As an author, how do you breath life into your characters?

 Who wants cardboard characters?  Not the author and certainly not the reader.  Have you heard the old but always good advice?   Show, don't tell. This is best done if it flows out of a situation the author has set up.  A situation that simmers.  

Below is a short scene where one of my characters gets an unexpected surprise.  We are at a Mennonite summer camp for missionaries in the Colorado mountains.  Beth is the main character in the novel.

Charles gave a slight wave and watched someone approach our table.

            I turned to see who he greeted and froze. My heart began a frenzied pounding in my chest.

            It couldn’t be, but  it was. Her face paled as she recognized me. The “Oh Shit!” moment.

            No one had said a word. Charles looked from me to the other woman. “You two know each other?”

            “Yes,” I said, speaking quickly. “We  were journalism majors at the University of Missouri. I guess you already know Lauren." 

            If Lauren’s looks could kill, I would be a dead woman walking. She and I had been rivals for men and grades and then the job interviews at the university. I got the better grades and the better men, too, and had aced my job interviews. We had begun as friends until she black-balled me from her sorority. I joined another one, but she hated something about me. Maybe everything. I hadn’t thought about her for years. 

            The eleven years between graduation and now hadn't been kind to Lauren.  Her blonde hair was dry from over-coloring.  She had put on at least twenty pounds, and her face was pale.  Lauren had always sported a tan.  Not this year.  Finally she spoke.

            “Hello Beth. What brings  you to the mountains?’  She was trying, but not succeeding to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

            Before I could answer, Charles, who must have felt the tension, said, “Oh, I asked Beth to come out here and do the one-on-one interviews. She has eight solid years of newspaper work on her resumé.” He gave me a smiling look of admiration. “Not to mention that she has a contract with a university to write a book.” 

            He had no idea he was hammering metaphorical nails into my coffin,

            In my most sincere voice, I said, “I’m sure Lauren has reams of accomplishments she’s too modest to mention.”  

            “Yeah, a wedding, two kids a year apart, a divorce, and some  dead-end jobs. And now the kids and I are living in my parent’s duplex.” Lauren's emotionless monotone recitation  shocked me. I had expected  her at least to marry Mr. Success.  

            I said,“Oh, kids! I bet they’re as good-looking and smart as their mom.”

            She squared her shoulders and produced a hint of a smile. They’re okay . I’ve got some photos  I’ll show you.” 

                                    *** 

          

I hope the reader wants to see these two  women interacting again. Do they have life?    I think so. 

These fine authors will surely have something to say about this month's blog topic. Comments welcome.

Saturday April 22nd - Breathing Life into your Characters

Participating bloggers:

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Diane Bator https://dbator.blogspot.com/

Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2TY

Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/

Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/

Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com

A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

http://www.Skye-writer.com/

 

The Importance of your character's backstory/history and how to share this with the reader without an info dump that stalls the action.

 Ah, yes, backstory.  My thoughts are to weave this into the first third of the novel, and of course if something later on triggers an important memory, then the author can always add a few lines of backstory.  What the writer must never do is to perform a "backstory dump," which leaves the reader with a story that has stalled if it ever got started.  

A quick example.  My character is in a new place with a new task, and a woman from her past with whom she had a love-hate relationship appears unexpectedly.  

First of all, there is some emotion, then an attempt to be cordial (she is in a public place), and then a short paragraph explaining to the person with her (and also the reader) what occured between the woman and the narrator that caused the friction. Again, make it short and enough to pique the reader's curiosity.  

Here is an example from my WIP: 

"I was seated such that I faced the windows and the hugely tempting pies case. I  couldn’t see who entered and left the room, while I watched the mountain jays hoovering up the bird seed  from the feeder, and the little birds, chickadees, I guessed,  darting  in between jay’s  visits. Charles gave a slight wave and watched someone approach our table.

            I turned to see who he greeted and froze. My heart began a frenzied pounding in my chest.

            It couldn’t be, but  it was. Her face paled as she recognized me. The “Oh Shit!” moment.

            No one had said a word. Charles looked from me to the other woman. “You two know each other?”

            “Yes,” I said, speaking quickly. “We  were journalism majors at the University of Missouri. I guess you already know Lauren Lyttle.” 

            If Lauren’s looks could kill, I would be a dead woman walking. She and I had been rivals for men and grades and then the job interviews at the university. I got the better grades and the better men, too, and had aced my job interviews. We had begun as friends until she black-balled me from her sorority. I joined another one, but she hated something about me. Maybe everything. I hadn’t thought about her for years."

    Now we know enough of the backstory to expect some conflict in the scenes to follow.  The plot advances and the backstory is just enough to fill in part of the story for the reader. And we know that more conflict is likely to occur, and want to read on.