Tag Archives: reading

Evolving A Supporting Character: A Guest Post By Charles E. Yallowitz

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Many thanks to Charles E. Yallowitz for the below guest post. You can find Charles online at http://legendsofwindemere.com/author/slepsnor/.

 

Thank you to Kevin for giving me an opportunity to be a guest on his blog. My name is Charles E. Yallowitz and I’m the author behind the Legends of Windemere blog and fantasy adventure series. My latest book is the 7th of the series and is titled Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue. That gets the hype out of the way, so now I can get the fun topic.

I write with an ensemble cast of central heroes and several recurring allies. One such character is Kira Grasdon, who has been around since the first book. She is the fiancée of Luke Callindor, the first hero to be introduced, and they have a whole love triangle going on that is not the point of this post. Let’s just say it’s messy and it puts Kira in a difficult situation with other characters and the readers. She is in an emotional storyline, created by her own hand, while not appearing in every book. Unlike Luke, she isn’t an adventurer or much of a warrior. She starts as a merchant’s daughter and evolves over the course of the series.

Sound easy? Well, here’s the problem. How do you evolve an important character who is absent for much of the books?

The simplest way is to have the absent character get mentioned in passing while they’re not around. For a love interest, they can come up in conversation in terms of being missed or simply wondering what they’re doing. New supporting characters can have some news too, which demonstrates that the absentee isn’t really in stasis. All of this is to prove that they’re living and changing off-screen, so they can be different when they return. So it isn’t a shock when Kira returns with a little more combat training or more confidence in negotiating trade deals. The reader knows that she has been working on these two areas while away from the main story. Luke talking about her retains the connection that they have and doesn’t make her an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ character.

Keep in mind that you can’t do the first method by itself because the character has to return at some point. With limited scenes, you need every one of them to count toward development and reminding the audience that the character is important. Powerful interactions and a true purpose help as well as making sure something in the plot affects the returning ally. To keep them growing, you need to hit the characters hard and have them hit back. If not hit back then put a few cracks that may fester during their next hiatus. Leaving a recurring character broken while the heroes move on may seem like a mean thing to do, but it can lead to an unexpected, enjoyable return. After all, many readers enjoy a spiral into insanity or a good guy turning evil or anything that is a step in dark direction.

This isn’t an easy development to accomplish because you have limited time and absence doesn’t always make the heart grow stronger. These recurring characters may have an impact on the plot, but aren’t around to defend the long term effects of their actions. Having them pop up solely to give an explanation can come off as contrived, so you need to get the information in another way. My favorite method is to have another character bluntly ask about the situation. After all, the readers might not be the only ones curious about the inner thoughts of an ally.

Developing characters over the course of a series is tough and those that aren’t constantly in the spotlight have a hard time growing. The key is to make sure they’re remembered and reappear with a purpose. You’d be surprised what happens. Might even have a spin-off book or a new plot on your hands.

Seeking Guest Posters

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I am always happy to accept guest posts. If you are interested in doing a guest post please contact me (putting “guest post” in the subject line of your email). Your post can be about any topic (within reason of course)! But subjects might include: a piece about your favourite book, why you write or anything of a literary nature. Please send emails to newauthoronline (at) gmail .com.

 

Kevin

Pretty Girls Are Gravestones By Amber Skye Forbes

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Amber Skye Forbes has written a powerful poem entitled “Pretty Girls Are Gravestones”, (https://amberskyeforbes.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/poetry-saturday-pretty-girls-are-gravestones/). In her poem Amber attacks the objectification of “pretty girls” by men. I found Amber’s use of the ornament analogy striking, (girls are placed in cabinets for men to admire).

I was struck by the poet’s use of the word “vile” to describe men. This led me to ask the writer whether she did, in fact hold that all men are “vile”. Amber responded as follows,

“I don’t feel that way at all about men in general, although this poem was written due to my personal trauma. I hope the men who read this don’t see it as

an attack on them, but they are able to come to their own conclusions about what I could mean. I know what I mean, but it doesn’t matter what I mean. What

matters is others’ interpretations of what I mean. So it’s deliberate that I make it seem like it’s all men. Yet, the true beauty of poetry lies in its

pleasures and usefulness readers glean from it”.

I agree absolutely with Amber. What matters ultimately is not what the poet meant but how readers themselves construe their work. Once a poem or, indeed any composition is available either online and/or in print it is beyond the control of it’s creator and is subject to whatever interpretation readers choose to put upon it. (I made the same point as Amber in my guest post for The Story Reading Ape’s Blog which can be found here, (http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/2015/02/01/read-about-author-kevin-morris-explaining-his-poetry/).

Ogre

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The clock ticks.

Upstairs an ogre sleeps.

Paralysed by fear, a child sits waiting for the monster to awake.

Hands of terror traverse the clock’s face.

A creak. The child glances fearfully upwards, praying for deliverance.

Should Self-Published Authors Forget Print On Demand?

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A post arguing that authors who self-publish should forget print on Demand. According to the writer, the quality of Createspace books is poor (he goes so far as to say that this does, perhaps mean that if authors still wish to use POD they might consider the much maligned “vanity” publishing model. For the post please see, http://www.derekhaines.ch/justpublishing/where-self-publishers-will-continue-to-lose-out/.

I would be interested in hearing the views of anyone who has published with Createspace or anyone who has read a book produced by them regarding the contention of the article.

 

Kevin

The Rules Of Poetry

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I came across this entertaining piece on the rules of poetry while browsing the web, (http://www.improve-education.org/id49.html). The writer argues there are, in fact no rules or rather if the poet does follow rules they should be of their own making. Rules do, in the view of the writer stifle creativity, replacing vibrancy with the dead hand of uniformity.

Book To Raise Money For Guide Dogs

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As those of you who follow this blog will know, I, together with fellow authors have produced an anthology to raise money for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, a registered charity which provides highly trained working guide dogs for visually impaired people. GDBA receives no funding from the government and relies entirely on the generosity of members of the public to continue it’s work of providing guide dogs thereby enabling visually impaired people to live and work independently.

The anthology is free to download but we ask that you please make a donation to Guide dogs when downloading.

Many thanks to everyone who has donated thus far. As of now the amount received stands at £111.25. To donate and download the anthology please visit here, (http://newauthoronline.com/anthology-to-raise-money-for-guide-dogs/).

 

Many thanks,

 

Kevin

Anthology to raise money for Guide Dogs goes live at last!

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Dear all,

The moment you have all been waiting for. No, I haven’t won millions on the National Lottery, although that would be nice! I am, however, delighted to announce that the anthology to raise money for the Guide Dogs for the Blind association is now live! I have created a dedicated page for the book which can be found here: http://newauthoronline.com/anthology-to-raise-money-for-guide-dogs/

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to the anthology, whether that be through stories, poems or other writings. I would like to thank Chris Graham for his generosity in producing the book cover at no charge. Without the tireless efforts of the editor, Dave Higgins, this anthology would not have come into being. Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has promoted and continues to promote the anthology.

Kind regards,

Kevin and Trigger

Some Thoughts On Clean Reader

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(The below post contains, of necessity some profanity. If you are offended by such words you may wish to stop reading now).

Today’s Guardian has an article about Clean Reader, an application which allows the user to reduce or eliminate the amount of profanity in a book, (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/28/clean-reader-is-freaking-silly). The author’s contention is that Clean Reader is a silly idea but, in the final analysis readers have the right to put their own interpretation on the books they read. So, for example the owner of a print book is at liberty to cross out words they don’t like provided they don’t pass off the amended text as constituting the author’s original work.

My concern as an author is that Clean Reader alters the original meaning of my work. Take, for example my short story Samantha. In Samantha we meet a young woman who has been forced into prostitution by her brutal pimp, Barry. For reasons of authenticity Samantha contains scenes of violence and, yes the use of profanity. For instance Sam is told by Barry not to let a client “anywhere near your sweet little fuck hole” until he has paid. This is how a man of Barry’s stamp, a brutal pimp with no respect for women, would address those who he controlls. Yet Clean Reader would render “fuck” as “love” making Barry’s words risible as no pimp would refer to a vagina as “a love hole”.

To take another example, Nick, the client Sam is visiting, says that he wants to “fuck”. Nick’s desire for sexual gratification has nothing whatever to do with romance so to change “fuck” to “love” as Clean Reader would is to render the story risible and to change it’s meaning to boot.

I don’t want anyone to be offended by Samantha or any of my writing for that matter. However if someone downloads Samantha I fervently hope that they read it as written. If a tool such as Clean Reader is utilised the true horror of Sam’s situation is sanitised (I.E. forced prostitution is portrayed in a downright risible manner with clients making love, rather than “fucking” sex workers).

In conclusion, I have concerns regarding Clean Reader, specifically that it has the potential to alter the author’s original meaning and convey an inaccurate view of the work being read. I suspect though that most readers will avoid the app and, given time it will fade into obscurity or cease to exist completely.