CHARACTER BUILDING ACTIVITIES: A ROSE BY ANY OTHER… by Carl Brookins
I find it almost endlessly fascinating; the discussions we
readers and authors have about various aspects of the characters that people
our stories and how they come and go—or don’t go. Can a male write an effective
female character and vice versa? Are your characters based on real people? Do
they recognize themselves? How do you come up with the evil that infects some
of your characters? How much do you obsess over finding just the right names
for your characters?
Is there a formula, do you think, that moves agents/editors to
be more or less receptive to certain names? Do you even think about the
characteristics of names. Are they clues? Is any of this the least bit
important?
There are a number of on-line sites that offer interesting
information about names. Do writers actually use such sources to help them
decide on character names and does it really help? The history of model names
in the automotive world is an enlightening thread to follow, as is the sound of
the name and the number of syllables. All of these are or can be factors in
whether readers “take to” or reject characters in a book. I wonder how people
feel about the characters on some of my stories? If you’ve read them, or even
if you’ve just read about them, what’s your opinion?
The names of characters in my books sometimes suggest
themselves, but more often than not I go looking for a name that seems right
for the character. I consider many factors including the race, religion, age
and geographical background. Visiting my daughter in Colorado last year, we
went to a small-town cemetery because I requested it. The cemetery is situated
on the crown of a windswept bluff overlooking the Colorado River. Yes, THAT
Colorado River, not very wide, not very deep and not very fast at this point.
Examining the gravestones on that lonely barren plot of land, I
found names that could have come from every other part of the world. Then I
noticed that there was a preponderance of names that clearly had Eastern European
roots. Why, I wondered and later learned that many young men from Eastern
Europe had come to this part of Colorado to work in the coal mines. Interesting
small facts a writer can file away for use another day. When I wrote my most
recent detective novel, “The Case of the Yellow Diamond,” I used information
provided years ago by my uncle from his years stationed in what was then called
Rangoon, and obituaries from the Des Moines Register, the major Iowa newspaper.
Small facts that often help to produce the proper atmosphere for the reader.
Buy Link:
The
Case of the Yellow Diamond
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Yellow-Diamond-Sean-Mystery/dp/0878398163/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448218939&sr=8-1&keywords=the+case+of+the+yellow+diamond
The Case of the Yellow
Diamond
By Carl Brookins
ISBN-13:978-0-87839-816-4
North
Star Press
Trade
paper, 180 pgs
September 2015 $14.95
A dead man on the floor of his office
in Minneapolis won’t lead P.I. Sean Sean to journey to Yap Island to protect
his new client. Bombs in lawyers’ cars only jostle him. This short investigator
knows the value of research and asking questions in the right places. World War
II, Asian diamonds and concrete in Des Moines combine to almost destroy a
Minnesota family. In the end, Sean detects flaws in the plans and brings down a
criminal enterprise.
Brief bio and links for Carl Brookins:
Before he became a mystery writer and
reviewer, Carl Brookins was a counselor and faculty member at Metropolitan
State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Brookins and his wife are avid
recreational sailors. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in
Crime, and Private Eye Writers of America. He can frequently be found touring
bookstores and libraries with his companions-in-crime, The Minnesota Crime
Wave.
He writes the sailing adventure series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney. The third novel is Old Silver. His new private investigator series features Sean NMI Sean, a short P.I. The first is titled The Case of the Greedy Lawyers. Brookins received a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota and studied for a MA in Communications at Michigan State University.
He writes the sailing adventure series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney. The third novel is Old Silver. His new private investigator series features Sean NMI Sean, a short P.I. The first is titled The Case of the Greedy Lawyers. Brookins received a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota and studied for a MA in Communications at Michigan State University.
http://www.carlbrookins.com/
@carlbrookins
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