Mastering Free Fall – #AmWriting #AuthorCraft #Characterization

Image by Steve Bidmead from Pixabay

My current work in progress is driving me crazy.

I am about halfway through a sci-fi lesbian romance novella, tentatively entitled Free Fall. I started it early in April, and I’m sorry to say that it’s not going smoothly. Do you know the phrase “blood from a stone”? That’s what this feels like.

In past blog posts, I’ve waxed eloquent about the joy of being in the creative flow, when the words and emotions pour onto the page without conscious effort. This is just the opposite. I have a general idea of the plot arc and I’m gradually refining my understanding of my characters. But getting the words—the right words—down on the figurative paper is turning out to be devilishly hard.

The genre is part of the problem. Science fiction poses unique challenges. People read scifi to discover new and original visions of the future. On the other hand, the future always emerges from the past. Thus, your fictional world must be simultaneously surprising and plausible. As in historical fiction, the author needs a clear grounding in her chosen period (about ten years from the present, in my current WIP), but no matter how much research you do, you can only guess how technology and society will change. Then, after you’ve decided the shape of the world you’re building, you must figure out how to describe it in order to make the unfamiliar comprehensible.

Another issue I’m facing, though, is common to all genres. I am struggling to give each of my protagonists a distinctive voice. In their comments on my early chapters, which alternate point of view between my heroines Mariel and Rain, my critique group told me they were having difficulty telling the women apart. The two have very different backgrounds and personalities; the perspectives of each chapter should have been obvious. Re-reading the early chapters, however, I realized that my crit partners were right.

I’ve gone back to the beginning and established what I hope are clearly recognizable patterns of speech and thought for each of them. Rain is a streetwise, urban creature. She’s a bit brash, uses slang and isn’t afraid of profanity. Mariel comes from the rural MidWest. She has led a more sheltered life and comes across as shy and more refined, maybe even prudish.

As I’ve been working on this problem, I have come to understand that I am its source. As is probably true of most authors, I put myself in the head of the POV character when I am writing her scenes. If I am not careful, both of them will end up sounding like me!

For instance, I’ve recently noticed that I have a tendency to use low frequency words that would not be natural to either Rain or Mariel, neither of whom have attended college. I am trying to stay alert for this sort of inappropriate vocabulary, swapping my first word choice for something more common.

If I want each of my characters to have her own authentic voice, I need to remain vigilant. My early books featured characters with whom I had a lot in common. There was a lot of overlap between their voices and mine. Now, though, I need to remain conscious of the differences between me and my fictional creatures.

It’s a bit exhausting. Indeed, most of the time writing is hard work—except for those rare moments of magic when inspiration takes over.