Character Post

So on my list of things to do, updating my blog was not one of them, but I figured I'd take a page out of Willow and Darrion's book (check out their blog, The Call) by doing a post about which actors fit characters in one of my stories. Which story, you might ask? I've mentioned it before, and because I'm paranoid, I'm calling it Story E until further notice.

For those of you who follow me on Pinterest, these probably won't be that big of a shocker to you, and honestly they are not an exact fit to what I picture... but they're pretty close.
The first character and the story's arguable antagonist is Vivia, portrayed by the lovely Katie McGrath (who at the time was portraying Morgana LeFey in BBC's Merlin).

 

Just look at her. Jet black hair, strong jawline, that partly-crazed look. She has all the makings of a perfect Vivia.
And if I mention Vivia, I simply must mention her twin sister, Isabelle.

 

I tried to find photos that would capture the stark differences between the sisters, not just in the way they dress, but in the way they carried themselves. Can you see it?
And the man who grew up with them, and then had to marry one. Tristan.

Yes, I know it's a picture of Faramir, but look at him! He could be a king. He has that humble kingly manner.
Also in our list of characters today is Sergio, portrayed by Torrance Coombs portraying Sebastian on Reign.

 

Sergio is a war veteran turned mercenary (sell-sword). It was actually very common during medieval times (which is the time period the story is modeled after) for young teenagers to be enlisted. But because the life expectancy was so short, what we would consider "young" they might consider the perfect age, especially for fighting for king, country, and glory.
I had a couple other characters, but I think this is plenty for now. Maybe the rest will be in my next posting.
Tell me what you think of these characters. The king and queen (Isabelle and Tristan). The rejected (Vivia). And the mercenary (Sergio).

-Grace

Journal Entry #8

I just love the relationship between Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.
Although throughout most of the movie (and I am referring to the 1953 Disney animated version) Peter seems to take Tink for granted, when she saves him from the bomb and she's trapped in the rubble, you can really see and hear how much he cares for her, how devastated he would be if anything were to happen to her. I would like to strive for a relationship like that between two characters, where their love and loyalty to each other (especially as friends) is unmistakable.
That's all I wanted to say.

-Grace

The Lewis and Tolkien Library

Jason ran a hand along the shelf, touching each book binding fondly. He liked this world, this... Del Terra. And though Lord Ivan and Lady Larissa were not especially welcoming, Isha had shown him the beauty of her world, the one which to him literally been one page-turn away.
But now it was time to go home. Jason had seen to the end of Isha's story, or at least her family's story. The kingdom out of harm's way, the elves pacified, the insurrectionists imprisoned, and the villagers working together the best they could to mend their broken and tattered city.
"I thought you'd be here."
Jason turned, unsurprised to see Isha in the doorway. For a moment he thought she looked sick, but then realized she did not give off the golden hue he'd become so accustomed to. Isha, gentle, glittering Isha, could bend light to her will and quite unconsciously her body was usually surrounded by a halo that glowed against her cocoa-colored skin.
She swayed in, seeming to float across the floor. "Are you leaving?" she whispered.
Jason nodded.
"Back to your world?"
"I'm not allowed to stay. It could disrupt the... continuum," he offered, though that last part didn't sound right. He really couldn't stay in this world, not even to continue the story. Jason sighed. His hand itched to grasp hers, but at the last moment drew it up to his chest, as if wanting to rip the words from his chest and lay them bare before her. "If I don't go back," he said, "I'll never be able to know what's supposed to happen. I can't come back until I know that, or just my presence could alter everything."
"Will you return?" Isha asked suddenly. "After you... oh, how did you say it? When you know what happens? Will you come back then?"
Before he could stop himself, he said, "I can try."
Isha's lips spread into a breathtaking smile. She looked like she wanted to embrace him, but such were not the customs in Del Terra. To Jason this world was medieval in many forms, with bits of Greek mythology thrown in to keep it interesting. Whoever had written it into existence obviously had a thing for griffins, dragons, that three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld, and really... big... castles.
"I hope you can find me in the next..." Isha hesitated.
"Story," Jason finished for her. For someone living in a medieval world with its medieval thought-process, she took the news of being a fictional character surprisingly well.
"Well then... how do you go back?"
"Somewhere in this room is a door for me. Your book, er, uh, this place's book, it should be open on the other side. That's how I get out. The book will literally open a door for me, and I'll just... disappear."
Jason.
The voice came from everywhere, like wisps of smoke billowing from the shelves.
It's time.
"It's time," he said aloud. He took a step but Isha grabbed his arm. He tried to smile, to reassure her if he could. "Don't worry. I'll be back soon. I promise." Quickly he swooped in and kissed her forehead, then turned to where a doorless entryway had materialized upon the stone walls. Jason followed it's path, somehow lit although he wondered if Isha had anything to do with that.
His hands grazed either wall and he marveled at the texture. They were rough this time, unsanded like the materials that made up the castle. Much like when he'd first arrived, this tunnel changed with every new book. He'd walked through doors of wood and steel and water and dust, but this one... this stone... yes, he was sure he would return to this hall again.
The end of the tunnel appeared just as if it had been there the whole time. He could see the room on the other side. His grandparent's library, where all his books had eventually lead him again.
But then something happened. The doorway began to melt away, becoming smaller, though it wasn't warped like with wax. It was severe, like a burnt page. And then he smelled it. Something was burning. Jason hurried toward the other room, and then he saw it. The book, the one he was in, just outside the doorway. It was on fire. And as the pages were burning away, so was the doorway. So was the story.
The story was being destroyed.

(PS: The picture is called 7b by 25kartinok on DeviantArt http://25kartinok.deviantart.com/art/7b-426570544 )

Journal Entry #6

Lucy Windham

Elaine Wilcox

Charlie St. Claire

Otis Leech

Tabitha Mallory

Evgenia Aleksandrova

Sholto Hale

George Thornton

Kyle Bunnerman

Angelica Sacx

Frances Talimachi

 

Jonathan Fellbecker

Trista Hammond

Spencer Eleck

Erik Philipson

Timothy South

Jenna Holiday

Cecelia D'Arnet

Connor D'Arnet

 

Your character is given these two lists of names. Why?

 

-Grace

Journal Entry #5



(How I wish I looked while writing)

 

(How I actually look while writing)

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the second or third time. I'm less than a hundred pages into it and I already look forward to coming home, curling up on my bed and just delving right in. Actually, I take it to work with me so it gives me something to do while I wait for my bus. There's also something comforting about taking a book with you wherever you go. It's almost like a safeguard, but I think I just like knowing it's there, stowed away in my backpack. The weight of it is comforting.
One thing I notice a lot when I read blog posts about how to be a better writer or how o make characters better or something along those lines, one example that constantly comes up is J.K. Rowling. Whether it's her tenacity, her will power, or, more often than not, her characters themselves, there is always something to glean from her. But what I've become tired of hearing is to try and make my characters as rounded, dynamic, deep, and genuine as the ones in Harry Potter. As if it's that easy. The place I'm at right now in my writing -not in a story, but in my writing- is that no one can duplicate characters like Severus Snape, the Marauders, Harry... Faramir, Samwise, Sauron... Screwtape, Edmond, Eustace. These characters have become as real to us as characters can be. We feel we know them intimately. But I would ask that no one expect such incredible skill on my part, because I can't just twitch my nose and add more layers to characters. Do you want to know the reason I procrastinate? Why it takes me so long to write even a single paragraph? Because me knowing my characters as intimately as knowing Harry or Sam is probably more important to me than the actual story. In developing these... people, there grows an affectionate bond. I love them and I care how they react to something, how they process things, how they respond, on more than a physical level or with words, but how their mind wraps around the information and puzzles over it. 
I get the feeling I overthink the whole "writing thing" quite a bit. I read a quote the other day that said something like, "If I waited for perfection, I would never write." Still, you can feel if a character does something, well, out of character. A ding goes off in your mind and that action or sentence stays in your mind until it's explained later on.
Sorry, I'm not sure where this post went. My goal was to explain that I am no J.K. Rowling, that she is one of those beautiful people who have blessed readers with her wonderful talent and imagination. But that doesn't mean I won't try to show my characters as more than just princesses, pirates, Hunters, and Seers.

-Grace

The Interpretation of Ichabod Crane

Sometimes on-screen interpretations inspire me. And baffle me. For instance, I was reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow the other day, and the description for the protagonist Ichabod Crane caught my eye.
"He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose...." (606, qtd Irving "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Fiction)
And while reading this, I couldn't help thinking about the T.V. show Sleepy Hollow, and the actor who portrays Ichabod. As I said, character interpretations both inspire me and baffle me. But what I want to know is...
                        How did this...               Turn into this...?

 

(Painting of Ichabod Crane courtesy of http://dickiemotherwell.com and Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane on Sleepy Hollow)

 

-Grace

"The Beauty of Names"

All right, so I'll be posting another bit about darker human nature soon, hopefully today or tomorrow. In the meantime, I found this interesting blog called The Beauty of Names. There are lots of lists of interesting names, sometimes their origin and meaning, and it really just a great place to search for character names. Give it a gander.

http://thebeautyofnames.blogspot.com/

-Grace

Darker Human Nature: The Good Luck Child

I'll bet you thought I wouldn't be posting for another eight some weeks, didn't you? Thought there would be a huge gap between posts? Well today I'm defying expectations. Continuing with the theme of exploring the darker human nature of literary characters, we're going to take a look at the story of "The Devil's Three Golden Hairs" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. You may also know it as "The Good Luck Child."
If you're not familiar with the story, click the link to read it. http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/grimm/bl-grimm-devil.htm
In the story, this boy from, as far as we know, a family of no worth or title is born and a prophecy is bestowed upon him that in his nineteenth (or some versions it's fourteenth) year, he will wed the princess. The king of that land happened to be passing through, heard the prophecy, got very upset, and placed the child in a box and threw him in the river. The king thought he had rid his daughter of her "unlooked-for suitor," but as this was a lucky child indeed, he drifted downstream until he came to the shore of another poor man and his wife, who raised him as their own. The boy grows up, the king returns by chance, and realizes that the poor man's son is in fact the child he thought he had killed. To make a long story short, the king gives the lucky child a series of tasks in order to prove himself worthy of becoming his son-in-law, all of which are fool's errands and the lucky child is never intended to survive any of them. But as his name implies, he does. On the last errand however, he encounters a ferryman who has been ferrying people across a lake for years, and he wonders when his job will end. The lucky child discovers that all he need do is hand his oar to his next client and run away freely. On returning home to the king and the princess, the lucky child was rewarded by towns which he passed with lots of gold. The king asked him how he acquired it and if he, the king, could get more. The lucky child tells him he has to be ferried across the lake to get the rest of the gold. The king ventures out, but when he comes to the ferryman, upon remembering the lucky child's answer, the ferryman hands his oar to the king, runs away, and the king is left to be the ferryman for the rest of his life.
Now, bearing all that in mind, I found it interesting that throughout the story, the lucky child is by no means impish, cruel, or ill-favorable. He is virtuous, brave, smart, and determined. But he knew by sending the king across the lake, that the ferryman would hand off the oar, and the king would be gone forever. But if he is such a good guy, and throughout the story we have no reason to doubt that he is, why would he essentially send the king to his doom?
I believe that along the journey -and in the story I think the lucky child had to venture out about three times- the lucky child realized how perilous his journey was. He most likely also realized that the king had intended it so. The lucky child finally comprehended the king's disdain for him, because he was a poor boy. (I wonder if he even knew about the prophecy?) And so, to ensure the safety of himself and the princess, the lucky child sent the king to the ferryman, who would "pass the oar." Even though the lucky child is a good guy, and the king was his father-in-law, he did send him to his doom. I find that interesting, because I really don't think the lucky child just said, "Oh, yes, I got it from the palace across the lake; just take the ferry and you'll be fine." I don't think he forgot the answer he gave to the ferryman about how to leave his post. Sending the king away -permanently- was intended. I suppose even good guys must complete bad deeds for the good of their kingdom, at least when their predecessor would potentially go mad at having a poor man's son on the throne.
If you haven't read the story yet, I would suggest doing so. Despite the tone of this post, it's actually a very fun story and doesn't focus on the darkness of it all (which is saying something, considering it was written by the Grimm brothers). It has a happy ending at least! Good conquers evil and the bad guy gets his comeuppance.

-Grace

Darker Human Nature: Red Riding Hood

Have you ever wondered if iconic characters of books and television had a hidden side to them? What if Princess Aurora was a rebel? If she were depicted in modern times, would she be that bad girl who always went against her parent (or legal guardians, in Aurora's case)? What if Daisy Duck had a secret online shopping addiction? Was Ursula once a mermaid? Bits of a person's character that have only been touched on or never explored. In short, the darker human nature. My friend Mark Venturini loves to explore the darker side of human nature with his characters. For more on that, see my last post where we had a very interesting discussion about The Hobbit. But Mark inspired me to take a look at a few characters and explore their darker side -or hidden side, depending on which character we're looking at.

(Little Red Riding Hood by Isabel Oakley Naftel, 1862)

(Meghan Ory as Ruby/Red in ABC's Once Upon a Time www.pixgood.com )

(Little Red Riding Hood by Evanira http://evanira.deviantart.com )

I want to start with someone a lot of people are fairly familiar with: Little Red Riding Hood. In the tale by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Red is depicted as a young girl, quite innocent, venturing into the mysterious forest to do a good deed: bring goodies for sick, old Granny. She ends up being swallowed whole by the wolf, but then saved by the Huntsman before she can be digested.... Charming. (The version by Charles Perrault, which came before Grimm's, is similar, except the Huntsman slays the wolf before he can eat the grandmother and Little Red.) In another version, while the wolf is threatening Red and her grandmother, Red pulls a gun from somewhere and handles the villain Old Western style. ABC's Once Upon a Time (which I'm terribly behind in) depicts Red as... wait, too much of a spoiler. But in Scarlet, a book by Melissa Meyer, the main character who is a depiction of Red Riding Hood is a streetwise farmer who is trying to find her missing grandmere. So you have lots of different perspectives on this one character, although a few details stay the same, like the red theme, the wolf, and the grandmother.
It's interesting that in each of the tales, Red has to go on some kind of journey. It's also interesting how from the Grimm's version to now, there is a perceptible decrease in Red as being purely innocent. It's as if the tale by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm were the very start of Red's adventures, when she was a child, and as the story has evolved, the character has grown up and matured, becoming bolder and less predictable.
I like to think characters learn from their mistakes, even if they are make-believe. What did Red learn from all her experiences? Is the wolf merely metaphorical? Is the grandmother supposed to be the goal we are always trying to achieve, and the wolf the obstacles we must overcome? And what of Red's nature as a person? How did she change? Did she become more pessimistic or worrisome? Did the experiences make her braver? Did she crave danger? I think she would have made a good cop or PI. I don't know why, but for some reason those two just stick out to me.
Hopefully in a couple of days I'll have another character for you. Which would you prefer: heroes, villains, or secondary characters? Let me know in the comments. :-)

-Grace

Regina Character Embodiment

Hello again! So, I've been thinking about who I would want to play certain characters if my stories were adapted for the silver screen. Just for the heck of it because, let's face it, the probability of my writing being that good is pretty slim. But anyway, I was thinking about this one girl, Regina, who is in a story that, for copyright purposes, I will refer to as "Story E." Actually, Regina is the fraternal twin sister of Stag, the character I wanted William Moseley to play. It would take too long to describe all the wonderful things about Regina, so I will just show you who I believe would make the perfect Regina. Ladies and gents, I give you... Meghan Ory!


For those of you who don't know about the stunning Miss Ory, she plays Ruby/Red Riding Hood on the ABC television show, Once Upon a Time.

Besides being drop dead gorgeous, I believe Miss Ory has the emotional range necessary to bring Regina to life. Someone remind me in the future to post some scene or excerpt featuring Regina so you can get a better idea of who I'm talking about. I do realize that Meghan looks nothing like William Moseley, but this is just a fantasy. Sometimes when I'm not writing, dancing, singing, cooking, baking, babysitting, or doing homework, I think about this kind of stuff.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy your weekend. College students, good luck with your finals and enjoy Christmas break and all that.
Cheers!

-Grace

Photos courtesy of seat42f.com and thetvwatchtower.wordpress.com

Character Development

So I just got finished watching an episode of Once Upon a Time with my parents. We're a week behind, and tomorrow we are watching the most recent one. But, boy, how I just love all the character development in this show!
In case you've never watched this show, it is about a 28-year-old woman named Emma whose son, whom she gave up for adoption ten years prior, tracks her down and makes her take him back to his hometown, Storybrooke, Maine. But the twist (one of many) is that every person in this small, quaint little town is a characters from his book of "fairytales," appropriately named "Once Upon a Time." Obviously Emma thinks Henry, her son, just has a wild imagination, when in reality, the citizens of Storybrooke are under a curse which made them forget who they really are. So while Snow White is a saintly school teacher, Prince Charming is in a coma, and they don't know they are husband and wife. The basic theme of Storybrooke is that everyone has a past, and it appears no one gets a happy ending, one of the bonuses of the curse. Snow White's step-mother, Regina, is the Mayor of Storybrooke, and she is determined to keep the truth hidden, even if it means hurting her adopted son... Henry.
Whew! What a mouthful. Needless to say the plots are very intricate and the writers pull characters not only from Disney, but also from Grimm's Fairytales and even Sir Richard E. Burton's "Arabian Nights." So you have Mulan, Red Riding Hood, the genie; Aurora, Rumpelstiltskin, and the Mad Hatter. (All right, that last one was Lewis Carroll, but you get the idea: every children's fictional character comes to life.)
The show usually starts out in Storybrooke where Emma or one of the other characters face some sort of dilemma, and then it flashes back to their old lives, as Snow White instead of Mary Margaret, or Rumpelstiltskin instead of Mr. Gold. This episode I just watched was focused on Rumpelstiltskin and his phase between losing his son and meeting Belle. Oh, and I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but -SPOILER ALERT! Here, Rumpelstiltskin and Kilian Jones cross paths, and Kilian remarks how Rumpelstiltskin's skin resembles that of a crocodile. Not that that is very insightful on my part or anything, but I like how the writers tied it in.
The gist of this whole monologue is that there is so much characters development, and it is all so rich, that sometimes it can feel a bit... a bit like having a huge piece of cake and a plate that's too small. But I love how in-depth they go, the gory little details, a slight-of-hand trick or a notorious phrase. It makes me want to sit down and plan out some of my characters like that, with gory little details, heartbreak, betrayal, and hopes and wishes. Because everyone has felt that childlike happiness, where it feels like you're just bathing in light, like nothing in the world can touch you. I love finding those moments for my characters. It helps me figure out what makes them tick. But you know what's even more fun? Integrating it into the stories, and letting the audience get glimpses of the person's past. Maybe that will be a personal goal for me this month: to pick a character and uncover their history, how I would see it in Once Upon a Time. What are their flaws? What are their strongpoints? Why?
Well, I sincerely hope I haven't bored you with all this yammering, but if I didn't get it out now, I wouldn't have been able to concentrate on reading my Bible.
Anyway, goodnight, and stay safe from all this rain.

-Grace