Countdown to NaNoWriMo: Three Weeks Left!
on October 11th, 2009 at 5:26 pmJust three weeks to go. Only twenty-one days. *gulp*
Hopefully you’re making headway on that to-do list and have at least the germ of a story idea. With time pressing upon you, now’s when it must be decided how much planning you want to do in advance. I will say if you’re looking for a detailed outlining plan, this isn’t the best place to get it. Kelley Armstrong has a section devoted to outlining in the Discussion Panel portion of her Writer Forum (http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi), as does Jim Butcher at his livejournal (http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/). I’m sure there are plenty of other places online to turn for outlining help as well.
But, those things are for the planners among us. As I’ve said before, I’m pantsing this year which means minimal planning. But let’s face it, most people need a little bit more than just an idea before they approach that blank page (er … screen). One of the most important pieces, for me, is my characters. I don’t need to know everything about them, but starting with nothing at all would leave me staring at that beautiful, glowing whiteness for far longer than I can afford come November first.
Some people want to have every detail about their main characters in front of them when they start writing. This time, I’m going a bit more loosey-goosey. For starters, I’m only really concerning myself with three characters (I figure the rest will come as they come). The biggest things I need for those three are names and faces. I honestly love this part; it’s kind of like imagining what your kids will be like while you’re still pregnant. Only in this case, you get to choose all of it.
Names can be tricky. Some people will just slap on a name and go. If that works for you, that’s fabulous. I have this weird thing with wanting my characters’ names to “mean” something. So I spend a lot of time on baby name websites. And let me tell you, those things can kill hours without you noticing. If you plan to go that route, it’s a good idea to know as much about the name as possible in advance: what you want it to mean, male/female/gender neutral, origin, or even first initial and number of syllables. All those things will narrow down the amount of options you have to sift through. Of course, there are also the rare cases where a character’s name just comes to you and it fits them perfectly. Savor those and use them, because (at least in my experience) they don’t happen nearly often enough.
By far the most fun for me is “casting” my characters. My female lead this time was pretty easy. The story idea was inspired by a piece of artwork that included what would become the character. Figuring out who the model looked like (to get other pictures to work with) involved a bit more difficulty. Thankfully, I have a pretty good memory when it comes to pop culture, and I knew I’d seen someone like her before (I didn’t even bother looking until I had a pretty good idea where I’d seen her, and then the search only took about ten minutes). My male lead was harder because I sort of knew who he looked like, but I didn’t think it was a perfect fit. After several friends helped me hunt for a couple days, I decided to just run with my first thought because no one fit better. However, within that casting hunt, one of my friends ran across pictures that inspired a third character (as well as some little plot nibbles).
As soon as I wrap up my re-write, I will be posting pictures of these three around my desk. By the end of October, this wall in my kitchen will look like my high school locker did way back when.
So, my challenge for you is to think about what your main characters look like and figure out if you were to dream cast them, who would play their roles?
To get you started (if you’re interested), here are mine:
Ever (as of now she has no last name, it may stay that way) – Peyton List
Brendan O’Neil – Ian Somerhalder
(As yet unnamed guy) – Ryan Reynolds (specifically the way he looked in the last Blade movie)
Gulp.
Doing plotting this year. I already have a few characters. BTW names are fluid and could change any time.
Prudencia Stratton: Amy Adams (with red hair)
Thomas Putnam: Brian Austin Green
Queen Magnolia :Gina Torres
I have bunch more characters but no specific actors yet.
Ooooo assuming that Prudencia & Thomas are connected somehow (love interests or something), I REALLY like the combo. And Gina Torres just rocks
I’m with you on having a bunch of other characters, but details are so minimal as to be non-existent. (Basically, I know I need people to fill certain roles, but right now if I started writing, they’d be filled in as “Pilot said,’….’ She glared at First Officer…”
Oh, man, I LOVE NaNo! I logged in and earned my halo, but I just don’t see how I can do it this year!
Maybe I can set my NaNo project as the outline of my next book! Nowhere near 50K, but what the heck! LOL
DBR
Hmmm maybe if you outline and do realllllly long plot points you can hit 50k. *shrug* I say try it and do what you can. You’ve got publisher deadlines and stuff that a lot of us WISH we had.
I never worry about what my characters look like. How they think, how they act, what they like/dislike/love/hate, what they’re good at, what they couldn’t do competently to save their lives, what they’re afraid of, what they most desire, sure, but not what they look like.
Also, while I might fantasize about my dream cast for a film based on my story once I have finished writing it, this is not something I would think about before writing. I want to develop my characters within the realm of their own story. I don’t want them to be influenced by my ideas of how a specific actor might portray a character. (If I had enough clout within the film industry that I could write a script, get it green-lighted and get it into the hands of my dream cast then yeah, maybe I would write a part specifically with the intent of tempting an actor who I really wanted to work with into playing the part, but since I don’t, this isn’t something I’ll be thinking about before or during the writing process.)
Character names, on the other hand, I do care about. In naming my characters, I consider a name’s meaning, its historical usage, its appropriateness to the context of my story and its fit with the names of the other characters. Names for my 2009 NaNo characters I do have picked out already.
See, when I meet someone (other than online), the first thing I notice about them is what they look like. Sounds shallow, but it’s true, I notice their hair, their eyes, their smile, etc. Not in a good/bad way, just in a “wavy brown hair, green eyes, cocky smile” way.
For all that other stuff to flow naturally for me, I need to “see” my characters, which means they need a face. *shrug*
Dream casting just allows me to have physical pictures to draw from as well. I don’t usually think in terms of how the person acts/talks. It’s literally just a face to put wiht the character. Makes it easier for me to talk to them when we converse in my head
Totally acknowledge that it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea though
Oh, and just in case it needed clarification, this isn’t a “OMG, they should really make a movie of this novel because it’s going to rock!”
I just like having physical faces to go with my characters, and I tend to draw from faces I’ve seen before. My brother and two of my nieces have also been used as character models — and only one of them is into acting at all
But we can all dream that it is, can’t we?
I understood your intention, but yeah, that process would be counterproductive for me. Physical appearance is meaningless to me except as a visual representation of a character/person who I already know.
Starting a new story is always hard for me. Exciting, but hard. I have to mull the beginning around in my head for several days – even with an outline.