It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life. The holiday season is filled with fullness. Days full of activities. To-Do lists full of responsibilities. Hearts full of feeling. Heads full of memories. And – for the storyteller in you – a house full of fabulous secondary characters. Whether they are in your actual residence or not, they are there. Eager to enrich your pages.
Think of Yourself as the Hostess at a Party of Fiction Inspiration. These are your honored guests, ready to be honored further by your imagination. You are the creative force and they are the raw material for your creations. Each one is wrapped up bright and sparkly. Each one is a gift waiting to be opened by you and invited into the world of your story.
Think of Frank Kapra and It’s a Wonderful Life. He and his co-writers adapted an obscure short story into a classic. In Philip Van Doren Stern’s The Greatest Gift, the main character witnesses his world as it would be if he had never existed. Kapra and company changed his name from George Pratt to George Bailey, and the saga of a 75-year-old holiday hit began.
Think of How They Populated George’s World. Henry Potter, the villain we love to hate. Mary Bailey, the steadfast mate. Uncle Billy, the family screwup. Clarence, the angel second class. Who fails to smile when he appears on screen? Plus – Bert, Ernie, Violet, brother Harry, friend Sam. And Bedford falls – a town full of unforgettable secondary characters.
Each of Them is a Character Type. Each type is defined by a dominating character trait. Greed. Loyalty. Forgetfulness. Optimism. Each behaves according to the dictates of this personality definition. They do not step beyond its bounds. Their job is to maintain that predictability. Significantly, because of them, It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.
Recollect a Holiday Gathering from Your Personal Past or Present. A family fixture. An office party. A community event. Imagine yourself there and look around you. In your mind’s eye, tag each person with their dominant character trait. Feel free to take creative license with the portrayal. This is your Bedford Falls. Populate it with whomever you prefer.
Remember these are Secondaries – Not Your Hero. But each of them is connected to your hero and affects her life in some way that benefits your story. Find the villain first. There he is in a corner making somebody uncomfortable. Find your hero’s mate or best friend next. Smiling and taking care of things and people because that is what he or she does.
Continue this Exercise by Identifying One Character Type After Another. These folks fill the streets of your Bedford Falls. They surround your hero and move her story forward – or backward – as your storyline requires. They expand your fictional world and give it real life dimensions. They are the people of your plot and their roles are anything but secondary.
Without these Characters Your Story is a Hollow Shell. Your hero’s world is hollow also. These characters give your reader a sense of your hero’s community. They give your reader individuals to identify with, to root for or rally against. These characters make your work resonate on the page. They cause you to rejoice that It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.
Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.
Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.
Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 14 novels, 2 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.
Alice’s Holiday Novel – A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available HERE. Celebrate the Season!
Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”
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It doesn’t seem like a wonderful Christmas if I don’t get to watch It’s a Wonderful Life at least once a season. Lovely, lovely and thoughtful article on characterization, Alice. Tagging each secondary character with a main character trait is a fantastic idea for keeping them all in their place, I’ll bet. Definitely going to try it. Can’t imagine why I haven’t already. Merry Christmas, Alice. Hope it’s wonderful!
Dear Alfie. I feel the same way about this old Frank Capra film and the Christmas season. I have a collection of holiday films in DVD and this is always the first one I watch. It sends the season into its proper tone for me. It reminds me of what matters most in life – or at least in my life. Family. Compassion. Generosity. Faith in basic goodness. Belief in our selves. I contend that the last of those makes all the rest possible. Have a wonderful holiday season and a wonderful life. May your secondary characters – and your primary ones – all thrive in your storytelling and in your everyday life. You richly deserve all of that. Love and Blessings. Alice
Dearest Alfie. You have read some of my past blog posts and I deeply appreciate that. I hope you will also explore my most recent series. It is titled “Oh No I’m a Caregiver – Dementia – Our Cautionary Story.” These posts are of special significance to me. Dementia appears to be a reality destined to assault all of our lives in one way or another eventually. I believe that the story I have to tell – through my initial post and others yet to come at https://www.aliceorrbooks.com – has valuable insights to offer. For this reason, I hope you will read it and maybe even pass it on to others so that they might benefit from what I am learning and from those insights.
As you already know, my husband Jonathan was recently diagnosed with dementia. He is actually quite fine at this early stage of the disease. He is engaged in lots of cognitively powerful activities. He writes original memoir pieces that are very good and says this is the result of sitting in on so many of my writing workshops over my past forty-five years of such presentations. He now finds more joy in writing than the drawing and music that were his usual creative pursuits in the past. This is good because, as you know, portraying characters and composing scenes require a deep level of focus and detail concentration. This is very beneficial for him. He also loves jigsaw puzzling – the 1500-piece variety. Again much concentration is required plus he has fond memory associations of doing puzzles with his mom when he was a boy. He also reads a lot – challenging books, as well as his favorite New York Times articles. He does regular physical exercise and has begun gardening at our church which has a large planted space in sore need of attention. Medically, he is taking a basic drug that has disappeared his brain fog for the timebeing. We also have excellent medical professionals on our team and on our side.
Dementia is not like the tv commercials portray it to be. Their purpose is to ramp up fear and sell very expensive, very dangerous drugs. There is a long, gradual period before extreme changes begin, and the aggressiveness these ads emphasize can often be mitigated with simple mood medications that are harmless and affordable.
Meanwhile, there is a real-life story to be told here of real-life experience. I hope you will read and share it. Dementia is a reality for many of us and, unfortunately, promises to be a reality for many more. Truth is our best armor against being cast into despair by the prospect. I hope to add a little to that sustaining truth. Dementia is one of the many ways all of us will evolve from this life into whatever may lie beyond. Passing on is our universal destiny. Some of those passages involve discomfort and unpleasantness. We can perhaps be a bit better prepared if we understand realistically what to expect. That is what our story – Jonathan’s and mine – is meant to do. Help others – in an honest and caring fashion – to be prepared.
On the personal side, I hope you are doing well. I pray for you and your family every day. I hope we will have the chance to chat again sometime soon. Thank you for being such an important part of my life for so very long. Love and Blessings. Alice
I’m one of those rare few who hasn’t seen this movie more than once. 🙂 Same with the Wizard of Oz. There are some I’ve watched countless times (all the Star Wars and Star Trek movies, Jurassic Park and sequels, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Avatar…) But I’m not a big fan of Christmas songs. Music gets stuck in my head for days on end, so I also don’t watch musicals. But I can agree with the premise of your article, even if I haven’t watched the movie multiple times. Good advice any time of the year.
Dear Kayelle. Whatever works for you is right for you. My grandmother used to say “The proof is in the pudding.” Your pudding is very tasty indeed. And you have certainly found your road to the Wonderful Writer’s Life. May you be blessed with sure footing there always. Love and Blessings. Alice