Searching for Mother

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

 Just to clarify from the start, this is not a heart wrenching or heart-warming tale of  long lost relatives. 

This is about searching for a character. or more specifically, searching for a character's look. 

For some of you, you'll know who Mother is. A woman, who since she was created in October 2020, has left umpteen bodies in her wake and who loves to cause a little mischief. She's been the character in many very short stories, but until now, I've not yet written what she looks like, so I can't glimpse her in my mind. This proves to be rather problematic when I want to turn Mother's murders into a novella.  

I tried to begin writing her story, and within 300 words, I changed how she looks twice. At first she had auburn hair, azure blue eyes and rosehip red lips. Then 158 words later, she had 'hair as black as midnight' and 'stormy grey eyes.' Do you see my problem? Admittedly I had come to it a few days later, so maybe I'd just forgotten, but still, after writing about Mother so many times I should know her a little bit better now, shouldn't I?

She has been though a few changes recently. She's got younger. After talking with a couple of fellow writers they suggested that a woman in her eighties would better then a woman of 93, and we've decided on more mischief and less murders. 

If only we could all have the JK Rowling experience of seeing the character fully formed in our minds eye, or is that more common than I realise? 

Whilst doing a little research for this blog post, I decided to google 'creating a character' and various options came up, which may help. 

There's the Character biography generator , how to create a character in six simple steps by Udemy and how to create a character in 14 steps with WikiHow. So I have plenty to be getting on with. 

If only I'd decided to do this months ago. Oh well, let's hope that Mother show's her face soon, then we can have some real fun! 

I'd love to hear how you created your characters, memorable characters that stand out to you or any tips that you may have in the comments or on Facebook. 



Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology and Lent devotional. He's currently honing his craft at flash fiction and you can find him on Twitter here. 

 

Comments

  1. I often find it hard to visualise my characters, too, so I'm going to investigate these resources. Thanks, Martin.

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    1. My pleasure, Fiona, I'm glad it was helpful :)

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  2. To be truthful, I don't do this very well. They start off with red hair, and by chapter 3 it's brown, and then blonde in chapter 7, and if by chapter 10 they're still any of those colours and not bald or wearing a wig they're lucky. Yes, my edits are hard work ;)

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    1. Good to know I'm not the only one! Thanks, Fran :)

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  3. I have an idea of what they look like, but not when I first write them. I gave Isabella thin red-gold hair and left it at that, while Johnnie had your classic brooding dark good looks. The rest of the cast are pretty much left to the readers' imagination. If you forced me to describe any of them, I'd struggle. I see Mother more with dark hair and the grey eyes are good - cold, fishy, creepy. That's how I see her, anyway. Thanks for the links - I'll have a look at those as I'll be focusing more closely on some characters in the next book and it would be good to have some ideas.

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    1. I know you're a fan of Mother so that's good to hear, thank you :) Glad the links are helpful too :)

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  4. I can't wait to read more about Mother in your novella Martin! Interesting post about characterisation and I had never heard of those resources either. I can sometimes 'see' my characters very clearly, sometimes not. Sometimes they merge into one another and I am inconsistent in describing them, and as Fran says, need to do a lot of editing. It's the best part of writing IMO, when characters seem to take on a life of their own that you are merely narrating. Although that doesn't happen as often as I'd like it to! All the best with the novella! I am looking forward to reading it :)

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    1. It doesn't often to me often, but yes when we narrate for our characters, it's exciting where it could go. Thanks for your encouragement, Deborah, though at the pace I'm going, it may take some time!

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  5. Ah tx for the research tips. Don't boggle your head too much. Don't worry about the quality of your writing as one of us advised. Just write and God will do the rest. That is what I do by God's grace. I sometimes have a real person in mind, not always though. Interesting post!

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  6. I love your Mother stories and I don't think you should worry too much about what she looks like. To me she has grey curls with intelligent green eyes and a smile that you can't quite fathom - is it sincere? She is most comfortable in bedroom slippers and adores her cat. A murderer? She's much too clever for that. Who would suspect a little old lady who loves her cat?

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  7. I think everyone has their own version of what Mother looks like. That's great writing! Leave a little to the imagination. X

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  8. I usually know what my characters look like, but I found it harder with my latest book, as it took longer to write. It's hard to keep characters in mind for that long... I keep reminding myself to make more detailed notes as I write, haha.

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