Exercise - character development 1

OK - I'm ready to really focus on my writing. I can't go back to college, so I'm going to "Homeschool" myself.

I have some favorite writers, and I've purchased their "how to write" books over the years. These will be my textbooks.

In her chapter entitled "All About Charcter" in her book Write Away(1), Elizabeth George offers a Character Prompt Sheet, but she writes "I use it only as a guide. I set it up next to my computer screen and I occasionally glance at it as I free write about the character."

Over the years, I have written several stories with repeating characters. Perhaps it is time to truly develop these characters. I have Elizabeth George's Prompt Sheet next to my computer, and one of my favorite repeating charactes in mind. I'll try her method of free writing about him with occasional glances at the prompt sheet. So, here goes.

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Gian Marchetti is the only son of a carpenter and a maid. He grew up in a small Cape Cod-style home in the town of Wyoming, Pennsylvania. While walking along Wyoming Avenue as a young man, he often passed the Wyoming Barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police and imagined himself as a police officer one day. He stayed true to tht ambition, graduating from the Pennsylvania State Police Acadamy in Hershey and working as a young officer out of the Wyoming Barracks before rising up through the ranks to become a homicide detective.
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Marchetti is 6'3" tall, of solid build, and walks with a flat-footed gait. He has dark regulation-cut short hair and brown eyes. His partner, Amy Gilroy, says "He's rugged, not handsome," but admits that there is something very appealing about his features.
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Gian likes to fish the lake at Frances Slocum State Park, renting a row boat to drift along the shore.
Marchetti feels guilty for not responding in time to the radio call when a thief broke in and shot his mother while Gian was on patrol not five minutes away. He has lived with his heartbroken father ever since.
He works tirelessly, sometimes to his own detriment, on cases of murder as a result of robbery.
In truth, he is lonely, and his attempts to assauge his guilt have driven him to act as a crusader for the families of victims of sudden violence.
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Best friend? Became friends with Ethan Chase, Marchetti's main suspect in first manuscript I wrote with Marchetti as detective.
Core need? To reconcile his "job" as patrolman at the scene of the crime and his grief at the loss of his mom.
Laughs at? Gian is way too serious - something Ethan and Ethan's girlfriend, Chloe, try to change that trait of Marchetti's. They keep "surprising" Gian with blind dates.

***

I simply love Elizabeth George's main characters from her Thomas Lynly series - especially Lynly's partner, Barbara Havers. We learn so much about Barbara from her embarrassment when Lynly stops by her home and her interactions with the little girl from next door. I want to write like that!

One of my favorite minor characters is from Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I love, love, love every scene that Grandma Mazur is in!

Janet Evanovich says in her book How I Write,(2) "I pay a lot of attention to my supporting cast of characters, no matter how minor their roles. I try to make them unforgettable in some way."

I've always tried to make my characters distinctive through dress, speech habits, or other quirks because I know, as a great reader of mysteries, I want to be able to keep all the players separated in my own mind. I guess a little tweaking might also make them unforgettable as Janet Evanovich suggests.

Another thing Miss Evanovich said in her book that I want to try to use more often is the following: "If you make a charcter real and vulnerable and kind, as soon as you put that character in jeopardy or any type of distress, the reader will always root for that person to win, or succeed, or make it out safely." Well, I think I've got a start with Gian Marchetti, but I've got to bring out more vulneralbility in future stories.

Be sure to read Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynly series and Janet Evanovich's Stephaine Plum series. Very different from each other, and both so good!

1) George, Elizabeth. Write Away. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004.

2)Evanovich, Janet, with Ina Yalof. How I Write. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006.