Tag: creating fictional characters

Murdering Fantasy REPRINT

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From April 27, 2016

Y’know, I’m beginning to think ill of publicists. They’ll take anybody’s money.

Today a publicist invited me to read a great new fantasy novel “about a female warrior with a kind heart.” When the Sarmatians went culturally extinct almost 2,000 years ago, that was the end of the only nation that actually produced female warriors on purpose. Look it up in Herodotus if you don’t believe me.

Since then, The Invincible Female Warrior has become the most commonplace–and the most annoying–cliche in half-baked fantasy literature. Along with crusty but benign old wizards and know-it-all elves: but really, Ms. Gorgeous with the unbeatable kung-fu moves is the worst of them all–except for maybe little kids with fantastic martial arts skills that enable them to wipe out full-grown male villains.

The book seems to be self-published. This is what gets me about self-publishing: no quality control. The publicist ought to be ashamed for taking this author’s money and trying to hoodwink people like me into reviewing it. I won’t give the author’s name because it just wouldn’t be humane. By the way, though, she wants a pretty hefty chunk of money for this book.

If you are an aspiring writer, this author commits a literary stumble that I’ve told you about before ( http://leeduigon.com/2015/10/21/a-silly-name-can-ruin-your-fantasy-novel/ ).

Do not name the principle characters in your story after familiar household products. Trust me, it doesn’t work. Here we have an Invincible Female Warrior named “Aleave.” Does that at all bring to mind the brand name of a popular headache medicine?

If you conscientiously avoid all the cliches that make fantasy so prone to low expectations on the readers’ part, and write a great story populated by memorable characters, and yet succumb to the temptation to give those characters names like Drano, Tylenol, Pennzoil, or Fancy Feast–well, you might as well not have written it at all.

Work Wanted: Wizard/Sage/Ninny

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Image result for images of funny wizard

From February 26, 2017

I have a couple of fictional characters on hand who weren’t able to find jobs in any of my books. So I am advertising them here, for employment by any aspiring fantasy writers who may wish to give them work.

Gombo the Magnificent is a wizard whose magic mostly produces unintended, and unappreciated, consequences. His love potion grows hair on your furniture. His hex makes his enemies stronger. And don’t even think about asking him to cast a spell to make you lose weight. The last customer who tried that wound up with two left feet and a bottomless ashtray.

Dr. Fretorius, an unemployed sage, is the world’s foremost expert on the philosophical writings of Wing Chow Foon, who was executed by his emperor for turning his students into useless idiots. Dr. Fretorius became unemployed when this began happening to his students at the university. Obviously a fantasy character: in real life, he would have been promoted to department head.

Beetrice Blotter rebelled against her parents’ plan for her to follow in their footsteps as professional beekeepers and turned instead to keeping wasps. It’s actually rather dangerous to approach her property. Her pride and joy is a wasps’ nest the size of a medicine ball, inhabited by a multitude of the most aggressive wasps anyone has ever seen. Her inability to get her wasps to produce marketable honey has left her with an obsession to achieve this goal no matter what.

All three have expressed the desire to appear in a fantasy novel and a willingness to do it without being paid. So if you mean to write such a novel, and have an opening suitable for any of these three characters, please feel free to give them a chance to show what they can do.

How Do I Do It? (Part 2)

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The Thunder King

I have 15 Bell Mountain books in print, with three more planned, one of which is written and is currently being edited (Ozias, Prince in Peril).

I don’t know how many characters I had to make up to populate these books. At a guess, say three or four hundred. Some come back in book after book. Some appear only for a walk-on. But as they say, you can’t tell a story without characters.

Where do they come from, all these characters?

Some I create to carry out certain jobs demanded by the plot. Having done so, they either remain in the story to do more, or quietly fade away.

A few start out as just a cool name. I borrow a lot of names from various sources–Greek and Roman history, ancient Welsh stories, Norse folklore. And then, often, a character takes form around the name. You can’t let a handle like “Abombalbap” go to waste.

Even fictional characters, of course, have to live somewhere. I had to invent a bunch of countries to house my characters. Obann, Wallekki Land, Abnak country, Arachosia–oh, all sorts of countries! And cities, too.

To invent all this stuff, nothing will prove more valuable than years and years of reading. It’s fun hanging out with Herodotus or Sir Thomas Malory; but you can also learn from them. The more you read, the better. And it’s okay to concentrate on reading the kind of stories you would like to write someday.. I have no time for Serious Mainstream Literature. Give me The Lord of the Rings or The Worm Ouroburos any day.

And that’s enough of this for now.

‘How One of My Characters Grew: Old Uduqu’ (2016)

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You know you’re on a roll as a storyteller if you introduce a minor character who grows into a major character before you can say boo.

How One of My Characters Grew: Old Uduqu

The thing is, all your characters have to seem real–especially to you, the writer. The most common failing that makes bad literature bad is the writer using the central character as a larger-than-life wannabe of himself or herself, and all the other characters just scuttle around like roaches: they’re not important.

Nor does it hurt to have strong feelings about your fictional characters… as long as it doesn’t get out of hand, of course.

‘Not-So-Minor Characters’ (2015)

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28,134 Kid King Stock Photos, High-Res Pictures, and Images ...

Gotta outgrow this!

You’d be insulted, wouldn’t you, if people dismissed you as “a minor character”? Well, fictional characters don’t like it any more than you do.

Not-So-Minor Characters

To this day I still cite Dick Francis and H.R.F. Keating as stellar examples of writers who brought their characters to life. You don’t need to load down the book with biographies that interest no one: but you do need a touch of color.

The biggest offense a fiction writer can commit is to write himself up as the larger-than-life hero of the story. Even publishers don’t like it! That sort of thing is very popular in high school among teens who think they’d someday like to be writers.

It’s a phase that must be passed through as quickly as possible.

The Conscience of a Queen

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1,200+ Evil Queen Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free ...

Queen Maressa… What’s she plotting now?

Sometimes writing a novel takes an unexpected turn and it’s all the writer can do not to fall off and get left behind. That’s when the real fun starts!

I’ve just finished typing up another set of chapters of Ozias, Prince Enthroned. There’s no way I’ll be able to finish writing it this year, it’s too cold outside. But there’s already an indication that it’s going to be good.

When your characters whom you’ve made up start saying, thinking, and doing things that you, the writer, never expected–well, you’ve either lost control, but good, or you’re on to something good.

My wicked queen, Maressa, has an unexpected problem: her conscience is acting up. Crikey, I didn’t know she had one. It was buried pretty deeply, but now it’s gnawing at her.

This is so cool. It’s like the book’s on auto-pilot and I’m just a passenger. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Your Favorite ‘Bell Mountain’ Character (Take 2)

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Review of Bell Mountain by Lee Duigon – Allison D. Reid

What–only four votes cast? Well, maybe yesterday was the wrong day for it. Risking reader displeasure, I’ll try again.

Your Favorite ‘Bell Mountain’ Character

Let’s have some fun with this–why not? It’s got to be almost as dreary to read the nooze as it is to write it.

I’m supposed to write a Newswithviews column today, and I haven’t got the ghost of an idea. Maybe some chance remark here will set me off.

Your Favorite ‘Bell Mountain’ Character

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Bell Mountain (Bell Mountain, 1)

It’s time to check on my books’ impact on their readers. I could wind up, here, with a lot of egg on my face if hardly anybody responds to this question:

Who is your favorite Bell Mountain character?

I remember, when I was writing The Temple, how upset my wife and my editor were when they thought I’d killed off Chief Uduqu. I had no idea how much they liked him. I thought of Sir Walter Scott, whose printer rebelled when Scott (in Ivanhoe) killed off Athelstane. He had to write a new scene bringing the old duffer back to life. Happily, Uduqu wasn’t dead: he’d just fallen asleep on the battlefield after tremendous exertions.

Anyway, so who’s your favorite character in these books? There are a couple hundred to choose from!

I can’t guess who will get the most votes… although I do have one pretty strong suspicion.

‘Loving a Fictional Character’ (2016)

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Thursday Movie Blogging: Theoden King May Be My Favorite Character in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings"

Here he is in the movie.

I don’t know if I’ve ever achieved this as a story-teller: moved readers to love a character whom I made up. But J.R.R. Tolkien achieved it.

Loving a Fictional Character

Old King Theoden! Some of the things he says and does move me practically to tears. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to covering nooze dominated by characters who would definitely be on the Mordor team if they were in The Lord of the Rings. Where else would you put Chuck Schumer?

We need more models of goodness. Maybe if we had more, it’d start spilling over into our public business.

Worth a try, at least.

‘I Love My Characters’ (2018)

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The Cellar Beneath the Cellar (Bell Mountain, 2) by [Lee Duigon]

Ellayne at work in Book 2

I’ve written almost 100 pages of my new book, Ozias, Prince in Peril, and have had to meet a whole new cast of characters–’cause it’s 2,000 years before the events described in my other Bell Mountain books.

I Love My Characters

I say I “meet” my characters because that’s what it feels like. It’s like they’re already there, waiting to come into the story.  I take pains NOT to pattern them on real people. Let that mask slip just once, and your book is toast.

Queen Maressa has already shown herself a top-flight villain; but can she outwit Lady Gwenlann, the scatterbrained wardrobe mistress who controls the late king’s spy network? (“Scatterbrained” is only an act.) There’s the little fat man, Mallen, who heads a troupe of actors: Maressa wants to buy them. And of course Queen Parella, Prince Ozias’ mother, written off my Maressa as “that goose-girl,” but with a lot of gumption to her.

Dagnabbit, writing a novel is fun! And if it isn’t, you’re doing it wrong.