Saturday 13 September 2014

It's all about the people....


I'm deeply engrossed in the first draft of my latest novel, Last Child, which is the sequel to my modern day Tudor tale Kings and Queens.  When I am screen-tired with sandpaper eyes, and my RSI-suffering right arm is shouting "C'mon, gimme a break!", I curl up in bed with my husband and watch stuff like Homeland. Boardwalk Empire. 24. Sons Of Anarchy. The Wire. The Americans. Ray Donovan. The Killing....  I could go on! Suffice to say I'm a Netflix etc addict.

My books are very 'character driven', and I've always been (more than) delighted to read in reviews about how the characters really come alive to readers - phew!  Since I've been living in Last Child (you know, when I'm not writing it I'm thinking about it), and spending my evenings with Homeland, I've realised how much I'm learning from watching first rate TV drama.  The point I'm about to make might seem like stating the bleeding obvious, but might also be a help to other writers.

The plot doesn't make the characters.  The characters make the plot.  Without the characters, the plot is nothing.

You can stick in as many vampires and historical accuracies and thrilling spy chases as you like, but they won't work if the readers don't care about the woman who's being lured by the vampire/locked in the dungeon/chased on the speedboat. It's not the plots themselves that we care about, it's the motivations/emotions of the characters.

Think about it.  Think about why you love your favourite TV series.  

24 is so endlessly absorbing because we love Jack Bauer. We want things to work out for him because of all he's been through, starting with the murder of his wife in series 1 (fellow Jack lovers might be interested in my top 20 characters in 24 HERE and my top 11 most irritating HERE ).  Yes, the plots are brilliant, the acting and direction is marvellous, but without us caring about Jack (and Chloe), it would be just another forgettable action thriller.



Stick with me while I continue, especially if you haven't watched Homeland. Last night I watched the last of series 3, in which curiously sexy is-he-a-bad-guy-or-not Nick Brody was finally killed. Yes, I cried, and I don't want to watch series 4. I think the producers (um, Clare Danes?!) have made a big mistake. The main drive of the show has always been Carrie's love for Brody, and I don't just think that because I'm a GIRL, as my husband says! Watching it last night, I think I experienced every moment of her emptiness now that he's gone, because the two of them were so spectacularly well portrayed.  I can't see that she will have the impetus to do the things she does that make the plot lines so good, without him to fight for.  Homeland is not so much about the war on terrorism as it is about Carrie's relationship with Brody (okay, and the complicated one with Saul). All the shitty government cover-ups just provide a setting for the continuing story of Carrie, Brody and Saul. You could take the story of Carrie and Brody (and the actors, preferably!) and put them in 300AD Rome, and it would still work. But without the chemistry between those two, the show becomes something completely different, and whereas I am sure it will still be very good, it won't be so compelling.




To illustrate my point further, who used to watch Dallas?  Remember Bobby Ewing's return in the shower?  The producers had to bring Bobby back because the show wasn't working without him, and not just because he was the romantic fantasy of 5 million housewives.  The saga was about the sibling rivalry between him and JR, the love/hate thing between JR and Swellan, and the painful tearing and keeping apart (and very occasionally coming together) of Bobby and Pam.  All the other storylines, all the oil industry machinations and secondary family wrangles, were just vehicles to prolong these themes.  


If the characters don't work, even the most intricately thought out plot goes flat. 

If you were a Dallas fan, too, you will have seen the finale in which a devil showed JR what life would have been like if he had never existed.  A fascinating idea for the finale, but all those stories sure as hell wouldn't have made a TV serial.  Getting rid of Brody in Homeland is a bit like there being no JR in Dallas.  The plots come second, even though we don't realise it.

It's the same in books. Jackie Collins' 'Chances' is one of my favourite books because I fell in love with Gino Santangelo - and need I mention Heathcliffe? For me, Game Of Thrones was never quite so good after Ned Stark was killed off, though Tyrion Lannister does almost make up for it. Ned was such a strong character, with all that honour and attachment to Winterfell and The North.  It was the battle between his priniciples and those of the Lannisters that made the first book so powerful. 



The series Nashville (the 21st century Dallas, I think!) is terrific, but aside from all the wonderful music and the fascinating insights into the music industry, we love it most of all because of the 'are they ever going to be together' thing going on between Rayna and this gorgeous hunk of masculinity* 



Yes, yes, okay, that was just an excuse for a picture of Deacon!  The Rayna and Deacon storyline is the same as the Carrie and Brody, the Bobby and Pam - it's those tiny moments of bliss when they finally get together that provide some of the highlights of the series, and anyone who has ever got together or reconciled with someone they're crazy in love with knows how fab that is - okay, so your guy might not have been Damian Lewis (dammit!), your girl might not have been the pre-plastic surgery Victoria Principal, but it's nearly as good!

I was asked in an author interview on a blog the other day which of my characters I'd most enjoyed writing, and my initial answer was that I enjoyed all of them, because if I didn't love them and adore writing about them, it would mean that they didn't work.  Here's another thing - characters doesn't come alive because you've written down an intricate bio and list of characteristics in your notes; they do so because they're alive in your head.  If you're finding him or her hard to write, it might be because he or she isn't working.   Something to bear in mind - I keep an eye on it all the time.  

My idea for Last Child was that the main theme would be the relationship between two particular characters, but it's turned out to be a different relationship that's really got me.  I don't buy into all this 'oh, the characters write their own story, they take me off down roads I didn't mean to go down' bollocks, either, as if it's some mystical process that only Writers understand (note the capital 'w'); the story comes from my head and my fingers on the laptop keys. My imagination has simply conjured up a powerful relationship I hadn't expected to grab me so much, and the one I intended to work so well just didn't, that's all.  So I've re-thought the focus of the whole thing.  Be aware: if the character/relationship doesn't work, your story will be forgettable.

If you're writing a series (as so many are doing these days), remember that the readers need to truly believe in the characters, fall in love with them, fancy them, want to take care of them, be extremely irritated by them, want to see them fail, want to see them die a painful death, anything, or they won't read part two, no matter how many spaceships and magic wands and intricate government conspiracies and millionaire mansions you include.

My husband thinks that maybe Brody isn't really dead, maybe he was cut down before he took his last breath, maybe being kept alive somewhere - I live in hope!!!





Perhaps this guy knows....





*(a totally irrelevant ps: I would like to add that my sister and I were just discussing Nashville and the on-off relationship between Rayna and Deacon.  In Julia's words: "As if you could ever marry anyone else if Deacon was an option - who cares if he's an alcoholic, let him sleep it off in the morning!")





22 comments:

  1. I was saying just yesterday to a friend, "if the characters don't grab me in the first chapter, I'm just not going to read the book". A huge part of that "grab" for me is dialogue - if each character doesn't have their own, believable, voice, I quickly lose interest. Plot is important, but if you don't have real characters to carry it out, there really isn't much point!

    When it comes to writing, you really don't know how things are going to pan out until you start to write - things that weren't obvious in the planning/thinking stages suddenly become glaringly apparent once you start typing and you get those "Oh! *that's* what actually works!" moments.

    Goes without saying that I am looking forward to Last Child, and now I need to give Homeland a go...!

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    1. Agree agree agree and 10 times agree with both points, Willow! Thanks for reading - oh, and now I've told you what happens in Homeland - sorry!!!! Ha ha!!!

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    2. Hehe! It's okay, I have great selective memory with things like that - I will have totally forgotten that somebody even dies, much less what his name was, in a couple of days! (The danger will be if I forget what the show is called - Must Write It Down ;-))

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  2. True ..it's always the characters that are the draw...there are a few exceptions and I'm racking my brains to think of book that is more plot driven, Oh, many crime ones tend to be, but unless there is someone the reader as drawn to, positively or negatively, they won't get far in the book. And good characters come from a writer who is committed to them, to their development, to listening to their voice and letting them go maybe unlikely ways at times...I've read too many books where the writer tries to produce genre stereotypes: the tortured detective who can't DO relationships and listens to a lot of eclectic music while drinking etc...doesn't work.
    God characters are like good friendships - they have to be nurtured and worked on. And then, as you say, the plot happens....

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    1. You said it all, CJ. I do know what you mean by crime ones, as the plot has to be convincing and intriguing too, but if it's full of the aforementioned tortured detective types, it just becomes yet another crime thriller.... far, far too many detectives-with-a-past!!

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  3. I was at a writing workshop with Trish Nicholson last weekend (brilliant it was) and she mentioned the same thing. It's characters that make a book or story unique, compelling and memorable. I took that one home with me. Great post, TT even if the only characters here I recognise are JR and Bobby :) (that shows you how long it is since I've had a TV!)

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    1. The fact that you remember JR (one of my all time heroes!) makes all good in my world!!!

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  4. Deacon - phwooarrr! Sorry, wasn't that the point? Ha!

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    1. Well, it's certainly the most important one!!!!

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  5. Absolutely, Terry. It's the characters who make the story, not the other way round.

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    1. Ta for reading, FP. Now, try telling that to my husband who insists Homeland is all about the terrorism (even though I saw a tear roll down his cheeks at the end of series 8 of 24)

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  6. I agree re. Homeland (won't be watching season 4!), although not 24 I'm afraid, Bauer annoys me! Totally agree about characterisation and the idea that they guide the plot. Erm, no, I do that! And I am all for the situation merely being a vehicle for the characters (I was saying this yesterday to someone - Mad Men, for example, is all about the relationships and interactions, it doesn't matter it's an ad agency, it could be anywhere (Parliament, perhaps!)). Good post!

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  7. Oh and I should have added Castle as my prime example, without the fantastic relationship between Castle and Beckett the show would be nowt, even with all the murders!

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    1. I think with Bauer you have to watch all the series over a period of a few months in order to totally love him!!!!

      I've never watched Castle though I think husband has; it's one I'd like to give a go, tho. I tried to watch Mad Men once and found it flat and cliched, but I know loads of people love it so I may try again some time. Glad you agree with me!!! And I'm still feeling sad about Brody....

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  8. I think you're right, though the plot/character balance varies with genre. I think that's why so many TV shows struggle when the dynamic between characters changes e.g. when the 'will they, won't they' couple finally get together. Writing a series is hard because your characters need to grow without losing what drew people to them in the first place.

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    1. Thanks for reading and commenting, Jennifer. I so agree re the series - I actually did an article on sequels a while back, asking several writers to give their tips about them, and exactly what you said was mentioned. And yes - re the TV shows. It's a bit - right, they're together now. So what do we do? Kill one of them, or find yet another reason why they can't be together??!

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  9. I definitely agree with you on "Homeland". A friend of mine refuses to believe that Brody is even dead and that he is miraculously saved by Carrie and survives. It's going to be a very different show from now on. I'm interested to see how it will play out though.

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    1. Oh, I'm so hoping it is so - I wonder if that chap (can't think of his name!), the one who gave Carrie the phone so she could speak to Brody when he was in his cell, might have kept him alive as some sort of bargaining tool - I am currently with your friend!!!! I did read somewhere the actor who plays Saul saying that there would be shocks and surprises..... so maybe we're right! Cross fingers :)

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  10. Really enjoyed reading your post, Terry, and I couldn't agree more. I think that's why I love reading books that are part of a series because you really get to love your fave characters :)

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  11. Homeland won't be Homeland without Brody. I was dismayed when we said goodbye to Ned Stark but now, for me, Tyrion IS GoT. Yes, you're right, the characters make the plot. If you have weak characters, you lose the interest of your viewers/readers straight away. The same can be said of Breaking Bad. What amazing characters, even the ones you hate! I know it's bad when I can't remember a character's name!

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    1. I think everyone agrees about the Brody thing, A! I do agree re Tyrion, now - I was just twisting what I thought, very slightly, for the sake of the article, ha ha!!!! I agree with all you've said :)

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