Asking an author to pick a favorite character is like asking a mother to choose her favorite child – a Sophie’s Choice question. That said, I’ll pick Tess from my most recent novel Dragonswood (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012) since she’s the newest on the scene.
What kind(s) of character do you consider this character primarily to be, or how would you describe this character?
Tess is a complex character who is driven by feelings and desires she doesn’t yet understand. She’s trapped at the opening of the story. Beaten by her father the blacksmith and confined by the rigid rules of medieval society, she’s expected to marry young and raise children in relative filth and poverty, in short, to live as most medieval women lived. But Tess is different from the common mold. She’s mysteriously drawn to forbidden Dragonswood where she climbs trees in the dark and watches out for fairies and dragons. She also sees visions in the fire that both compel and frighten her. In medieval times girls with strange powers were considered witches. Because of this she has to keep her power secret.
What is a character from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this character to and why are they similar?
I’d have to say Juliet Marillier’s character, Caitrin, from Heart’s Blood. I didn’t find the book until after I’d written Dragonswood, but reading it I could see some similarities between Caitrin and Tess. Both girls are abused and end up fleeing their tormenters. Like Caitrin, Tess is bitter over her abuse and carries her wounds with her throughout the story. Both have to learn to rely on themselves in a dangerous time for women.
To what extent did you use any pre-existing character formula, template, paradigm, character design, archetype, or theory or principles of making or analysing character in planning, writing, and refining this character?
I do a lot of digging. Steven King called writing a kind of archeology. I find that to be true for both character and story. Once I have a glimpse of the main character I start digging away, uncovering the person’s truth. I begin with a character’s early life (characters have lives long before they enter the book and their experiences helped form who they are). I don’t work in a step-by-step fashion, building a character as you would construct a piece of furniture let’s say. After exploring their past, I ask the character lots of personal questions in my journal. Who are you? What do you care about? Who do you care for the most in the world? What would sacrifice to help the one you love? Are you hiding any secrets you don’t want anyone to know? What do you want more than anything? How much are you willing to do to get what you want?
Note about that last question – the key difference between a protagonist and an antagonist lurks in the answer. Of course we’re all a mix of good and bad, but in bold terms a person willing to walk all over people, to harm or kill to get what they want is the antagonist. One who’s willing to strive but is not willing to harm others to get what they want, is the protagonist. The key is not in the wanting or the desperation (the protagonist and antagonist must have strong motivation or they shouldn’t be wasting page time). The key is in how they achieve what they want.
Another trick I use is to look at a character’s self definition. I ask him or her, “How would you define yourself in a single sentence?” If, for example, the character says, “I am a loyal person.” I put pressure on that in the novel. Pitting a character’s core self definition against a plot problem is the very stuff of story.
At the beginning of Dragonswood, Tess sees herself as ‘a loyal person’. That made the scene with the witch hunter trying to get Tess to divulge her friends’ names under torture all the more intense.
How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?
Considering Tess’s self definition ‘I am a loyal person,’ I decided to begin with Tess’s close friendship with Meg and Poppy. In chapter one the three friends leave their encumbered life in town to pick wild onions near the forest. It’s not a perfectly happy outing even if it is a brief escape from their daily drudgery. Tess’s family has just buried her baby brother and her father just gave her a black eye. She’s shaken by her brother’s death and the frightening vision she’s seen in her fire-sight. The outing brings the three girls too close to Dragonswood. They’re spotted near the forbidden forest when the witch hunter comes to town.
Pick one of your published stories. How would you describe the introduction of the main character, or one of the main characters, in this story?
The witch hunter breaks the stereotype in this novel because she’s a woman. I hadn’t originally planned it that way. The change came from a conversation with my editor, Kathy Dawson who called the witch hunter a “she”. I was stunned by the idea of a female witch hunter, and knew I had something important by the tail as soon as she said it. I went right to work digging up a primal motivation for a woman to become a witch hunter which gave me an intriguing back story for Lady Adela. Here’s how Tess describes her entrance in chapter two.
Sitting tall in the saddle, she straddled the horse like a man even though ladies both highborn and low were all taught to ride sidesaddle so as not to split their skirts. Astonished at her gall, I watched her as she steered her horse toward the stage that served as a speech platform, players’ stage, and hanging gallows.
The youthful lady was all opposition in her dress, both plain and fancy. A short gauzy veil covered the top half of her face. She wore a proper black armband about the sleeve of her gray gown. Yet for all this, her belt was jeweled, her sword ruby-studded.
Here’s a woman who has mastered the world of men, I thought. Unfettered by marriage, in command of her own life. How had she risen to a man’s post, commanding eight knights?
What makes this an effective character introduction for this story?
Tess in enthralled the moment she fixes her eyes on Lady Adela. This woman has a kind of freedom Tess craves, a freedom she’s been denied all her life under the blacksmith’s roof. Tess’s first impression makes her want what Lady Adela has. Shortly after this Tess is captured and tortured by Lady Adela, but this first impression comes back to haunt Tess later making their ongoing relationship pivotal to the story.
What major changes does this character go through, or what major challenges does the character encounter and how does the character respond to them?
Tess confesses her friends’ names under torture. This betrayal rips her apart. She tries to make it up to Meg and Poppy as they’re running from the witch hunter, sleeping outdoors, enduring starvation and humiliation dressed in leper’s garb. But the story comes to ask much more from loyal Tess. She falls in love with a man (not an easy thing for a girl who was beaten black and blue by her father), and she gives in to the mysterious call to Dragonswood where she learns the reason for her fire-sight. The story tests Tess’s loyalty in three ways, in friendship, in love, and in a deeper sense – in loyalty to herself as the fairy folk ask her to come into her true power and use it for their cause.
How would you describe the most important minor characters in this story and the changes in their character, or the challenges they encounter and how they respond them?
Meg is furious with Tess for naming her. She had a lot to lose as a young married woman, leaving her husband and her little girl, Alice, behind. She’s miserable on the run, terrified over what might be happening to her small family back at home. She’s put to the test when she discovers her husband Tom, is in prison. Her love for Tom endangers all of them.
What does the story gain from the minor characters?
In one sense the minor characters provide a kind of mirror to the main character. Tess’s relationships with her friends, family, her lover, and even with her enemies help us to see her more clearly. Minor characters also provide meaningful subplots. In Dragonswood, Meg’s separation from Tom and Alice adds a twist when the witch hunter, Lady Adela, uses Tom as bait to draw the girls out of hiding. Seeing Tom beaten bloody, Meg tries to turn herself in to save him. Tess and her friends are forced to try and break Tom out of prison before he’s tortured to death.
To what extent would you describe the characters in this story as typical or atypical of characters in your fiction stories?
It’s my job as a writer to delve beyond the obvious and create authentic, memorable characters from the inside out who survive the story and ‘live’ in the reader’s mind. But perhaps I’m dodging the real question here? Are the characters in my many novels stamped with a kind of Janet Lee Carey seal? The question is rather daunting. A character who accepts their fate without taking any action is too placid for a main character so my main characters share some commonalities: are all driven, all mold-breakers, all willing to go to great lengths to get what they want. The inciting incident is the match, the character is the fuse, the explosion is the story. Within in story world, the particular way each person makes choices, expresses themselves, handles their blunders, faces their enemies, comes to terms with loss and love, draws out their unique personalities.
Author website: www.janetleecarey.com
good interview
ReplyDelete