suspected of selling answers to the first class test. Now I was really worried about Mike.

As soon as I got off duty, I went to his house to see his wife and let her know I was going to the brig to see Mike. But when I got there, the house was completely empty. All of it was gone – the furniture, their clothes, the food in the refrigerator. Nothing was left. No moving boxes, nothing in sight.

By this time I was thoroughly confused, but I made my way over to the brig and asked if I could see Mike.

He wasn’t there. In fact, they had no idea who I was talking about.

When I got home, I told Pat about it. She was shocked. She had just seen Mike’s wife in the commissary the day before.

When I got to work the next day, I found out that Mike had been working undercover with Naval Intelligence. They had known for a while that someone was selling secrets to the test, but they weren’t sure who it was. Mike – obviously not his real name – had been working on the case all that time.

Several years later I was stationed in Charleston. One day I was walking across the base, when I passed someone who looked familiar. I turned around; he turned around. We stared at each other for a moment.

It was Mike.

But he was no longer a second class boatswain’s mate. Now he was a chief engineman.

He looked surprised, like he didn’t know what to say, but then he extended his hand.

“John, how’s it going?” he asked.

“It’s going good,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to call him, so I hesitated. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m stationed on the Sierra,” he said.

I didn’t ask him why. I figured he probably couldn’t tell me, and whatever he did tell me wouldn’t be true.

So we talked about fishing. After about ten minutes, he went on his way and I went on mine.

About a week later, I heard about a drug bust on the U.S.S. Sierra. I wasn’t surprised at all.

I never did see Mike again. At least I don’t think I did. Might depend on whether he got good at disguises.

What can you accomplish in 10 minutes? More than you think!

If you find yourself crunched for time amid your work-in-progress, I highly recommend 10 Minute Novelists.

The header on the site says, “Recognized by Writer’s Digest List of 101 Top Websites in 2016, 2018 & 2019,” and there’s good reason why. The site includes informative blog posts, writing challenges, and perhaps most important, a community of like-minded people – i.e., time-crunched writers.

It was started by Katharine Grubb back in 2006, and … well, she tells the story best here.

The community “gathers” in a Facebook group (check it out here). I joined many years ago, and it’s still one of my favorite groups. Like many Facebook groups, there are strict rules (e.g., no self-promotions, membership restricted to individuals, professional courtesy maintained, etc.), which keeps the group – now up to 15,000+ members – running smoothly.

The Facebook group includes a Question of the Day, Monday Blogs (where you can share the latest post of your blog if you have one), Buddy Day Tuesdays (where you can find help, such as beta readers), and Author Happiness Wednesday (where you can share whatever good is happening in your world).

The posts from members, usually regarding a particular problem the writer is having with a work-in-progress, are often valuable lessons and sometimes entertaining.

Conquering the to-do list

How I get things done would make an interesting study … mainly in how to be a control freak.

I live by to-do lists. A clock sits next to my computer screen so I know what time it is every second. I have a calendar habit that few understand: wall calendars, day planner inserts, daily Sudoku, word of the day, 3-month, huge write-on … you name it, I have it, including some I produce in Word because I haven’t found that particular style yet.

All of this is so I can better manage my time so I can be more productive. Yes, there are benefits to slowing down, smelling the roses (or your flower of choice … actually, mine is the hyacinth), meditating, long walks in the park, whatever. I concede that point.

But for me, what works is dividing my time, listing what I need to do, and pushing myself to that accomplish it. And when I do … bring on the rewards!

2kto10kbookI’m always on the hunt for better time management tools, and I found one in a book by Rachel Aaron called “2,000 to 10,000: How to write faster, writer better, and write more of what you love.” Check out her blog post (and link to purchase her book) on the subject.

The basic premise is the triangle of writing metrics: Knowledge (know what you’re writing before you write it), Time (track productivity and evaluate), and Enthusiasm (get excited about what you’re writing).

I love the way she breaks down this concept, especially the need to track productivity and evaluate it. I’ve always called myself an early riser, more productive in the mornings. But am I sure about that? I haven’t taken the time to track when and how much I’m writing, so it’s possible that I get more done in the afternoon or evening. I’ll be doing that over the next few weeks.

Getting excited about what I’m writing is something else I need to ponder. She describes on her blog and in her book how she spent days stuck in one scene. (I know the feeling.) She said she realized that it was because the scene wasn’t interesting enough to her. The solution? Make it more interesting … or cut it. Think about it: If you’re not really into the scene, will the reader be?

The Knowledge leg of the triangle I think I already have a handle on. A huge part of my writing life is organizing and outlining, so I’m almost always aware of where the story’s going today.

I definitely think this method will work with novel writing, but I’m also revising it slightly for screenplays. With screenplays, word count isn’t what I’m after – it’s pages completed. So here’s the plan: a typical screenplay has roughly 100 pages. If I write five pages per day, I can finish a rough draft in 20 days. Time spent revising, editing, and polishing is another matter. But getting the rough draft done – or as a wise man once said, “Get the damn thing done!” – will be an accomplishment worthy of reward.