How to Weave Historical Characters Into Your Writing
When you’re working on the background of your story, setting up a plot and characters essential to the plot, you should select actors who will drive the story for you. Each of your main characters should contrast with each other, causing plausible conflict (there is no story without conflict, but that’s for another article) – but their contrasts shouldn’t be so strong that personalities can’t work together. After all, even the most dastardly villain might have to work alongside the hero someday.
Many authors draw up character charts listing the various traits of their major players, or actors. Even award-winning software like the Writer’s Dreamkit highlights this important step in setting up a story. Not only do character charts help you in the beginning to remember the vital stats (name, age, and description), but you’ll find yourself constantly adding little tidbits of information along the way to make your characters ache with reality.
So how to start a strong character chart with a believable character from the beginning? Look to history. The characters we’ll be working with in this article are geared toward romance writing (because I’m addicted) but the same steps apply regardless of the type of character you’re aiming to create.
Step One: Dusting off the Oldies
If you want to get published, you really need to spend some time reading publisher’s guidelines to find out what kind of characters they’re looking for. In the romance genre, this means discovering that most publishers are looking for heroines beyond the norm. Today’s romance heroines should be intelligent, witty, able to stand on their own two feet and face down dangerâÂ?¦ even if they would be more successful in the bravery department with an equally complex hero at their side.
Just from reading the guidelines, any creative person can start seeing strands of a character to be weaved into one memorable whole.
After you’ve acquainted yourself with the needs of your genre, it’s time to hit the books. Really. While wandering through the library one day, I discovered “Uppity Women of the Medieval Times” by Vicki Leon. The title itself intrigued me, but when I thumbed through the pages I found an author’s dream: historical characters of lasting intrigue.
One of these characters is Juana La Loca. No only did this Spanish beauty land Phillip the Fair, monarch of the Netherlands, for a husband but she became Queen of Spain and had six children. A bit moody, she caused some truly ugly scenes when Fair Phillip’s eye tended to wander, and the Dutch monarch locked her in her chambers. Did that dampen Juana La Loca’s passion? Never. When Phillip died unexpectedly at 28 years of age, Juana came a little unhinged. She decided to tour Spain for three years after the tragedy, dragging Fair Phillip’s embalmed remains along with her. Scandalous, surely, and Juana’s father, King Fernando, decided that he would give his daughter a permanent locked home with her dead beloved. He locked her, a variety of musicians and singers, and the now very dead Phillip in Tordesillas castle for the next 47 years.
Historians still aren’t sure if Juana’s madness lasted that long or if it was a convenient excuse for others to rule in her stead âÂ?¦ but what do I really care after a story like that? How can I pass up the chance to weave Juana La Loca into a story? I can’t, so she’s the historical character who is going to breathe life into a new character.
In short, dig through the history books until you find something so delicious (either because it’s so romantic, so weird, or simply just memorable) that you can’t leave it alone. That’s where you want to start.
Step Two: Profiling, or The Onion
The only “secret” to writing a salable novel lies in creating characters that make publishers – and then readers – unable to put the book down. People make up about 70 percent of a story, their lives filling in and driving the plot that makes up the remaining 30 percent. Even if your story revolves around a ghastly murder, there must be characters who will be affected by that murder and you must show how they’re affected.
To really build a character, you need to start from the inside and work your way out. Don’t begin with the typical “red hair, green eyes, shy smile” physical descriptions. Instead, start with what drives a character. What makes them tick? We’re always told not to judge a book by its cover when talking about meeting new people – we’re supposed to remember that it isn’t just appearances that make a person. Why do we continue to do just that with our characters? By limiting our characters to descriptions of the visual, we’re failing in breathing life into them and, ultimately, failing the worth of our writings.
We’re going to think about our characters as the layers of an onion, with each new layer building on its strength. This goes right back to the beginning as the onion was growing – an onion will be bitter or sweet depending on the amount of care it received while growing, long before it emerged from the ground. Turn that around, and we can say that a character will have specific qualities that were raised in them long before they emerged onto the pages of our book.
The first layer – Our character’s very first layer is that tiny round spot inside an onion that takes a lot of peeling or one quick, hard slice to reach. The heart of an onion, this is also the area that, if you pull it out, will taste the most tender and sweet of all. So the core of our characters is a vulnerability, a spot that takes a lot of time to touch and which might only be known instinctively. In the story of Juana La Loca and the character I want to develop from her, the heart of the character is insecure, tragically vulnerable, prone to obsession. Was this because of a neglected childhood? Some sort of trauma? I’m the author, so I can decide that it was developed for any number of reasons. The point is that you find where your character’s heart is, what their weakest point of vulnerability is, and then you can work your way out to the next layer.
The second layer – In an onion, the second layer is thick and wraps tightly in a circle around the onion’s heart. In our characters, this second layer is a mask, it is the way that our characters keep the world from penetrating their weakness. For Juana La Loca, and the actor I’m developing from her, this second layer is one of bitter outbursts. She quickly lashes out at anything she feels threatens her vulnerability. It is a hard, brittle faÃ?§ade that tries to hide how weak she is.
The third layer – Moving out from the heart, the third layer is larger and a bit thinner than the second. In our analogy, we’ll say that the third layer is what motivates our characters. It is the way that they interact with the world they live in on a daily basis. Obviously, Juana wasn’t always bitter and nasty or she never would have won the hand of a monarch. Instead, she was probably very well educated, seemed to be very confident in her beauty and her ability to please others, and had a very open and loving personality. She did have six children and drag her dead husband all over Spain, after all. This is the layer that you will use most often in your writing, the motivations that your characters actually acknowledge and use.
The fourth layer – One step below the “skin” of the onion is the thick outer layer. We see glimpses of this layer through the skin of an onion, and can decide whether the onion is rotten or good enough to eat. For our characters, this layer is the actual personality that people see clearly. Do they laugh a lot? Or are their words sharp and painful? Juana La Loca, I’ve decided, has a bright sparkling personality that immediately draws people in. She seems to be a central orbit around which everyone moves. Sometimes, this thick outer layer strips away to reveal her mask, the sharp-tongued jealous woman who is afraid of being found weak and anything but beautiful.
The skin – Yes, physical appearances do matter. After getting through the first layers, though, don’t you agree that you know your character more fully than you would if you had done nothing but the skin? You don’t need any real help with this step – we’re all used to sizing up a person’s appearance. Are your characters short or tall, heavy or thin or deliciously curved, do they have wrinkles or moles, etc. There is more to a good description than just hair and eye color.
While you won’t want to describe all of these layers in detail, they will find their way into your story to create a rich, vibrant character you can’t possibly live without. Nor will your readers.
When in doubt, keep referring back to the bit of history that you’re drawing your character from. Let your mind wander, and do a bit of creative historical editing. What would cause this historical character to behave the way that they did? How can you weave those motivations into your own character?
Have fun – this is a good exercise to play with even if you’re not gearing up for your next novel yet. Try it as a daily writing activity, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you develop a feel for really rich, driven characters. Keep your characters nearby, and you’ll have plenty of ammo when you do gear up for a new story.
