Dixon Hearne on "Setting as Character"

I'm pleased today to have acclaimed author Dixon Hearne as my guest blogger to speak about "Setting as Character." His works have been published widely, with his most recent, Delta Flats, published by Amphorae Publishing Group.

Photo courtesy of author

Dixon Hearne (photo on left) is the author of three recent books: Delta Flats: Stories in the Key of Blues and Hope (nominee, 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award) and From Tickfaw to Shongaloo (Second-Place, 2014 William Faulkner Novella competition), both set in Louisiana, and Plainspeak: New and Collected Poems. His website is dixonhearne.com

Setting as Character

I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it. ~William Faulkner

Beginning writers are often told: “Write about what you know.” Consequently, many of their first writings center on where they live and the people in their orbit. Once they have the basic elements of fiction (plot, character, setting, theme, and style), they typically feel more comfortable trying their hand at various genres. Fiction offers particularly rich ground for cultivating possibilities. Setting alone presents unlimited opportunity for experimentation.

More than Backdrop (physical, social milieu)

Setting must be as well fleshed out as any other character, by the use of specific and telling details. It can't be selected on a whim, with no purpose in mind; but it must feed into the story   ~Elizabeth George

Literature is replete with examples of places imbued with human qualities—beyond mere personification, symbolism, or metaphor. Consider, for example, the characterization of the moors in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights—a dark, brooding entity, ominous and ever-present, more than simply a literary device to set the tone of the story.

Consider also Scarlett’s Tara, more than mere symbol of strength and security. It beckons, nourishes, influences. She views Tara as a living entity—revels and wallows in its splendor, its spell. It is friend, healer, guardian angel. Similarly, Anne Shirley imbues Green Gables with life and joy-giving.

Examples of “setting as character” can be found in any number of novels and in noir films set in New York City, New Orleans, London, and other places alive with their own personas—where setting speaks to the reader/viewer, sets the tone/mood of the story, and exerts influence and control over characters and plot. Place is carefully developed into an unforgettable part of the story. Nowhere are examples more clear and abundant than gothic tales and horror movies set in haunted places, settings portrayed as living entities that act and react with other characters.

Southern writers seem particularly adept at featuring setting as character in fiction—from Dorothy Allison (Carolina) to Tennessee Williams (New Orleans) to James Lee Burke (swamps) to Faulkner (Yoknapatawpha County). Contemporary “raw South” fiction typifies the impulse of many southern writers to interweave place with other characters in their stories. Authors like David Armand (southeast Louisiana, The Gorge), Daren Dean (rural Missouri, Far Beyond the Pale), and Skip Horack (Gulf South, The Southern Cross) create settings well beyond the dimensions of mere time and place. They bring place to life. 

Examples from my own writing:

Many of my stories spring from a single image, a place in my head. I almost immediately step back and consider how place might affect my characters. They are often powerful images, like a cabin porch in fallow fields, as in my short story “This Side of Canaan.” A sweat-drenched couple and their ragged children peeking through the doorway complete the picture, tell the story.

Setting is central to my comic novella From Tickfaw to Shongaloo. Stokely, a Southern town, reflects universal themes and motives and actions. The dialect immediately identifies the geographical setting. We get to know the town as more than a place—its identity is inextricably tied up with its interactions with townspeople. Place is paramount in the story.

Photo courtesy of author

Delta Flats: Stories in the Key of Blues and Hope is about place as well as characters. In some cases, place is featured as a character itself, as in “Crescent City Blues,” which conjures images of decadence and a general atmosphere of laissez les bon temps rouler. 

“Waves wash upon its muddy banks like the incessant beating of the Crescent City’s heart. Like eternal applause for the drama, with all its shadowy plots and subplots, unfolding in the decadent world of the French Quarter. No one escapes its influence, New Orleans. One might curse or spurn or dismiss it with the contempt of a religious zealot, but deny it—no. It floats like an island unto itself, a world shaped by half a millennium of vibrant tenancy.”

Native Voices, Native Lands brings landscapes of the Southwest and the central plains to life in story and poem. Indeed, many native Americans believe that the earth and its constituent natural parts (land, rivers, mountains, etc.) have souls. They write eloquently of waters and tribal lands as living entities.

Crafting Place as Character

In crafting a story that will feature setting/place as a character, one might consider the following:

How does a writer bring life to a setting—complete with mood, motive, and emotions?

How can the senses be used to add dimension and shape the character of the setting?

How does a writer introduce deliberate conflict and interaction between other characters and setting to create a believable entity. Like any other character, setting can cause problems or trouble for the protagonist(s).

Consider what motives a place might have as a character in the story. What is to be gained or lost? Use that to help develop a persona.

Create a list of words that capture conflict, mood, atmosphere, and setting. Carefully selected words add dimension and layers to place as character. 

Imagine yourself as the place in the story. What do you see, feel, hear, smell? What might your own actions/reactions be? 

Pay careful attention to language and detail.

Most importantly, read other stories—many stories—that feature setting/place as character.

Thank you, Dixon for your wisdom and advice, and congratulations on your many accomplishments.

What Watching "The Walking Dead" Has Taught Me About Writing

Super Bowl weekend, while the guys were out in the country and my granddaughter was on the road back to college, I did something I never expected to do. I decided not to watch the Super Bowl -- too much senseless violence (the joke was on me - keep reading).

While flipping through channels, I stumbled onto "The Walking Dead" marathon. I’m not a fan of guts and gore, so I was surprised at how much I liked the program. TWD has lots of gore and graphic violence, but I usually look away at those parts.

As soon as the guys returned, they started watching too. Much to my surprise, my husband, who prefers listening to political programs, became hooked. Monday morning, he suggested we turn on Netflix and watch previous episodes. While binge/watching episodes of TWD last week, I puzzled over why the show is so good. My answer is -- the writing. The actors do a great job, but without the well written scripts or direction there would be no story for the actors to portray.

 

Here's why I think TWD works so well:

• The writers are masters at suspending disbelief. (A zombie apocalypse, really?)
• The writers are masters at suspense/cliffhangers.
• Each episode starts with action, draws me in, and keeps my attention.
• The characters are well drawn and realistic, ditto for the dialogue.
• The writers make me care about the characters. (Although I get angry when a character I like gets killed.)
• Most of the characters don’t have fancy names. (How refreshing!)
• They are everyday people thrown into an extraordinary event.
• The heroes have flaws.
• The villains (most of them) have some redeeming qualities.
• Every episode has a surprise.
• The program makes me feel more than think.
• The story gets to the heart of the human condition. (What does it mean to be human?)
• The writers skillfully weave in the themes of courage, sacrifice, survival, resourcefulness, family, and loyalty.

While I'm a recent TWD fan, that's my take on why the program works. Any other fans out there? If so, what are your thoughts?

Guest Post: Jan Morrill on "Make Us Love Your Characters"

I'm pleased today to host award-winning writer Jan Morrill to Donna's Book Pub.

Jan was born and (mostly) raised in California. Her mother, a Buddhist Japanese American, was an internee during World War II. Her father, a Southern Baptist redhead of Irish descent, retired from the Air Force.

Her novel, The Red Kimono, (University of Arkansas Press, January 2013), as well as many of her short stories, reflect memories of growing up in a multicultural, multi-religious, multi-political environment.

I love the cover of Jan's book and look forward to reading it.

Her award-winning short stories and memoir essays have been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul books and several anthologies. Recently, she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for her short story “Xs and Os,” which appeared in the Voices Anthology.

An artist as well as a writer, she is currently working on the sequel to The Red Kimono.

Jan is a gracious and generous author who shares her talent with others in the writing community. She served as past president of OWL and past conference chair of OWFI. Today, Jan shares with us her tips and strategies on how to:

 

Make Us Love Your Characters

What is it that draws you into a novel? Makes you turn the page? For me, it’s the characters. I want to read about characters I can relate to, that I care about and with whom I can sympathize. I even want to read about those I might hate. In other words, I need to feel something about them, or the story doesn’t matter to me.

Most writers have heard the rule, “Show, don’t tell.” To me, that means tell the story through the character, using not only his senses, but his voice.

So how can a writer make his characters fuller, richer? I have several methods I use and I’ve listed my two favorites below. These exercises have also helped me break through periods of writer’s block:

1)      Interview your characters.

2)      Write a letter to your character, or better yet, write a letter from one of your characters to another one of your characters.

These methods have drawn out new personality traits, new story lines, even secrets that I hadn’t known before. I laugh when I talk to audiences about these techniques. Confessing that my characters have “told me secrets” when before, I’d stared at a blank page, feels a little crazy. But crazy or not, it works.

Interviewing Your Characters

I begin by compiling a list of questions. These are simple questions I’d like to know about any acquaintance, or even a stranger. I’ve created a list of over twenty questions such as:

·         What or who are you afraid of?

·         Tell me a secret, either about yourself or someone else.
·         Which of your physical characteristics do you wish you could change?
·         Tell me about a time someone teased you as a child.

Here’s what I suggest to make the interview most effective:

1)      Close your eyes and imagine sitting with the character. Imagine the setting – sights, sounds, smells.

2)      Carry on a conversation in your mind and write it down, recording the conversation without lifting the pen from the page or your fingers from the keyboard. Don’t censor and don’t edit.
3)      Pay attention to your character’s “voice” in both the dialogue and internalization.

In my experience, often this interview becomes a short story on its own. To read an interview I conducted with one of my characters, see my blog post, “Happy Hour with Nobu.”

Write a Letter to Your Character

 In another of my blog posts, “Sachi’s Letter to Nobu,” I wrote a letter from Sachi to Nobu when I was stumped with a scene in The Red Kimono.  There are a variety of ways you can use this technique. I’ve listed them in order of which I’ve found to be most effective:

1)      Write a letter from one character to another. In the voice of the character writing the letter, tell the receiving character about what is going on in his/her life, just as you would write a letter to a “real-life” friend. This will often prompt ideas, when before, you stared at a blank page.

2)      Have your character write a letter to you. Start with your character telling YOU how frustrated he is that you can’t seem to understand what he’s trying to tell you. He can ask YOU questions such as:

·         Why are you writing this book anyway?
·         What did you expect me to do/say after I (insert something that happened in the book.)
·         (Insert another character) doesn’t want me to tell you this, but (what first comes to mind?)

3)      YOU write a letter to your character. Tell him how frustrated you are that he’s hiding from you. Ask him why he won’t talk to you? What’s he hiding?

 You may be surprised at what you learn about your characters and your story using these techniques. Best of all, it will deepen your knowledge of your character. If you can transfer that new knowledge onto a page and into your story, it will draw your readers to want to know even more. And isn’t that what makes a page-turner?

 

***

 

 It's not often to be able to gain such insight into how a successful author creates compelling characters.

Thanks, Jan, for sharing your time and talent with us today.  I especially like the idea of writing a letter from one character to another.

 

And good luck with the sequel to The Red Kimono.

It's Not Too Late to Take Your Writing Career in the Write Direction

This Saturday, November 10, I'm excited to be giving a workshop at the "Write Direction" conference in Columbia, MO.

The annual conference, sponsored by the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers' Guild,  kicks off at 8:30 and ends at 4 p.m.

The conference will be held at the Unity Center, 1600 West Broadway in Columbia.

CCMWG president Judy Stock, conference chair Carolyn Mulford, and everyone involved in planning the event have done a wonderful job obtaining presenters, laying out the agenda, and keeping the registration fee affordable.

Here's what you can expect:

Bill Clark, columnist with the Columbia Daily Tribune, will serve as the keynote speaker and inspire participants on The Joy in Taking the Next Step"

Other speakers and breakout session topics include:

Bridget Bufford on "Creating Characters through Archetypes"
Matthew Murie, English professor at Westminister College, on "Finding Your Perfect Pitch"
William Trowbridge, Missouri Poet Laureate, on "Humor in Poetry"
Dr. Edward Adelstein, anatomic and clinical pathologist, on "Every Death is a Short Story"
Donna Volkenannt on "Structuring Short Stories for Passion and Profit"
Linda Fisher from Mozark Press, Yolanda Ciolli from AKA Publishing, and Lou Turner from High Hill Press will participate in publisher/editor panels

Registration fee includes lunch, special-interest tables, book sales, and an afternoon tea.

Student discounts are available and Late registrations will be accepted at the door.

Hope to see you there!

Notes from the Erma Bombeck Workshop - Plot, Character, and Self-Hypnosis

 Anyone who knows me knows what a note taker I am. Maybe it's because my first full-time job out of high school was as a clerk-stenographer for the Army then later as a secretary-steno for the Air Force, where I was a transcribing fool. Or maybe it's because I retain more when I write it down.

Any rate I have pages of notes from last month's EB Workshop, and going over them is like reliving my experience.

The first session I attended on Friday was Katrina Kittle's "Which Comes First: Plot or Character?"

Here's some of what I jotted down:

Get to know your character by asking relevant questions (not ones like what's her favorite color)

The point is to get to the character's motivation (her yearning, need, what is she fighting for?)

Understand character's motivation by asking questions:

Name of character?

What does she want?

If she doesn't get what she wants what will happen?

Make it matter more

Make it matter more

Create conflict to prevent her from getting what she wants

Example of Story versus not a Story:

The cat sat on the mat (not a story)

The cat sat on the other cat's mat (Story because of conflict)

Avoid predictability.

Life is never either/or; it's and, and, and, and, and/but, and/ or . . .

Avoid relentless pace. Give the reader time to breathe.

Make the ending inevitible, but take the reader by surprise

Show motivation right away, but don't state it. Make it clear by actions.

Don't overexplain.

Start with Change

Don't include a lot of back story up front.

Ask yourself: Does the reader need to know this? Does the reader need to know this right now?

Knowing your character means knowing your structure; therefore, Plot is Character.

Kittle recommended the book The Heroe's Journey to learn more about structure.

The next session I attended was "Hypnotic Recall fills the Creative Well" with Suzette Martinez Standring (on left).

Martinez Standring is the award-winning author of The Art of Column Writing and the TV host of "It's All Write with Suzette." She also is a formerly certified hypnotherapist who applies guided imagery techniques to writing.

At the beginning of the session she explained that because the conscious mind gets in the way of our creativity, by delving into the subsconcious, writers can be more honest, brave, and authentic in their writing.  Then she took us through a self-hypnosis exercise to tap into our creativity and emerge with vivid, five sensory details to use in our writing.

Some ways she suggested to unleash (no pun intended) creativity are taking the dog on a walk, meditating, daydreaming, listening to music.

Here are some notes I jotted down:

Don't own any negativity that surfaces

Gain from your memories

We remember what we know best

Mine your subconscious

The subconscious won't take you to a place if it's too painful

Surrender and let go; be open and be present in the moment

When an image or thought comes to the surface, ask, Why are you telling me this?

Writing has a healing ability.

Humor has a powerful healing ability (Tragedy over time can lead to humor)

Savor "Holy Ghost" moments when inspiration hits

Suzette's workshop was a powerful experience. While I don't know if I was hypnotized, I felt extremely relaxed. At one point I felt my head droop, but I became alert when someone behind started to cry and the back door in the room opened and closed a few times.

By the end of the session, my sister Kathleen discovered her shoes had fallen off, but she didn't feel them fall. The relexation exercise did work because afterwards I wrote down some vivid images that came to mind.

Question: Have you ever been hypnotized? If so, how was the experience for you?

P.S. In future posts I'll share more of my workshop notes and experiences. Because, note taker that I am, I need to type out my notes somewhere, so it might as well be on my blog.