Query, Part 2-Stuckness, Character differentiation

Basically, I’m experiencing three different kinds of Stuck with the three main stories I’m working on.—E. Beck

Summary of Stuckness:

1. Stuck because you don’t want to work on this story right now.
2. Stuck because there’s a major time jump/transition to get over.
3. Stuck because you are unsure how to handle a known upcoming scene.

Last week, I tried to cover #1 and #2, but ran out of space for #3. So this week, I’m looking at #3, which boils down to being uncertain that one has the necessary writing skills to do a proper job on whatever is about to happen in the next scene or chapter.

In this case, it sounds as if you are mainly worried about making the upcoming scene(s) come out the way you want them to. Therefore, the first bit of advice I have is that you remember this:

It doesn’t have to come out right on the very first try.

“Learn by practicing” means you have to practice. Sometimes, the best way to get a scene to work the way you want is to begin by writing it “wrong.” It’s often much easier to see what has to be done to fix something that’s right there in front of you than it is to see how to make something out of thin air. If it doesn’t come out the scene in your head, rewrite it. Try it from a different viewpoint character (this can work even if the story is single viewpoint, partly because you know the scene is going to have to be rewritten from the protagonist’s viewpoint, so it is clearly a trial run).

Alternatively, if you can identify the specific thing that you are worried about doing, you can sometimes practice by making up a writing exercise so you can improve the right skill-set before you try to apply it to the actual work-in-process. And finally, if the real problem is that your Internal Editor has gone all perfectionist about this particular scene for some reason, recognize that and work on shutting the I.E. up until there is something on the page to edit. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time.

Also, do you have any tips for making main characters who are fundamentally different from one another?—E. Beck

Based on your description, I see two possible reasons for your difficulty.

First, you may be confusing the character’s role in the story with the character. That is, you have a story niche for “Barbarian Hero” or “Spunky Redhead,” and as soon as you know that this is the niche the character is going to fill, you gravitate toward the archetypal/stereotypical version of that character type.

Second, you may have a classic case of Not Getting It Down On Paper. You have two characters who are completely different in your head, but it’s not coming out in the story, either because the differences are so obvious to you that it doesn’t occur to you to waste words on them, or because you’re focused on actions that are always going to be the same for any character in that particular role (the thief pretty much has to pick locks and solve puzzles, the mentor has to teach the hero, etc.) or in that particular situation (there aren’t a lot of different ways to break out of prison or steal the crown jewels).

In the first case, you need to look at characters as individuals first, and only later as the role they play in the story. Start by taking a look at other people’s characters who fit the role but who are very different. Personality is the main thing that differentiates most characters from each other, not the role they fill. Albus Dumbledore, Yoda, and Mary Poppins are all Mentor characters, but nothing like each other. Next, consider “casting” your character against type—a thief character who behaves (and looks) like the Terminator, a mentor character who acts like Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility. Or deliberately emphasize the personality traits/background that don’t fit the archetype—the Barbarian Hero who is saving up to get a law degree, the thief who’s clumsy and leaves 20 broken lockpicks scattered on the floor for every lock they successfully open.

If all else fails, try differentiating characters based on sub-types. A cat-burglar, pickpocket, forger, bank robber, and conman are all thieves, in the strictest sense, but they operate very differently and require different skills…and probably different personalities. (The Terminator would probably do reasonably well as a bank robber, but not so much as a conman or pickpocket.) And if none of that works, accept the fact that your Fantasy Rogue Characters are actually all the same person and do a name-change in all your files using them. Series is a thing.

Not Getting It On Paper requires figuring out what you aren’t putting down. What makes these two characters different in your head? Age? Gender? Ethnic origin? Family background? Education level? Social class? How does each of those things affect how each character behaves on a normal day, when they’re just walking around town shopping for supplies and planning where to go for dinner afterward? There’s a big difference in the way a “gentleman thief” like Raffles or Arsène Lupin acts (both in everyday life and while “on the job”) compared to Dickens’ Artful Dodger or Bill Sikes.

Furthermore, it’s not just actions where people differ. Two characters may take the same action, but for completely different reasons. If you don’t provide the interior monolog and emotions that lie behind the choice, readers will simply presume that both characters had the same reason for taking action, and that therefore they are “really” the same. You may know that Ivan refused to leave the bad guy tied up in the burning building because it would violate his moral code, while George would happily leave the guy to die in the fire if only he could be positive he’d get away with it, but if all the reader sees is “this guy refused to leave someone to die in a fire,” they’re likely to read both characters as the same guy.

If the characters are still similar, dig deeper into who they are as people—everything from why they chose to do what they do, to their favorite breakfast or item of clothing, to irrelevant skills/hobbies that they may have (pressing flowers, playing the violin, studying ancient Chinese art, whatever). Make deliberate choices about speech patterns—“Nope, I ain’t going.” and “No, I’m not joining you” are not the same character talking. Make one a teetotaler, one a drunk, and one a wine snob. Then figure out why they got this way, and how it will affect their actions.