Crafting Characters, Cover Reveal Giveaway, and a Tetractys Poem

Today, I wrap up our series on characterization and share an announcement about my book cover reveal giveaway. At the end of this post, I also include a poem in honor of one of the first female mathematicians of modern times.

While reading the previous TeachingAuthor posts on crafting character, I couldn't help thinking about how the advice applied to my process in writing my forthcoming young-adult novel, Playing by Heart, which is inspired by two amazing sisters who lived in 18th-century Milan. The novel grew out of my research for a nonfiction biography of linguist and mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Even though I have an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, I never heard of Agnesi until I came across her name in an article about little-known women of note. I think her story's a fascinating one, but I haven't found a publisher for it yet. However, one of the editors who rejected the biography suggested I write a novel about Maria Gaetana and her younger sister, Maria Teresa, who was one of the first women to compose a serious opera. That suggestion is what led me to write Playing by Heart. (If you'd like to read more about Maria Gaetana Agnesi, see this website I created.)

My first challenge in writing the novel was to decide on the point-of-view character. The obvious choice would have been Maria Gaetana--I identified with her love of math, and with being the firstborn and apple of her father's eye. But Maria's story felt almost too good to be true. Besides being a brilliant linguist and mathematician, she had a heart for social justice. After her father died, she rejected her celebrity status to devote her life to caring for the sick and homeless. When I read the Anne Lamott quote April shared about how characters shouldn't be too perfect because that makes them "fatally uninteresting," I thought immediately of Maria Gaetana. She struck me as "too good" to be my main character. I chose the "second sister" to be the narrator of my novel instead.

Because the true story of the Agnesi sisters' lives doesn't fit into a neat story arc, I decided the novel would be heavily fictionalized. One of my earliest tasks, then, was to choose character names. I asked myself the same questions JoAnn shared in her questionnaire: "What is your character’s name? Does she like it? What would she prefer? What does the name mean, and why was it given to the character?" Since Playing by Heart is set in 18th-century Italy, I had to research the naming conventions of that time and place to find the answers. I won't go into that process here, but I will say that I had very specific reasons for naming my main character Emilia Teresa Salvini and her older sister Maria Gaetana Salvini.

I also relied on research to help me identify the details that would not only bring the story to life but also reveal the inner character of these people, as Carla described in her post. And, like Bobbi, I had to unearth "the emotional truth" beneath all the facts in my research. Ultimately, that's what allowed me to do what Esther recommended in her post: put elements of my story into the story of the Salvini sisters.

There's one other character-building technique I use that wasn't really discussed in any of the other TeachingAuthor posts. I'm a visual learner, so to tell my characters' stories, I need to be able to see them in my mind. Early on in the process, I look for images in books, magazines, and online to represent my characters. (I mentioned this before in this blog post.)

Coincidentally, we just finalized the cover art for Playing by Heart. I'm grateful that the publisher asked for my input regarding how I'd like to see my main character portrayed. Even so, it was a bit of a shock when I saw the initial cover mockup. The Emilia Salvini on the cover bore little resemblance to the young woman in the image I'd used for myself--that of an Italian actress dressed in costume for a musical set in 17th-century Milan.

After the shock wore off, though, I decided the cover representation was an appropriate one. I'm now looking forward to finding out how potential readers respond. In fact, I'll be celebrating a special
Cover Reveal Giveaway next week to elicit reader feedback. Unfortunately, I don't have copies of the book to give away yet--it releases from Vinspire Publishing on September 30. Instead, the prize will be a custom book bag bearing the Playing by Heart cover image on one side and containing Playing by Heart bookmarks and a special heart keychain. I'll email the contest details to my Creativity Newsletter subscribers in a few days. This will be a special edition of the newsletter, which normally goes out about once a month and contains creativity tips and quotes along with news about my books and classes. If you're interested, I invite you to sign up for the newsletter on my website (in the right sidebar).

Since I can't show the prizes without giving away the cover, I've created a cover reveal "teaser" that includes a snippet from the Playing by Heart cover:

If you want to see the full cover, be sure to sign up for my Creativity Newsletter on my website!

Before I share my poem for today, I want to announce that I'll be giving two presentations at the Catholic Writers Guild (CWG) Live Conference being held just outside Chicago in Schaumburg, IL July 18-21. In the first session, I'll be discussing "Turning Life into Fiction." The second will be a team presentation with two fellow authors on "Writing Fiction that Engages Teens and Tweens." You can find conference details and a link to the schedule here.

Now for today's poem. While working on the biography of mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi, I wrote a tetractys in her honor. A tetractys is a five-line poem in which the syllables per line form the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 10. My tetractys in honor of Agnesi salutes her three callings as a linguist, mathematician, and humanitarian over her 81-year lifespan, and is in the shape of a right triangle.

Be sure to check out the complete Poetry Friday roundup at A Year of Reading.

Remember to Write with JOY!
Carmela

3 Terrific Quotes on Character Flaws and a Poem

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Howdy, Campers ~ and Happy Poetry Friday! The link to today's PF host is below, as is my poem.

TeachingAuthors' current topic is Creating Characters. Bobbi started this series, discussing characters' inner struggles. JoAnn gives us the questionnaire she uses to get to know her characters, Carla shows us concrete examples of how small details reveal character in nonfiction characters, and each Wednesday in May, Esther offered us Wednesday Writing Workouts.

And me? I need help pulling 3-D characters from the blank page.

One criticism of my W.I.P. novel in poems is that except for the narrator, the other characters are one dimensional. Ouch! As a teen, I saw everyone as black and white. It's still hard for me to see people as three dimensional, hard to accept the fact that they are/we humans are imperfect. But we all have flaws, darn it.

I'll never forget the example Barbara Bottner gave in a class at Otis Parsons in the 1980's. The gist of what she said is this:

Let's say you want to tell a story about three characters in search of buried treasure. 

Okay--that's fine. 

But what if you told a story about 

Richard Nixon

Lucille Ball 

and Godzilla 

searching for buried treasure? 

NOW you have a story.

(I've forgotten the specific characters Barbara suggested--insert your own favorites.)

Wow. Talk about flawed characters! That's the moment I began to understand the interconnectedness between real characters (with real bitten fingernails and real raspberry jam stains on their clothes, who sometimes stomp on their little brother's toe) and story.

illustration from my book, New Year at the Pier by Stéphane Jorisch (Dial)

Still I struggle--both on the page and in real life--to see flaws in those I love. Or alternately, I dismiss a person entirely if I do discover a flaw.

One evening at a memorial service, I realized that everything that annoys me about my friends will be exactly what I remember fondly when they die. 

Ann Whitford Paul agrees:
"We all have flaws. Our characters must have flaws, too....Think about your imperfections. Think about imperfections in others that annoy you or maybe tug at your heart...Often...the strength and weakness are two sides of the same issue. Think of Frances in Russell Hoban's Bedtime for Frances. Her great imagination is exactly what makes her so fearful. It's what makes her sure spiders and tigers and monsters lurk in her room...Whatever the specifics, the main characters in our picture books must be human, and that means imperfect." ~ Ann Whitford Paul in Writing Picture Books

Ann Lamott makes this point, too:
"[Characters] shouldn't be too perfect; perfect means shallow and unreal and fatally uninteresting...I like them to be mentally ill in the same sorts of ways that I am; for instance, I have a friend who said one day, 'I could resent the ocean if I tried,'and I realized that I love that in a guy." ~ Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird

As does Madeleine L'Engle:

"I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect." ~ Madeleine L'Engle

For today's poem I thought I'd describe a character by including a flaw and some eye-poppingly original details. But that's not exactly what turned out. The first line came to me immediately: "She takes out her teeth to chew on that." Hmm, I thought. We know who that must be.

But...you're a writer--you know how it goes. You fiddle and rearrange and think and unthink and finally that first line seems too cliche, so out it goes.
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I didn't include a fatal flaw or raspberry jam on her skirt, but here's a draft that came from my tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumming today:

CLARICE

by April Halprin Wayland

Ding-a-ling-ding, the telephone rings.

Her cat bats away a spec on wings.

She doesn't answer that telephone call.

Forget them all,

forget them all.

She watches this brave day's afterglow

then picks up the cat, tunes her radio,

leans into the umpire's gritty call.

It didn't have to happen at all,

it didn't have to happen at all.

She stares into space, chewing on that.

Her cat jumps into her tired lap.

How can it be the sun still sets

since Daniel's death,

since Daniel's death?

poem (c) 2017 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.

Thank you, Buffy for hosting Poetry Friday!

posted with love by April Halprin Wayland with help from an invisible bee named Spinach.

A Real Character

This TeachingAuthors series is about creating characters.  I don’t create characters in the way most people think.  When most hear the word “character” they probably think of a fictional character.  Since I’m an author who writes nonfiction, my characters are real people.  I can’t change their character or create any facet of their true character.  But that doesn’t mean writing about real people isn’t creative-it is.  It takes a lot of creativity to breath life into sometimes dry and boring facts. 

I’ve always said, “I don’t create the facts, but I use the facts creatively.” 

In my biographies I show the character of real people though the details and quotes that illustrate who they are. Let me show you what I mean…

In The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon I wanted to show the tender side of Washington and the love he had for his wife, Martha.  I used part of a letter he wrote her in 1775 where he is telling her that he has been chosen the lead the Continental Army and would not be coming home as expected.  Instead he is going directly to Cambridge, MA, to take command. 

He wrote that he would “feel no pain from the Toil, or the danger of the Campaign—My unhappiness will flow, from the uneasiness I know you will feel at being left alone.”

Letter from George Washington to Martha Washington, June 18, 1775

In my book Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium I showed Curie’s character, not through a quote but by describing something she wanted to accomplish.  When Marie and Pierre Curie first married, Marie wanted to learn to cook.  She asked her sister’s mother-in-law to teach her. 

About this I wrote, “Marie approached cooking as if it were a scientific experiment.  She made careful notes in the margins of her cookbooks about the successes and failures of her attempts.” 

In my book In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry, I showed a glimpse into Fry’s character and the high pressure situation he was in as he waited for some refugees he was helping.  The situation was tense as he was waiting to make sure the refugees he put on the train in France had arrived safely across the border in Spain.  They were all crossing the border illegally and would have been arrested if caught.  Varian went to the guard shack to ask if his friends had arrived. 

I wrote, “The guards led Varian into the guard shack and told him to wait.  As Varian sat there he wondered where his protégés were.  He also wondered if he was gong to be arrested.  He smoked one cigarette after another.” 

I don’t manipulate facts about the lives of real people.  But I can choose the right details to show their character.  

Carla Killough McClafferty

Creating a Character, Starting with a Questionnaire

Hello again! In my last post, I said I’d be taking a break. Surprise! Mary Ann explained our schedule shift. As it looks now, I’ll be posting at least once more before our Summer Blogging Break. Although I’m busy with writing (including a new work-for-hire series), sewing reusable shopping bags, and a little bit of gardening (the milkweed is finally coming up--hooray!), I’m enjoying all of these projects. Lucky me!

Bobbi started this series about creating characters with a thoughtful explanation of motivation. Take a moment to explore her process if you haven’t yet. (While you’re looking back, be sure to read Michael Leannah’s four wonderful Wednesday Writing Workouts, one for each week in May.)

When we create a character, we have to decide on a number of traits and behaviors. We explore the character’s history and geography, put ourselves in her shoes and discover her world through her senses, and create conflict based on what she wants. We might base a character on people we know (including ourselves). We can combine traits we admire and dislike. Some writers sketch their characters or find photos that look like what they imagine. Some interview their characters. Some lucky authors hear their characters speaking. I'm always trying to listen!

Several years ago, we Teaching Authors presented at the Illinois Reading Council conference. My part in the presentation included a handout on creating authentic characters. I’ve updated it several times to use it for my writing classes. Here is an excerpt:

Getting to Know Your Character: A Character Traits Exercise

• Is your character a person or an animal? An actual creature or a mythical or imaginary one?
• What is your character’s name? Does he or she like it? What would he or she prefer? What does the name mean, and why was it given to the character?
• How old is he or she? What grade in school is he or she in?
• What does your character look like? Describe his or her height, weight, hair, eyes, build, and any special or unusual physical characteristics, habits, or actions.
• How many people are in your character’s family? Who are they, and how old are they? How close are they? What kind of history do they have? What is their financial status?
• Does your character practice a religion? Which one, and how strictly?
• Where does he or she live? (City, country, small town, suburb?) What country or what part of the country? What kind of home?
• What kind of music does your character like? Does he or she play an instrument, sing, or dance?
• Does your character have a pet? What kind? How does he or she treat it?
• What does his or her voice sound like? Is it loud or quiet, clear or hard to understand?
• Does your character play a sport? Which one, how well, and why?
• What kind of clothes does he or she wear? Why? What would he or she like to wear?
• What does he or she want? Why? What would happen if he or she didn’t get it?
• What is he or she good at, both in school and out? What does he or she struggle with? What does he or she like and dislike?
• Who are your character’s friends? How close are they? What do they have in common?
• What generation does your character belong to? What period in history? Does he or she fit in?
• What is your character’s favorite food? Least favorite? Describe his or her eating habits.
• Does your character have any bad habits? Are they obvious or hidden? Is the character aware of them? How do they affect the character’s relationships with other people?
• What is your character afraid of? Why? What would happen if his or her worst fear came true?
• What does he or she carry in a pocket, a purse, or a backpack? What is in his or her desk?
• Does your character have a secret? What is it? What would happen if the wrong person found out about it?
• What else do you need to know about your character to tell his or her story?

Intended for authors of fantasy (and useful for all of us), the terrific “FantasyWorldbuilding Questions” by Patricia C. Wrede includes more detailed questions about characters and how they fit into their environments, especially in the “Peoples and Customs” section.

Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup is at Reflections on the Teche. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

WWW: Creating AUTHENTIC Characters

Meet my fellow Chicago children’s book author, the lovely and talented Claudia Guadalupe Martinez who so generously agreed to share today’s Wednesday Writing Workout in celebration of the release of her second Cinco Puntos Press book, the YA novel PIG PARK.

As her biography notes, Claudia grew up in a close family in Segundo Barrio in El Paso, Texas.  Reading the Spanish subtitles of old westerns for her father, she soon learned that letters form words. By six she knew she wanted to grow up to create stories.  Her father, who died when she was eleven, encouraged her to dream big and write many books. 

Cinco Puntos Press is located in El Paso, Texas, “a fact that informs every book that we publish,” publisher John Byrd shared.  Along with others championing diversity in children’s books today, he considers PIG PARK and Claudia’s debut award-winning novel THE SMELL OF OLD LADY PERFUME to be worthy examples of the kinds of books the Cooperative Children’s Book Center and WeNeedDiverseBooks encourage and seek.

“Claudia,” Byrd wrote, “has a clear fronterizo voice: innocent, shy, witty, full of border culture and understanding.  She used that voice well in THE SMELL OF OLD LADY PERFURME, earning herself a great deal of attention with readers, teachers and librarians looking for new and talented writers coming up out of the Hispanic community. That voice has matured in PIG PARK, still shy and clear, but now feisty as well and full of opinions as she chronicles the summer that fifteen-year-old Masi Burciaga and her neighbors came together to save Pig Park.”

 

I so appreciate Claudia’s willingness to share her insights and expertise on creating authentic characters with our TeachingAuthors readers and writers.

Enjoy! Enjoy!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
To enter our latest giveaway, a copy of CHILDREN'S WRITER'S AND ILLUSTRATOR'S MARKET 2015, check Carmela's Friday post.

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 Wednesday Writing Workout: Creating Authentic Characters

The face of America is ever-changing.  “Minority” children are set to become the “majority” by the end of this decade, and are already such among babies under the age of one.  Yet, among the children's book titles published, approximately only ten percent are by or about racially or ethnically diverse populations each year--according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

This conversation isn’t new, but the mainstream is taking note, thanks to the success of the recent  WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign.  I am more frequently asked for advice on writing diversity, specifically when it comes to authenticity.  In such instances, I refer my fellow writers to author Mitali Perkins' tips for writing diversity.  Mitali lectures widely on the topic.

When it comes to authenticity in racial identity, she advises writers to ask, "How and why does the author define race?”   She suggests writers consider the following:

“When race is explicit in a book, ask yourself and your students what would have been lost if a character’s race hadn’t been defined by the writer. Why did the author choose to define race?”  The reason should be to establish something for the character, and not just to follow a trend or be politically correct.  I, for example, wrote about young Chicana in THE SMELL OF OLD LADY PERFUME because I pulled from my own experiences growing up in a Texas border town.  The Latino kids in PIG PARK were loosely based on my experiences in Chicago.

Alternatively, writers can ask, “Why didn’t he or she let us know the race of the characters?”  If no explicit race is mentioned, will this cause readers to default to white characters, or do other cues establish diverse identity?  Physical appearance, language, names, food can all be used to designate diversity.

While Mitali’s advice focuses on race, authors can apply it to creating authenticity for various other forms of identity.  The point is to start thinking about how genuine the attempt at integration is.

To figure out what this might mean for you, whether writing inside or outside your experience, try this exercise.

Write a character biography based on his/her racial/ethnic identity.  Answer the following questions:

                                                                      
When and how did he/she become aware of his/her identity?

What role has the specific identity played in his/her life?

                                                                    
How does it affect his/her social activities?

How does it affect his/her school activities?

In what ways does the character benefit from this identity? In what ways doesn’t the character benefit?

                                                         
How does the specific identity affect your story?

Variation: Write a biography based on another form of diverse identity (religious, sexual orientation, ability, etc.).

 

We live in a complex world where identity is both assigned and assumed.  Authentic diversity isn’t casual or happenstance, but something that we as writers must develop as carefully as all other aspects of our story.

Wednesday Writing Workout: Creating a "Rootable" Character

As Mary Ann mentioned on Monday, we're saying "farewell" to Jeanne Marie by linking back to one of our favorites of her 101 TeachingAuthor posts. And since today is Wednesday, I had the added task of choosing a favorite post that also lends itself to a Writing Workout. Turns out, that wasn't very hard. Last July, Jeanne Marie blogged about a picture book writing course she was taking. One of her assignments was to discuss the contents of her Writer's Toolbox. She shared an excerpt from her response to the assignment (which I encourage you to go back and read) and talked of the value of reflecting on one's own Writer's Toolbox.

For today's Wednesday Writing Workout, I'd like to focus on the first tool/challenge Jeanne Marie mentioned:

"I think that one of the most challenging aspects of creating a rootable character is finding a way to make him/her likeable and flawed at the same time." 

When I first read this, the term "rootable character" was new to me. I know now that it's simply a character the reader will want to root for. But creating one is not a simple task. In fact, it's something I'm struggling with in my current work-in-progress. Part of my challenge is that my story is set in 18th-century Milan, Italy, a time and place quite removed from my readers. How can I depict my character in a way that modern readers will understand her world well enough to empathize with and understand her feelings and choices?

One way is to find connections between me and my character that I can draw from. In a presentation to the Federation of Children's Book Groups last March, Elizabeth Wein talked about how she found such connections while writing her award-winning historical novel Code Name Verity (Disney-Hyperion) by looking for "modern parallels." But even if you're writing a contemporary story, whether fiction or nonfiction, it's not always easy to make your protagonist "rootable." Before trying the following workout, you may want to read these two articles on the topic: a post by Emilia Plater called "Radical Empathy: Creating a Compelling Flawed Character" on the YA Highway blog, and one by Alex Epstein for the 2012 Script Frenzy site called "We Like Characters Because of Their Flaws, Not Their Virtues."

Writing Workout: Creating a Rootable Character

If you have a work-in-progress, consider your main character. Is he or she too perfect? If so, can you give the character a flaw that readers could relate to and understand? Or, on the flip side, have you created a character readers will dislike? If so, can you show why this character is this way?

If you're starting a new project, spend some time thinking about your main character's flaws. Create a scene in which those flaws are apparent. Need some inspiration? Check out yesterday's Fiction Prompt for Laurie Halse Anderson's Write Fifteen Minutes a Day challenge.

Happy Writing!

Carmela  

No Tech Workout

     I don't want to give you guys the wrong idea. I am not anti-tech. My problem is that relying on technology for presentations has given me more grief over the years.  I didn't have the right kind of cord. My Powerpoint wasn't compatible with the school's operating system.  Then there was that terrifying moment in a ballroom of librarians when my presentation appeared to have erased all my images (the captions were still there.) I literally screamed "Is there a media specialist in the house?"

     My teaching workshops are usually in no/low tech areas...church basements, field houses, a
restored carriage house...none of which have Internet access, screens, etc. So I have relied on good old hands-on materials for my workshops.  One of my favorites is  Build a Character.

     I am sure that some other author out there has used some version of this exercise, but this is my own drama major version.  I used some of these techniques to build a "character" when I acted.

    Over the years, I have amassed a library of what I brilliantly have labeled "Interesting Pictures." These are people pictures...no Grand Canyon shots, no funky Photoshopped stuff. Just plain old pictures of plain old people. Some of them are contemporary, some archival. I have found most of them online and printed them off. Since I am only making one copy for educational use, I am not violating anybody's copyright. Besides, if the copyright holder usually disables the ability to copy their work without paying a fee.

     Because I mostly teach children, ages eight to fourteen, the people in the pictures are of similar age.  There are a few "grown-ups" in some of them, but they are not the focus of the scene. I also try to keep the picture composition simple...no more than four or five people in the shot.  The pictures should also be no smaller than 5 x 7 so they can be easily seen. I glue the pictures to construction paper, and then laminate each picture.  That way they hold up for years.

     In the interest of not getting sued for copyright infringement in this blog, I am using one of my own family pictures for this exercise. Yes, the only person not wearing sunglasses, the girl on the left, is me, age fourteen.  Just for the record, the rest of these people are my parents (the couple in the middle) my aunt and uncle, and my cousins. This picture cracks me up, and is probably responsible for my present day addiction to sunglasses.

      But for the purposes of this exercise I am going to pretend I have never seen any of these people before.  I will pick two of them to build into characters. (Surprise surprise...I am picking the two girls.)

    Now it's time to play Twenty Questions. I actually have a list of fifty questions that I hand out with the pictures.  I tell my students that they do not have to answer all fifty.  They can add other questions they might think of as well.

     Here is an example exercise.

     1.  Look at the way the people are dressed.  Does this look present day, or as if it took place awhile ago? (Nailing down an exact date is not the purpose....it is a decision the writer makes to ground their story in a particular time.)

     2.  Name the girls. Let's call them Mary Ann and Melissa (which just happens to be the names of the actual subjects.)  Decide how old they are.

    3.   What is the relationship of the two girls?  Are they related? Friends? Total strangers who just happened to wind upon the same picture?

    4.  Look at the way the two girls stand.  What does their posture say about them?

    5.  It appears that they are on a boat dock with the adults. Why are they on a boat dock? What is about to happen?  Or has something already happened?  Who are the adults?  Are they important to the story of not?

   6.  What is Melissa's favorite game?

   7.  What is Mary Ann's least favorite subject?

   8.  Where are they?  Are they in their home town?  Are they on vacation?

   There are forty two more of these questions, plus whatever your student wants to add to the list.  Keep the "answering the questions" time to about twenty minutes.  Once that time is up, see if your students can construct a five paragraph beginning to a story with the information they have "found."
This is meant as a story "starter" for those students who stare into space, trying to "think of something"
to write about.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman