Tag: Character development

Magical Words – Age Perspectives

Erin Penn

Photo by Giacomo Lucarini on Unsplash

I’m going to address just one aspect of Tamsin Silver‘s amazing Magical Words (5/11/2016) post: Hump Day Help: 3 Things We Can Learn From Marvel’s Civil War:

The post itself covers three things: 1) working with a large cast; 2) The Purpose of an Added Character; 3) crafting a new breakout character.

Part of number two hit me hard, which is the different perspective age brings to the table. Introducing Spiderman to the greater Marvel Universe didn’t just introduce a new character to give us a fresh set of eyes, it introduced a YOUNG character. Tony Stark – while an immature narcissist who acts like a kid with the biggest toys available – is a full grown man, a business owner, and been a world figure for decades. Steve Rogers is even older.

Peter Parker, he is a teenager. The world-spanning questions of responsibilities and duties required by citizenship within humanity haven’t become hardened in him. Yet, at the same time, it is one of the most central questions of Spiderman’s origin. Civil War was the perfect time to introduce the character.

For writing, expanding the universe beyond a single age group provides different eyes to view the world. Young Adult (YA) gets wrapped up in coming-of-age questions. Other books focus on other considerations, but usually from only the perspective of the main character – therefore urban fantasy and romances focus on twenty-or-thirty-something people with no children while mysteries pivot on forty-to-fifty something people no longer with children. Each book providing just a small window into larger questions.

While reality has people isolated in friendship groups by age, reality also is the spectrum of age. I remember the hunger I had attending church while at college. The undergrad college consisted of two very stratified age groups – students and teachers. No parents, no children. Then I went to church once a week and I became reacquainted with the scope AND VIEWS of different ages. The division between college’s Ivory Tower population and the wider gamut available outside the brick walls was stark.

I needed those trips.

And creative works could use a wider range of ages to hold up the mirror of our imagination when reflecting reality.

Read Tamsin’s full article – again the link is: – and maybe watch the movie again. Review the use of a large cast and when and how AND WHY to introduce new characters. 

Other Cool Blogs: ProWritingAid (12/17/2021) – Big Casts

Erin Penn

Photo by Eddi Aguirre on Unsplash

“Big Cast: How to Write Stories with Many Characters” by Kyle A. Massa (Speculative Fiction Author) – published 12/17/2021 at ProWritingAid. 

I write flashes and I’m working my way up to short stories plus a few romance novels. None of these have large ensemble casts, not like epic fantasy. Even so, making sure every character has their day on the page whether the cast is large or small can be challenging. Mr. Massa provides three pieces of advice:

  1. Narrow Your Point of View (POV)
  2. Reveal Your Cast Gradually
  3. “Zoom In” on Members of Your Cast

Find out how to do each of these by reading this Other Cool Blog post. Again the link is: Writing Stories with Many Characters: How to Do It (prowritingaid.com)

Editing Rant: Know the Job (J is for Job)

Erin Penn

18652428 © Ladislav Soukup | Dreamstime.com
J is for Job
Oh, for the love of Hephaestus’ Hammer. Know how the job your are writing about works. Especially an occupation people are well aware of.
Yes, I know cozy mysteries give out belief coins which allow the non-police to interfere with a police investigation. This allows little old ladies, writers, chefs, scientists, and various assorted “normal” people to poke their nose into something without getting handcuffs slapped on. BUT THERE ARE LIMITS.
In this case, the line is crossed so, so hard into “interfering with an investigation” when the (male) romantic interest of the (female) police officer goes to the first possible suspect at the very beginning of the investigation and harasses the suspect AT THE SUSPECT’S WORK. The (female) police officer arrives to find the female suspect shouting at the not-yet-but-could-be-romantic-interest “I said get out!” …. and the suspect repeats it Three Times before the cop can get to the room. This is chapter two start.
Oh, it gets worse.
The cop then proceeds to tell the suspect how the murder occurred (which is fairly horrific and should not be public knowledge, especially during the initial parts of an investigation).

I did a quick jump to the book end to see if anything was redeemable. Nope – male-lead is still mangling the cop’s job and the cop is breaking basic, basic rules.

Yes, in the fiction romantic world, cops bend rules. In the mystery genre, the spunky civilian is allowed to help. But (1) don’t have a romantic lead in a situation smacking of stalker-level abuse and (2) don’t tell the suspect everything about the murder (until the end during the Reveal). Not only did this manuscript destroy any attractiveness of the male romantic lead by his aggressiveness early in the book, it broke mystery genre convention on when and how Reveals are done.
If you write about cops, know how cops work and how they work in your genres. If you write about librarians and researchers, the same. Computer techs. Politicians. Whatever the job is, make it real – and only edge into the fantastic according to the needs of the genre.
(Rant based on a book review, not a book edit)

Editing Rant: Drunk Secrets

Erin Penn

1677053 © Photoeuphoria | Dreamstime.com

Why does everyone think that drunk is an acceptable way for a character to spill secrets?

Ugh – the story was going so well until then.

Chapter 8 of 25 – I sooo want to burn chapter 8 to the ground and tell the author to rebuild. This is an immortal character, why, why, why????

If I didn’t see this device used again, and again, and again… (head-desk)

Look either people are sh*t at keeping secrets and regurgitate them at the drop of a hat, or those secrets have been tossed down an oubliette and will never be seen again. Maybe some people are burning to tell a secret and the release of inhibitions created by the depressant gets the secret pass their normal filters – but then SHOW us this if we are in the character’s head. It shouldn’t come out of nowhere, especially for an immortal (like a vampire or a deity) who has kept secrets for decades or even millennium.

Editing Rant: Likeable

Erin Penn

Photo by Taylor Smith on Unsplash

I read a book which if the book hadn’t been chosen by my book group, I would have jettisoned the book into the “abort” pile in chapter four, the verbal fight felt too manufactured.

More importantly, why I would have willingly swiped the book into my delete file is the main character (MC) took forever to develop one likable trait. Only during Chapter 9 – 25% through the story – did the MC show compassion and sympathy for another human being. Until then she used, lied, cheated, and manipulated everyone around her; only her tenacity in solving murder cases and drive to bring out the truth into the light of day etched marks on the “good person” side of the ledger.

Taking 25% of a manuscript is too long. Once the MC had showed emotional connection with the rest of humanity did I personally, as a reader, connect to her. And the rest of the book became interesting, the mystery engrossing. But until then, the only thing that kept me going was “book club.”

I’ve previous touched on how to make the MC engage the reader on 6/1/2017 (Magical Words May 13, 2014) “Characters Who Matter”. Engagement requires empathy and the MC needs AT LEAST two of the five following character traits: Sympathy, Jeopardy, Likability, Power, and Humor. And these traits need to introduced before Bad traits – like using and manipulating other people. Read the Magical Word post for the full discussion on this matter here: http://www.magicalwords.net/specialgueststars/darynda-jones-how-i-make-my-characters-unfogettable/

This MC wasn’t sympathy, those were the victims she gaslit to help her in her investigations. No jeopardy, she put others in jeopardy. Nothing to show why anyone would spend time with her, so likability is out. Power, yes a gun, but in general, the MC was a standard down-on-their-luck gumshoe. Very little power. Humor … the fights were very funny. That was it, good fun fights.

Too often people write the main characters as users, without showing the investment the MC made into the friendship before needing to use them. Instead the MCs come across as gaslighting, narcissistic monsters. Just because MC is the baddest dog in the pen does not mean any of the other dogs are going to play with them.