LSDL Character Development Part II

Mark Rathman

I grew up reading spy novels, organized crime, adventures and more. In those types of stories false identities come up and this fascinated me just a bit. One of the problems with false identities is that they have history that goes back only so far and then becomes very vague or just doesn't exist. What if a person had multiple alter egos from birth or from very near the beginning of life? This would have to be some kind of second generation spy whose parents or some organization created these identities for him. How could such a person believably come into existence? This concept of a character kicked around in my head for years before any kind of story line developed to go along with it.

One night my wife and I were in bed kicking around story ideas and during that conversation I came up with the basic elements that turned into Let Sleeping Dogs Lie. It took a decade of learning about writing and then finding the discipline to put a first draft together. The book "The Weekend Novelist" by Robert J Ray was a big part of that process. Studying writing with The Children's Literature Institute also was a big help. Finally learning about NaNoWriMo and the idea behind it was the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place for me. All I needed was a spark. It just came to me. That spark was knowing where in all that pile of back story was the point where the book had to start. I knew the story had to start on the train where Mark and Christine meet. From there I wrote. The motives of these two characters propelled the story.

Mark is a lot like myself in a lot of ways. My intention was not to make a supercharged version of myself, but to have that much in common made it easier to get inside his head. We're the same height, we both played basketball, both do a lot of cycling and play harmonica. It made it easier to use my own experiences to breathe life into his character. We are significantly different as well. Outside of general size and build we don't look anything alike.

Mark's back story generated a complete first draft manuscript called "The Shadow Sleeps". That was my NaNoWriMo story for 2012. There is a novel length story in between the two manuscripts as well with a definable beginning middle and end. I am hoping to write that for Camp NaNoWriMo in April. Whether either of those get developed further hasn't been decided yet. I'm not sure creating a character that readers will like and then kill her off is such a good idea. I will likely bounce that thought off friends and fans here on this blog. I do have one solid vote for the yes side besides myself, but no decision either way is made at this point.


Related Articles and Links

Sneak Peek: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Chapter I
Making a new major character for Rat in the Shadows
LSDL Character Development Part I
LSDL Character Development Part III
LSDL Character Development Part IV

LSDL Character Development Part I

LSDL is short for Let Sleeping Dogs Lie which is the title of the first novel I've written. It will be published soon. If all goes well it will be released early this spring. I did want to add some content to the site here that would give bits of information about writing this book. All my major characters started out as ideas and sort of evolved throughout the writing process. I thought it would be cool to go through some of the background of these characters for any interested readers.

Christine Jette

My heroine goes first even though she is not the main character of the book. She started out as a newspaper picture of a young lady from the eastern townships that disappeared while I was living in that part of the country. I found the picture compelling in a lot of ways. Petite, attractive, young, with an air of innocence about her. I don't think she or her body were ever found. As a Canadian I like to think of my country as being a relatively safe place to live. People like her do disappear though often tragically. Sometimes a body is found sometimes not. Sometimes the perpetrators of the crime come to justice, sometimes not. The picture haunted my thoughts. I kept that picture for quite awhile. Not sure what happened to it. Casting her as my heroine and finding a name for her was relatively easy. I did what a lot of writers do. I asked the question: What if? And I asked it over and over.

Her personality is based on a mixture of traits of real people I knew while living in the Eastern Townships. She's sweet and intelligent and a bit of a sucker at the beginning of the book. That's what gets her into frightening trouble. That trouble gets her tangled up in my hero's nightmare.

In my first draft, she started out naive to the point of coming across as stupid. It didn't suit her. Her motives and personality were strong though and she didn't behave while I was writing her. She kept trying to dominate the book. I had to sit her down and explain to her that Mark Rathman was the main character and she needed to behave herself. I also had to tell her that she could claim Mark for herself, but she was going to have to wait until the end of the story. Had to rip up and rewrite four or five chapters because of that. Novel ended up in a writer's block dead end because of it. Once she settled down I was able to finish that first draft. She easily ranks as the most difficult to control character in the whole cast.

There's lots more to say about her, but I don't want to give away much of the story.


Related Articles and Links

Sneak Peek: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Chapter I
Making a new major character for Rat in the Shadows
LSDL Character Development Part II
LSDL Character Development Part III
LSDL Character Development Part IV

Blog Clean up.

Cleaned some garbage off the blog here. Now that I've figured all that out I can started adding more content. To come is details of how my book "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" developed. I hope that it will give some inspiration to other aspiring novelists. Stay tuned.

Once I've added content that will make visiting worthwhile, I'll solicit friends and family to come and visit.

Another project is to work on the friends and family page. I will advertise for friends and family at no charge especially within the arts at my discretion of course. I'm blessed with a lot of talented friends and family that will make that page well worth visiting.

Signed Publishing Contract

Big news for me this week. Will give my writing a whole lot of impetus. Signed a publishing contract for my first novel "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie". I am looking forward to the process of final editing and all the other work this means for me. Now that I'm this far I'm hoping that the book sells well.