Composites

Ever wonder what a character in a book really looks like?

Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby

Artist Brian Joseph Davis is using art and criminal sketch software and coming up with "sketches" of famous characters in literature -- as if they were done by a police sketch artist. You can see growing collection of Composites online.

They are eerie, in a way, to see these characters brought to life in this medium.

They look like I think they do, sort of. Maybe it's the starkness of black and white pencil sketches. I think part of it is that none of them are smiling in the sketch and while I think physically, Daisy for example, looks the way she does in my head, I most often picture her grinning in her flighty, rich way.

The project is asking for people to submit other characters and their descriptions for future sketches as well.

If anybody puts one of these sketches in a "six-pack," it will hardly be the line-up of usual suspects at all.

Developing Character

Bethany's post yesterday got me thinking - how does stress change people? It was the last paragraph, not the whole thing.

In case you were wondering.

That is really the crux of most stories: Something changes, the characters are stressed and start acting in ways that were never anticipated.

I'm very much in the wannabe bucket for writing. My life took a bit of a detour and I landed in Business School instead of Writing School. It's been a detour that I have really appreciated, however. It has added different dimensions to my knowledge of people and their stress reactions. It has shown me how black and white some people view the world (hello, cost accounting) or how flexible it can be in others (what would you like the number to be?).

Yet, I'm okay with the road I'm on. I figure that all of this experience is swimming around in my brain and will lead to a good novel idea that I can turn into great.

But in the mean time, I'm developing the ability to think like others, instead of myself. So while my stress reaction is to jot notes, write lists and not deviate from The Plan, I've discovered that others react by ignoring the tasks, blowing off deadlines or blaming others for their failures.

Sounds simple, but it's an important piece of developing your characters.

And while it makes for a fun and interesting life, in the curse sort of way, it makes the writer in my gleefully tuck that tidbit away into a corner to brew and see what comes out.

How have you developed character today?

Kittens and characters

I really promise, this isn't a cat blog.

Except today, it is again.

Mina's five months old, has more than doubled in size and become one furball of fiestiness in just two short months. Today she's off getting certain parts taken care of to ensure she doesn't become a kitten mama. Last time we were at the vet, the vet asked if there was a story behind her name.

Yes, I said, explaining about the whole I-name-my-pets-after-literary-characters thing. He then asked the tech if she knew where the name came from when she came back in the room. She didn't. "Dracula," he says and suddenly, there's that weird look of oh, you're one of those people who read vampire books. (Oddly enough, a woman in the waiting room said she used to have dog named Mina... didn't ask her if it was after the Dracula character or not...)

As for her role on the co-editing team... let's just say she's still new to this creative process. Have you tried to write cohesive fiction when Wrestle Mania is going on under your desk chair? Or your laptop cord is being vanquished? Or your shoelaces attacked? Or your fingers getting alternately chewed/groomed while you try to type?

Some mornings, it's just a good thing that she's cute. And later, when she purring like mad, it's easy to forget that she's such a terror. Gatsby's temperament has changed some too; he's amazingly tolerant most of the time, except when the tail-chewing really starts, he's vocal and angry and there's hissing and chasing until Mina listens to him that he's not having any fun.

Which is a good thing to remember while creating characters. Everybody has more than one side. Maybe the debonair businessman treats women like trash. Maybe the lunch lady dreams of being a hand model. Maybe the evil prince has a tender spot. Maybe the villain is so slippery that the evil is forgotten when he turns on the charm.

And like Gatsby, stressful situations change people. New conditions bring out unexpected behavior. (At the moment, Gat is sitting on top of a box, watching her play with a kitten chew toy and looking haughty.)

Maybe this editing team still has something to offer, other than chewed up drafts and disdainful looks.

Character Sketch: Christian Kane

One of my favorite shows to watch is Leverage, on TNT. Five ex-cons are now on the side of the little guys, fixing the wrong doings of whatever bad guys happens to come their way. One of the characters, Eliot Spencer played by Christian Kane, is the "hitter" of the group, known for his bone breaking, face pummeling, back ally brawls. In other words, he regularly kicks ass and looks HOT doing it.

But on Season 3, Episode 6: The Studio Job, Eliot takes the role of a singer-song writer who is about to hit it big - until his song is stolen by guest star John Schneider. Of course the Leverage team proves that Schneider is stealing the songs written by their client.

When I found out that Christian Kane was releasing a whole album, I was thrilled. I loved this episode and the two songs I had heard so far: "Thinking of you" and "House Rules."

Now that I've had the album for a little more than a month, I still enjoy it, but I can't quite shake my impression that it is Eliot Spencer - not Christian Kane - that is singing it.

The music is a typically mix of country ballads, fast-paced dance mixes and a remix of another great. Kane has a fabulous voice, but I can't quite leave Spencer and only hear Kane. If I could, I'm not sure I would like the album as much as I do.

Spencer's role is necessary for the Leverage team. They need him to beat up the guys who want to run away or want to cause damage to one of the team members. But then there is this soft side that is exploited during "Thinking of You," a tender ballad of parted lovers. It's the juxtaposition of Spencer's kick-ass attitude against unrequited love that made the song a hit for me.

As decent as the album is, I wonder how it would have done if Leverage hadn't been the platform to launch it against.

Sort of like when an author's offspring launches a decent, but not fabulous, book.

Introducing Mina

As if the holidays weren't crazy enough on their own, Word Nerd decided to complicate it all just a little bit more. I adopted a kitten.

Meet Mina.

At the vet's yesterday, she was 2lbs., 10 oz. which puts her right around 2.5 mos. old which is what we thought. She was born under a friend's porch, so her exact birthday is unknown.

I've always given my pets literary names, back to the gold fish I named Robin and Hood when I was a kid. As I was thinking about women in literature, it seemed like they all had really boring names (Jane, Lizzie, etc.) and then I thought of Mina Harker from Dracula (and more recently, Dracula in Love). It's a big name for this little girl to grow into, but I think it's going to fit her. She tries to be a proper lady, already she's a fastidious groomer, but then she breaks into wild bouts of playing that are anything but ladylike.

Big brother Gatsby isn't sure what to make of the kitten (a.k.a. squeaky toy) since her meows are more like "meeps" at this point. This morning, he's being very brave and sitting on the back of the love seat just observing Mina asleep on my lap while I type. Yesterday he spent most of the day hiding out behind the closed door to my bedroom and wouldn't get this close to the kitten without hissing or making that growling cat noise. This morning, he's been sniffing her toys (which he also hissed at yesterday) and she's been content to watch him watching her.

Mina's already been helpful with writing by standing on the keyboard or the paper I'm trying to edit. Gatsby didn't even have to teach her that.

Word Nerd will stay a book blog (not a cat blog, I promise!) but I wanted to introduce my the member of my editing team.

It's just a little crush...

My apologies to Jennifer Paige for borrowing her lyrics (and all the rest of you for getting that song stuck in your heads...)

I have a fictional crush. Admitting it is the first step.

It's not the suspects you might think -- not Jack Reacher, though he's popular with the ladies. It is not the icons of either Team Edward or Team Jacob.

It's Bren Cameron.

Awkward silence, I know. Unless you've read all 11 volumes of CJ Cherryh's Foreigner saga, you likely would never have heard of him. They aren't the books that get trumpeted whenever a new one comes out. There's been no gorgeous movie star playing Bren.

I'm getting ready to start the 11th book in the series and I'm so excited to spend another 300 pages with Bren. He's a diplomat, the human who has to keep peace between the other humans, a space station, an alien race on the same planet. He's done his job well -- too well, some would say -- and now rebels are trying to use him as political leverage, making him a target.

But why the crush? I met Bren Cameron when I was 16 or 17. I read the first three books in the series, then the next three. When the third trilogy came out, I went back and read the first six books again and then plowed ahead. When I reread them, I understood the predicaments he was in so much better, the quiet politics. The need to say things, or not say things. It was something that now-more-grown-up Bethany understood better than teenager Bethany.

Is the crush really about Bren Cameron? No, not really.

It's about an author putting words on paper that ring true about a person trying to figure out their wide in circumstances that are entirely alien. We all feel like that from time to time... and Bren's been there through big transitions in my life ... high school to college... college to grad school... you get the idea.

What characters have you had fictional crushes on? Or have meant something to you over the years?