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Sparks

Karen (Karenika) Grunberg

Secret Lives

This month we're going to concentrate on character development. Regardless of whether it's plot-driven or character-driven, each story has characters. In some stories they are more important than others. My favorite kinds of stories involve characters that stay with me long after I've stopped reading.

To create such three-dimensional characters, you need to delve into their lives and walk in their shoes. You must discover their fears, create their pasts; think of their clothing, their mimics and many other details. This time, we will concentrate on their secret lives and their deep desires.

Everyone has secrets. We all keep things from other people, sometimes even from ourselves. There are reasons for this privacy. Sometimes we're worried people will make fun of us; other times we're worried they won't like us if they know we've made a mistake in the past. Realistic characters should have the same lack of honesty.

For this exercise, you can either use a character from an ongoing novel or one from a work you're planning. Just pick one specific character for a specific story. Got it? Okay, let's begin.

Make a list of three secrets this character is keeping from everyone. Here's the list for a character, Angie, from my novel.

• I've always wanted to be drawn in the nude.
• I blame Mother for Daddy's death.
• I've fantasized about being famous.

Once you have your secrets, try to expand on them and tell us why your character is keeping this matter a secret. Here's my updated list:

• I feel uncomfortable with my body and I've always been jealous of the models who have no problem with posing nude. I figured if I could get the courage to do that, I might be more at peace with my body.

• Daddy was such a loving and giving man and Mother never showed enough attention to him. I don't understand how they ever ended up together. I think that when Daddy was so stressed about his job and making sure we were happy, Mother didn't help at all with her constant bickering about how imperfect everything was. She never gave him the love he deserved. When he got sick, she didn't care for him. If it weren't for her lack of emotion, he'd still be alive now.

• I wish I were famous. Then I could draw or paint whenever I wanted. I'd like people to have that much respect for me, and I like the idea of being considered at the height of my field. People look up to famous people, and I wouldn't have to manage anyone if I were famous.

These secrets might not mean much to you, but they are closely related to my character and my story. If you want to take this idea even further, you can tell us why your character is hiding these secrets from everyone else. Does she think they'd make fun of her? Is she superstitious? Is she worried about damaging her reputation? Does she not want to hurt someone else's feelings?

Discovering the secrets of your characters will bring you closer to understanding them and will make your stories more realistic. Some of these secrets might even turn out to be ideas for other stories or even novels.

As always, make sure to have fun, fun, fun!

Sparkling ideas:

We don't get any for months and this month we get three! Here are some fantastic ideas:

Darcy Richards from Las Vegas, Nevada gives the idea of writing 'the minute details. As in, the smallest, tiniest, easily overlooked details.' Try this in your descriptions and see how much life it adds to your stories.

Margaret May says, "One thing that definitely takes me into a story is the sensuous: the smell/perfume and touch/feel of things, as well as colour and movement." Try using her amazing advice in your next story. Activate your senses as you write.

Cheryl Rhyspan wrote an amazing ThemeStream article about how to come up with vivid descriptions. She suggests a great way of learning and keeping track of different subjects to make your descriptions come to life. You can read her article here.

Thanks so much to Darcy, Margaret and Cheryl. If you have any sparkling ideas, please send them to me at karenika@wvu.org.