Forecast: Characterization with sunny flowers

I splurged yesterday at the grocery store and purchased a large bunch of yellow alstroemeria, a lily-type flower. The weatherman is forecasting gray days for the rest of the week. Something about a trapped low pressure system waiting for some stronger weather to move it out. While we wait, it sits and spins over Michigan creating clouds and off and on showers. To offset that tired, crankiness the weather can cause, I wanted to be proactive and purchased the flowers. For me the yellow helps replace the sun.

I never was one who wanted a beau to deliver a big bouquet as a sign of eternal devotion. Now that I’m older and married, I appreciate them more. And they do make me smile as the rain pelts the window. When the grayness pulls me to the couch for a nap, I look at the flowers and it helps me go back to writing. I’ve been struggling to create some vivid characters for a short story that needs to be done by the end of the month. Making charcters come alive in short stories is very difficult unless you can show traits by actions. Flowers can help with that.

Does your main character adore or scoff at flowers? Mitch Malone, the crime beat reporter sleuth in my mystery series, would scoff at flowers. He has no idea why the world needs them, thinks they are silly and the folly of woman. However, he would bring them to a date, if he ever had one and thought it would help the girl like him better. What I need to decide is how the female character would react when Mitch shows up with a large bouquet? Does she throw them in his face? Take them and gush giving him a big hug? Take them and then slam the door in his face?

Characters are funny things. You create them, then they have the nerve to have a mind of their own and tell you what they are going to do. Have you ever read a book and the character did something you didn’t expect and you couldn’t say why? Was that good characterizing or bad? My guess is bad unless there is a compelling reason for the character to change that you could find about later.

Think about your favorite characters? Would they buy flowers? Would they never notice them or would they smile every time they walked by? Tell me about your favorite character and their flower choices.

A Character-Building Lesson for Thanksgiving

I had the pleasure today to speak to the students in Providence High School’s Creative Writing Class. My mission was to talk about developing characters and how to make them believable and likeable. We had great fun with the hats I brought as we brainstormed who would wear them and how the character could change by modifying the angle of a hat.

What the students didn’t know was I was stuck in my current work in progress (The third Mitch Malone Mystery with a working title of A Case of Hometown Blues). I wasn’t sure how to proceed and had been agonizing for several days trying to get unblocked. In addition, I had my Mitch Malone character in my head trying to get me going if nothing more than jumping forward to write the end and then back tracking. I’d convinced myself I was going to do that just as soon as I talked to the class, but I wasn’t happy about it. I had the rest of the morning to write and I was going to do something productive if it killed me.

Like most things, I was in the middle of my presentation when disaster/inspiration struck. I knew what I had to do in my book. I needed an impartial third party character. Unfortunately, I completely lost my train of thought to the students as the creative wheels started rolling again. I looked around at the students, regrouped and continued my presentation after a couple of seconds, which to me seemed like minutes. I’m not sure if they noticed or not.

After I left I realized I had never given them an opportunity to ask questions. I was excited for a date with my computer, not dreading it. As Thanksgiving approaches in less than 48 hours, I have realized an important lesson: Don’t stress and fret over a problem. Get out and share your craft with others. It is the best therapy for writer’s block. While it may not solve your problem, you will have accomplished something. For me, talking about how to develop memorable characters led me to the fix I needed – a new character. Now that is character building and something to be thankful about. Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo: Author W.S. Gager is pictured with students from Providence High School’s Creative Writing Class. Thanks Samantha, Chance and Grace. You were the perfect inspiration!