Character Surprises

Our assignment this week is to write about something in our writing process that’s surprised us.

My favorite thing about writing is the surprises – the little clicks when something comes together or when you discover a trail of breadcrumbs that your subconscious has been dropping for you or when a minor character suddenly becomes more important to the story than you’d planned. It’s that last twist that I wanted to explore today – the way an ensemble member suddenly roars onto the stage, all Technicolor, and you can’t imagine the story without them anymore.

In Cahill book 3, there’s a new couple whose banter so delighted me that I would love to someday write a short story featuring them. I had to repeatedly restrain myself from writing pages and pages of their dialogue because it was so much fun!  I suspected that the male character was important  to the political plot but had no idea who he really was until I started writing his second scene. Then he suddenly became a misogynistic dandy who prizes himself on being progressive and is in need of being taken down a peg or two, and didn’t I know just the girl to do it? (And…I’m hesitant to write more about this because who knows what will change in edits? So let me give another example.)

When I started writing BORN WICKED, I didn’t realize that Sachi Ishida and Rory Elliott would be more than empty-headed, superficial town girls. They’d make easy antagonists for Cate. But then I thought, hmm. Cate – a bit of a tomboy who enjoys climbing trees, running through the fields, or gardening more than shopping – is really  judgy about girls who like dresses and fashion and are more traditionally girly. Wouldn’t it be interesting to explode that stereotype – to give Sachi and Rory their own secrets and an unexpected canniness?

My editor suggested that Sachi and Rory remain antagonists – perhaps rivals for Finn’s attention, or enemies who would betray Cate in some way. But it was super important to me that Cate find girl friends.That she grow to respect and trust and sacrifice for them. One of her biggest arcs, to me, is the discovery that she can trust girls who aren’t her sisters, and that the family you create from friends may be as strong as the family you’re born into. She and Sachi form a quick, close bond over their fierce loyalty to their reckless sisters.

And Rory – well, Rory Elliott has become one of my favorite characters to write – possibly my very favorite after Cate and her sisters. In STAR CURSED, when Rory gets the chance to confront the father who’s never acknowledged her as his, it’s one of my favorite scenes. Throughout BW, Cate continues to underestimate Rory – to judge her as reckless and slutty – and it’s only in that moment midway through SC that she realizes Rory has her own strengths and isn’t nearly as oblivious as she’d imagined. I think the only thing more fun than surprising yourself is surprising your protagonist!

 

 

 

Self-Censorship

I started this post three different times.

I’ve been doing that a lot lately.  Writing the first few words of a post, then deleting it and squinting at a blank page.

I’ve been blogging over at LiveJournal since early 2004.  Originally I planned to stick more or less to writing, but in addition to book angst over the years I’ve discussed two surgeries, one cross-country move, four years of grad school at two different programs and countless amusing anecdotes about my kid, most notably when he dropped trou in the cafeteria and instigated a worker’s rebellion in Language Arts.

And while I’ve always been fairly circumspect about what I post, lately I’ve been redacting before I’ve even written anything.  And it’s not so much the content I’ve been scrutinizing.  It’s the tone.

It’s easy to suss out what not to say on a blog.  Don’t be a jerk is a good rule of thumb if you’re not sure.  Those are the easy decisions to make.  What’s trickier is knowing how to present certain events in a way that keeps you on the right side of the line between heartwarming details that humanize the working writer and dude that’s TMI.

The state of your WIP, for instance.  Once upon a time I might have posted Man, am I feeling crappy about this revision or This whole scene is weak as hell, but ever since The Wicked and the Just sold (such less came out), I’ve been second-guessing things that aren’t glowing and rosy.  On the flipside, if you’re always all upbeat and Pollyanna, aspiring writers struggling with their own work may be offput by what they see as 1) hubris or 2) the effortless crafting of salable prose.  Not to mention the intellectual dishonesty of not presenting writing with all its warts.

And what about some personal disaster?  How much do you post about things like losing your mother-in-law or your basement flooding before you come off as pathetic and whiny?  How much of this do your readers even want to hear about?

I tend to err on the side of authenticity, but the critical thing for me is to be mindful of it.  I was blogging long before I had any potential audience to consider, but it’s still surprising how even the idea of an audience matters.

GILT in Paperback!

It’s an exciting day indeed! We are celebrating yesterday’s paperback release of Katherine Longshore’s GILT!  We members of Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks have taken the opportunity to ask some burning questions. Before we get into the Q&A, here’s a bit about GILT:

 

In the court of King Henry VIII, nothing is free–
and love comes at the highest price of all.

When Kitty Tylney’s best friend, Catherine Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII’s heart and brings Kitty to court, she’s thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat’s shadow, Kitty’s now caught between two men–the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat’s meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head.

 

 Now let the Q&A begin!

Jenn McGowan: What were the biggest differences between writing book 1 and writing book 2? And what are you working on next?

Katy: Writing Book 1, I didn’t know what I was doing, but it didn’t matter because I didn’t really realize it.  With Book 2, I knew I didn’t know what I was doing and it terrified me.  But it was also so much fun to write in a completely different voice.  Kitty, in GILT, is a bit complacent, an observer, introspective.  Anne, in TARNISH, is brash and blunt and would never have tolerated any of Cat Howard’s manipulations.

I’m currently working on a third book set in Henry VIII’s court—one that bridges the gap between GILT and TARNISH.  It features entirely new characters, but people from both of the other books play important roles.

 

J. Anderson Coats: Which of your characters do you most want to slap and/or take to task?

Katy: I’ve got two replies to that one.  Cat Howard is the easy answer.  She’s selfish, manipulative, egotistic and has no foresight.  At some point, someone should have taken her to task, though I’m not sure she would have listened.

And I desperately wanted to slap some sense into Kitty Tylney before things fell apart.  But it was like watching a train wreck, writing her descent into misguided loyalty.  Ultimately, neither girl could change her own character.  And nothing was going to deter them from their paths—chosen or not.

 

Cat Winters: Now that the hardcover edition of GILT has been available for a year and the paperback edition is making its debut, what would you say is the most important thing you’ve learned about the publishing process?

Katy: Roll with it and learn to let go.  Pretty difficult for a borderline control freak and obsessive perfectionist.  There is so much that we—as authors—don’t have any control over.  What we can do is write the best books we have the capacity and skill for at the time. And keep writing.  As hard as it is, and as much self-doubt as I feel, I know it’s the writing that has got me through the rough spots this past year.

 

Renee Collins: What do you do to get inspired, or get in the right “mood” to write in your chosen historical era?

Katy: I read a lot of non-fiction.  I look not only for the events that I put into my books, but also for the details—tastes and smells and textures.  But I temper that with modern music—songs that give me insight into my characters or reflect the mood of a scene.  And when I sit down to write, I turn all of that off and hope the blend of the two come out on the page.

 

Laura Golden: GILT spotlights a major historical figure, Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. How much of Catherine’s GILT persona is based on fact?    

Katy: Many of Catherine Howard’s actions in GILT are based on fact.  Her escapades in the Dowager Duchess’s house, her whirlwind “courtship” with the king, and her eventual fall.  But her persona?  All imaginary.  Think of it this way, if someone were to write down everything you did today—just the facts—would they really know what kind of person you are?  I write a lot about clothes—colors, textures, fabrics—but if you were to look into my closet, you’d see a lot of black, thrift store specials and a few hand-me-downs.  I think historians make a giant leap when they assume Catherine Howard was ignorant because she couldn’t write (many Tudor women couldn’t) and made bad choices or that she was an airhead because she liked clothes and parties.  I used the exact same facts (she couldn’t write, she had lots of clothes, the king had fun and avoided politics while he was married to her) and gave her a character I thought would fit into that framework.

 

Sharon Biggs Waller: What was the most interesting thing you discovered about the Tudor period?

Katy: That it wasn’t nearly as romantic as books and movies make it appear.  It was dirty and dangerous and ugly and our delicate modern noses probably couldn’t handle the reek of it all.  Also that romantic love was still a pretty foreign concept and not something most people expected to experience in a marriage.  But I’ve been “living” in the Tudor era for quite a while and it’s difficult to remember anything exceptionally interesting or bizarre.  I’ve been here so long it all seems—dare I say—normal.

 

Jessica Spotswood: I think my favorite thing about GILT is the fierce yet ultimately toxic friendship between Cat and Kitty. I suspect a lot of modern girls can relate to it. What was the most challenging or interesting thing about writing this complex friendship?

Katy: When I first spoke to my editor on the phone about GILT, one of her questions was, “So did you have a friendship like this growing up?”  My answer—fortunately—is no.  I had (and still have) kind, supportive friends who accepted me for who I am.  My experiences with people who are manipulative, critical, passive-aggressive and who purposefully abused my faults and foibles all came later when I had the skills and experience to be able to deal with it (mostly).  So it was a challenge to make Kitty so blind to Cat’s true nature.  What fascinated me about writing Cat, however, was how easy it was to come up with petty cruelties and exploitations.  It’s one of the most wonderful things about writing fiction—being able to explore character traits, actions and faults that you hope never affect you in real life!

 

Thank you for your fascinating responses, Katherine! And endless congratulations on the paperback release of GILT!

 

Katherine Longshore grew up on the northern California coast. At university, she created her own major in Cross-Cultural Studies and Communications, planning to travel and write. Forever. Four years, six continents, and countless pairs of shoes later, she went to England for two weeks, stayed five years, and discovered history. She now lives in California with her husband, two children, and a sun-worshiping dog.