More Monkey Business

July 1st, 2009 by bakerkline

A writer friend, Cindy Handler, asks: “A few posts back [Writing Tip #3: Use a Monkeywrench] you mentioned that you like to give your characters a trait that goes counter to their basic nature and makes it harder for them to get what they want (if I understand correctly).  Could you give an example?  The main character in my novel is so controlling that it works both for and against her, but I don’t think that’s the same thing.”monkey-reading book

So here’s an example.  In my novel-in-progress there's a 17-year-old tattooed, pierced, tough kid named Michelle who’s in trouble for stealing.  But she steals books.  She loves to read; libraries became a refuge when her home life was in chaos. And her love of reading gives me access to a more interesting inner life for her.

I don't mean, necessarily, that this kind of contradiction makes it harder for characters to get what they want, only that by working against type I can deepen and expand who they are.  I find, especially at the beginning, that the more complexity I add, the more my characters surprise and intrigue me and the more I have to say about them.

Cindy adds, “And the more real it makes them seem, because real people are full of contradictions.”

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  • http://www.nameberry.com Pam

    Christina -- You talk about adding complexity to characters at the beginning, but could you discuss further how you create characters at the beginning? What exactly you do to add things in, to shape and create the characters, and when, and whether that process changes and morphs, and how? (probably 30 to 40 blog posts!) But I'd love to hear more.

  • Mark Trainer

    Christina,

    Congrats on the blog. I'm subscribing to the feed and look forward to keeping up with the novel as it progresses.

    Mark

  • http://www.marinabudhos.com Marina Budhos

    Christina,

    Love your blog. It's my morning writing vitamin, so keep it up.

    Your comment about the monkey wrench has been sifting through me for the past couple of days. I had recently written a scene from a relatively minor character's point of view. He is, simply, a villian, a drunk and a letch, whose meanness is meant to drive and intensify the plot. But then I found myself thinking about that old monkey wrench, and added a detail about him missing his mother (he is an indentured Scottish overseer, far from home) and that felt right. A very small thing, but it's interesting to me how such a brushstroke can be helpful, even with the most minor of walk-on characters.

    Marina

  • http://allstjohn@aol.com allen st. john

    The Wire is full of this.
    Stringer Bell is a drug kingpin trying to go legit, so he's taking community college courses in econ, talking to his professor about the problems of a bad dope supply, and runs meetings using Roberts Rules of Order.
    This quest for legitimacy is literally his fatal flaw.
    A minor character, Wee Bay is the gang's muscle and he'd kill someone just as easily as walking cross the street. But he loves his tropical fish.

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