What do icebergs and heroes have in common? No, I’m not talking about writing a leading man so hot he could melt the polar ice caps. I’m talking about character development.
There’s a theory of writing, first espoused by Ernest Hemingway, that says a book is like an iceberg: the reader only sees a small part of what the author knows about the book. I’ve found that to be true. In order to write convincing characters who live and breathe, I have to know much more about them than ever makes it onto the pages of a book.
When I wrote Five Days in Skye, it took me a while to figure out what my heroine, Andrea Sullivan, really wanted, but the character herself came to me fairly quickly. I’d already lived the life of a businesswoman determined to succeed at all costs, so I understood the pressures associated with being a woman in a high-stress career. In fact, many of her experiences were taken from my own corporate days.
But my hero James MacDonald was trickier. The idea of making him a celebrity chef emerged during a particularly intense Food Network obsession. It seemed to me that the handsome TV chefs were selected as much for their biceps as for their braising technique. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining here.) What would it be like a chef, laboring behind the scenes to ensure the success of your restaurant and then suddenly thrust into the spotlight?
That took me back to the beginning, researching James’s experiences in culinary school and kitchen culture. I spent months reading memoirs, chatting with local chefs and food critics on Twitter, and watching behind the scenes clips from top London restaurants on YouTube. It became very clear to me that professional cooking, with its high-pressure battlefield mentality, draws the iconoclasts and rebels, the ones who would sooner lose an arm than wither away beneath the fluorescent lights of an office. Best make James the younger son, then, and give him a traditionalist older brother who represents everything he doesn’t want to become. But it’s said that if an aspiring chef/restaurateur doesn’t have his own kitchen by age 30, he should give up. That told me James would also be passionate, driven, and dedicated.
Sounds like hero material to me!
But I still needed a “fatal flaw.” A conversation with the friend of a well-known Denver restaurateur enlightened me about the groupies who circulate around top chefs, especially celebs. Finally, my reformed playboy chef with a rakish reputation came fully into focus, with all his associated challenges and conflicts.
Very little of my iceberg of research actually made it into the final book, but without it, I wouldn’t have been able to write a convincing hero that readers can believe they might run into on the street someday.
Carla Laureano is the author of the RITA® Award winning romance Five Days in Skye, as well as the young adult fantasy series The Song of Seare (as C.E. Laureano). She's an avid cook, an enthusiastic but untalented singer, and a thwarted world-traveler. She currently lives in Denver with her patient husband and two rambunctious sons.
Isn’t it funny how our characters and storylines change because of random conversations or TV shows? Thanks for the post, Carla!
Great post, Carla! I was talking about this with a reader just a few days ago. It seems that no matter how much time I put into developing my characters before I actually start writing the book, there’s always a few surprises along the road. And sometimes they just flat out misbehave! Thanks again for the great post! :)
It is! When I get stuck, I call up my writer friends and chat randomly about book topics. That’s usually followed by, “Oh, I have an idea, gotta go!” :)
That is so true, Cathy. It’s funny, though, when the characters misbehave, it’s usually because I know them well and I’m trying to force them into doing something that’s out of character. That’s when you know you’re writing real people, I suppose. Thanks for dropping by!
I have a good friend, who writes. About one of her books, she said when she started writing, she KNEW both her hero and heroine, only to figure out about half way through her book, that her heroine started falling in love with a different guy. After she got over her shock, she followed plan B, and the heroine ended up marrying the second man. Well, as you can guess, that opened up her second book in her series, as she now needed to deal with the broken heart of that first hero. All ended well, and I loved both books. Lesson learned by both my friend and myself is you must listen to your characters.
So true. I also think there are many aspects about the entire story that don’t end up in the book. You must know so much more than what hits the page. Great post!
Great post, Carla. I really liked James in Five Days In Skye, super fun to see some of his background revealed here. As a writer, I resisted character interviews and scrawling out pages of backstory, but I tried it for my second manuscript and it has saved me so much heartache. I “know” my characters so much better than I did with the first manuscript.
That is such a great story! I love when characters misbehave. In a WIP, the hero decided he was going to kiss the heroine in chapter three. I told him he couldn’t because it was out of character. He persisted, and well, that shed a lot of light on the character I THOUGHT I knew. He was a lot less uptight than I’d originally written him!
Aww, thanks, Heidi! James is still one of my favorite characters I’ve written. I was like you, full-on seat of the pants writer, but I’ve definitely learned how to plot and plan more with each book. I think when you know the characters well, you can afford to pants the plot a little more. Thanks for sharing!