Who's the Driver?

For the next deep dive into Bullseye Editing, we have our third keystone corner: Who's the Driver? (Character)

For the sake of this blog I'll say we can't have a book without characters, whether they're humans, aliens, toasters, deer, rabbits, or oceans. Yes, non-fiction can step away from the character-driven, but most fiction derives from the exploration of character.

Please note the verbiage there: The exploration of character, not of a character.

The best books come from characters learning some intrinsic truth about themselves, no matter what type of character they are. The first two keystones, The Author's Why, the Reader's What, I likened to the compass and the map, the Character's Who, I liken to your tour guide.

This is easy to picture in far off or fantasy places like Altia, Narnia, or Faerûn, or even in our world altered, like Sookie in Louisiana. In fantasy, we look to the characters to give us the rules, but even in a light-hearted, contemporary romance set in modern-day LA, where the rules are generally understood, we look for deeper meaning through characters.

Think of it this way: I have lived near Boise, Idaho 34 of my 44 years. I have been through the beautiful, through the rugged, and through the not so great. My auntie wanted to do the old trolley ride through town one year for her birthday. With a tour guide, joking about the seven Kitchens in one house (their last name was Kitchen), I saw my city through a much deeper lens. I noted the architecture, learned details about the history, and generally enjoyed looking at it in a new way.

A lot of readers enjoy very specific tropes and genres, some reading exclusively in one genre, but this lens is what makes the books within a genre unique.

STEP ONE:

To really develop our character, its important to give them something to change. Having a character start out as perfect and end as perfect is, frankly, boring. We want to learn with our characters, we want to suffer with them, endure with them, and ultimately, change with them.

The easiest way I have found to build this is to look at your Finding Your Why keystone. So I'm going to send you back to it, then you can bring it here to play with. Got it? Good. Now we analyze it. Our "why" keystone often has some nugget of truth we can tie into our characters journey. Often this comes straight from the Why blog's "Step four- What's my point?"

I gave An Uncharted Destiny's example in Finding Your Why, I wanted to explore leaving the world I knew behind.

I'll offer a second one, this one from my novel Customized Christmas, my step one was: Christmas with a stranger - how odd. My step two: I was taught Christmas morning was for intimate family gatherings, but we pile on so many garish extremes we have lost the intimacy anyways. My step three: I want to find the magic of Christmas again. My step four: Christmas is about being vulnerable and connecting with each other.

If you're still not certain what your "why" is, try thinking along the lines Brody taught in Save the Cat. Brody suggests there are 10 universal truths a novel attempts to teach.

1. Forgiveness

2. Love

3. Acceptance

4. Faith

5. Fear

6. Trust

7. Reawakening / Survival

8. Selflessness

9. Responsibility

10. Redemption / Atonement / Salvation

This is what makes the read worth the reader's time and investment.

STEP TWO:

Knowing our keystone, we likely have our characters main struggle, we just haven't worded it yet.

Lets look at our second keystone: For What Reason? Again, this is asking what reason the reader picks up the book. We have our tropes in place, we have the basics of a map, but now our tour guide gets to tell us what part of the map we're focusing on.

So, pooling my "rules" for a Christmas romance: I know I need a HEA that highlights holiday themes like family, generosity, forgiveness, and community. Grumpy characters should soften/melt. I want a winter wonderland storm that traps the characters overnight. There's often a "slow down and embrace the simple." Sometimes there's Santa and magic. As a romance there's almost always an ex. I also wanted the fake-dating trope as a main component.

With Customized Christmas, I knew my "tour guide" was going to be a young woman, Brielle, hiding behind the excitement of Christmas and not facing her vulnerabilities. Because I wanted to point out the extravagance, I am going to push in as many "Christmas" events, metaphors, and songs as I can. But - what could Brielle be vulnerable about? It had to be enough that she could need to hide behind a "knight in shining armor." The obvious answer is in the tropes above - an ex.

STEP THREE:

Now that we have our why and our what, we're likely starting to frame our "who."

Your point (why) is likely the closest thing you have right now to your character's "3rd Rail" to borrow Lisa Cron's Story Genius term. To borrow Jessica Brody's Save the Cat term, its the "Holy Trinity of Story," which she breaks down as the plot, the structure, and the character transformation.

The easiest way I have found of really cementing this is to take our first two steps and put them in this format:

What if a _____ (description of character)____ suddenly ______(change / plot point)______?

What if a young, verbally abused Brielle, discovering her ex is coming home for Christmas, suddenly has to trust a stranger as her fake boyfriend for Christmas?

Now, obviously the trusting a stranger would need deeper description of our co-star (co-Tour-Guide?) but we'll keep the focus on our main character for simplicity. Hopefully the question gets you thinking about the descriptors you want for your tour guide.

Remember when crafting our "What if" statement, when finding or change, the characters we truly connect with don't start from neutral they start from strong misbeliefs against what they must learn.

STEP FOUR:

Now is the most difficult part. "How to" books have about 10,000 different ways of building a "flawed" character. Some lean hard into the lessons to be learned. Others want check lists, specific scenes, or "breaking points." Still more go into extensive page on page detailed questionnaires with backstories, wounds, first loves, eye color, and blah blah blah.

There are literally thousands of tools for you to try, here are a few "big ones" that "worked for me." What you decide to put into your toolbox is entirely up to you. (See Mr. Stephen King's On Writing)

The Visual Graph:

1

Flaws

List flaws that are hinted at in our What / Why and the What if statement above.

Brielle's:

1. Verbally Abused (traumatized)

2. Untrusting

3. Can't stand up for herself

4. Has awful self-esteem

2

Causes of Flaws

What gave them to our main character in the first place?

(If this doesn't come easy, try a page of backstory.)

Brielle's:

1. Verbally abused by her ex and her mother from a young age.

2. Untrusting, because she thought the man she loved, cheated on her.

3. She believes making light of hurtful jokes and proving her worth through kindness and intelligence is safer than standing up for herself.

4. From being a young child in an overbearing mother's house, and always compared to an older "perfect" sister, her self-esteem is awful.

3

How do they THINK they can fix them?

What does our Main Character think is the best fix for this?

Brielle's:

1. She avoids her ex.

2. She does everything she can to please her mother. (She also does not recognize the trauma her mother has caused.)

3. She hides that her ex cheated on her, thinking its a flaw within herself.

4. She hides behind her good friend and avoids encounters.

5. She tries to make light of it all.

6. She puts on a good face.

7. She is overly accommodating and apologetic to everyone.

4

What do they want out of life?

What does our Main Character think will make them happy?

Brielle's:

1. She won't go home if her ex is there.

2. If she has to she'll have a friend to have her back.

3. She believes she needs to have a boyfriend to stand between them.

4. When she doesn't have time to find someone "real" she'll fake it.

5. She doesn't recognize a problem with her mother, as long as she keeps doing what mom asks, she'll be okay.

5

Why haven't they gotten it already?

What is holding them back?

Brielle's:

1. Brielle fears she still loves her ex.

2. She's never said no to him.

3. She doesn't recognize the abuse her mother has inflicted.

4. She doesn't believe she's worthy of "real" love.

6

What will actually fix them?

What do they actually need to learn?

Brielle's:

1. She needs to recognize manipulation isn't love. He's not protecting her, he's possessing her.

2. She needs to recognize she's worthy of real and lasting love and kindness.

3. She needs to realize not everyone around her is trying to manipulate her.

STEP FOUR: (An alternative tool.)

Lisa Cron's tool is the "Third Rail" as taught in Story Genius.

1. Want: What the character THINKS they want. (Example: Brielle wants someone to stand between her and her ex.)

2. Need: What the reader UNDERSTANDS they need by the end. (Example: Brielle needs to stand up for and love herself.)

3. Misbelief: The fear or fatal flaw holding them back from their understanding of what they need. (Example: Brielle doesn't believe she's strong enough to face her ex.)

The third rail is how their want and misbelief interact to reveal their need. Brielle must overcome her fear of her ex to stand up for herself.

STEP FOUR: (Another alternative tool.)

Jessica Brody's tool is the "Shard of Glass" as taught in Save the Cat Writes a Novel.

1. A Problem: A flaw the MC needs to fix. (This is similar to the misbelief above.) Example: Brielle must face her abusive ex.

2. A Want: The goal the MC is pursuing. (Same as above.) Example: Brielle wants someone to stand between her and her ex.

3. A Need: A life lesson to be learned. (Same as above.) Example: Brielle must learn to love herself again.

The two methods are very similar, but I find the third rail to be a bit more "driving." The interaction with the need and the problem aren't as essential.

STEP FOUR: (Just one more, alternative tool.)

Open a doc, or grab a pen and paper, and write out the tragic backstory as a scene. Likely this scene will not actually be in your novel, but it will influence the character in reparable ways. Afterall, the reparable is the point. (This might be Brielle walking in on her ex as he's cheating.)

Write another for the moment they thought they were happiest. (This might be Brielle and her ex on a date.)

Write one from their perspective daydreaming about the future. (This might be Brielle and her ex getting back together.)

And write a final one about their actual future. (This would be about Brielle falling in love with her fake boyfriend.)

STEP FIVE:

Step five, like step four, is very fluid. I've created mood boards here. I've hunted Pinterest for hours to find clothing and hair styles. I've sketched a thousand sketches. Sometimes I find very specific nose shapes and eye colors, sometimes I've had more an overarching sense of them. I'll create playlists on Spotify, or a doll. I'll start writing backstories to detail some of those traumas discussed earlier. I've even been known to have conversations in my head with them.

The point is, here I start to really "see" them. Here they develop into more than just that misbelief, more than just that flaw.

And as soon as I know my next keystone: the "When," I can start to write.