March 29 – The third panel today, Unique Protagonists, continues the progression on the craft of writing. The panelists were Dharma Kelleher (moderator), Susanna Calkins, Shaun Harris, D.R. Ransdell, and Helen Smith. Each author introduced their unique protagonist, creating three-dimensional characters, and bringing their character to life. Any mistakes are due to faulty notetaking and/or memory on my part.
Susanna
- Writes about what she doesn’t know
- Doesn’t do character sheets, but thinks about her motivations
- Torment your character
- Stay away from stereotypes
- Think through each character’s hopes and dreams
Shaun
- In his book he writes about the conflict between son and parent
- Main character repossesses old lounge acts in Las Vegas (1976)
- Starts by thinking about which movie star he wants to play his main character
- He doesn’t know how his character will react until he is put in that situation
- Are they funny (to laugh at, or be a smart ass)
- In a comic book you have to have it all up front, in a novel you have to know how it will end up
- Give each character agency, a woman has her own story to tell
D.R.
- Her protagonist doesn’t seem unique to her
- Usually loses her character sheets
- By the time first book was published, character was set
- To bring her character to life, had to make character more appealing
Helen
- Writes something that feels authentic (maybe what you know, maybe not)
- Modern day fairy tales in her stories – did I really see that?
- In her books there is almost a village feel, everyone knows everyone but there is always one “baddie”
- Thinks a lot about her characters but doesn’t do character sheets
- Important to get the name right for her main character
- You need to know how they would behave
- Thinks about how to get the main character onto the crime scene before police arrive, or nobody calls police
- Every character is trying to do their best, they’re just doing it badly
- Perhaps the way the world does function is what she writes