Connect
Sponsors
Currently Reading
-
Terms
The Book Lady's Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Reviews and articles posted here are property of The Book Lady's Blog and are not to be posted elsewhere without permission. Please contact me if you wish to post any of my work, or any excerpt thereof, in any other location or format.
Miscellaneous
Meet Bookrageous!
Technical Stuff
Design Credits
Jul
06
Creating Characters: A True Story by Justin Kramon [guest post]
2010 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Back in April, I received an email from a debut author who began the pitch for his book by telling me that he also loves John Irving. That was the first thing Justin Kramon did right, and the hits just kept on coming. We met for lunch during BEA for some in-person geeking out, and I am STOKED about hosting an event he’s doing with Michele Young-Stone in Richmond this September. Justin’s debut novel Finny is out next Tuesday, July 13, 2010, from Random House, and so far, I am loving it. Here’s Justin with a guest post that gives us a peek behind the curtain and explains how he thinks about creating characters.
When you write a novel, the question your friends ask most often — especially if it’s your first novel — is: how much of it is true? I think what most people really want to know is whether they appear in your novel, and if so, how annoyed they should be. A lot of people who read early drafts of my book have asked me where I got the ideas for my characters, who are a quirky bunch. Since Finny draws a lot from Charles Dickens and John Irving, I exaggerate certain characteristics to bring more attention to them, in the spirit of David Copperfield and The World According to Garp.
Sometimes characters are just ideas I think up, people I wish I could meet. But it’s true, sometimes I get the idea for a character from someone I meet in the real world. In that case, Anne Lamott writes, it’s best to give that character (if he’s male) a very small penis, so the real life version won’t come sue you.
Well, there are a limited number of penises — large or small — I can get into any novel, so I had to take a different approach.
One example is the principal of Finny’s boarding school and her secretary. I got the idea for them from an experience I had when I was working as a cater-waiter in New York.
I got hired by a company and they made me attend an unpaid training session in their kitchen. The entire meeting was listening to the owner talk about how great his company was and how much better it was than every other caterer in the city. Every time he’d make a point about his company, he’d look at his assistant – this poor woman – and say, “Isn’t that right, Edna?” Or: “What do you think, Edna?” And she’d have to agree with whatever this bozo was saying, and act like it was her informed opinion.
At the time, it annoyed me, being subjected to this. But later, when I was writing Finny, I got the idea that it might be funny to have a character who makes way too much of herself and pulls her assistant in to corroborate all of these ridiculous self-inflations. And who better than a true authority figure in Finny’s life to perform this role?
That character became Mrs. Barksdale, the principal of Finny’s boarding school. I thought it would be funny if all the communication between Mrs. Barksdale and her secretary, Ms. Simpkin, took place on some outmoded form of communication, like a buzzer system, and that Mrs. Barksdale required Ms. Simpkin to use the system even though they could talk normally to each other if they wanted to. The way the two characters pump up each other’s egos becomes more and more absurd as the scene goes on, until Mrs. Barksdale becomes practically orgasmic over Ms. Simpkin’s “moral fortitude.”
To me, it said something slightly dark about egos and power, but in a way that was consistent with the bright and funny tone of the book.
That’s how I might take a characteristic or observation in the real world, and then shift or amplify it to create a comic character. I’m always trying to do something like that in my work: take the things that move me or sadden me or anger me, and reimagine them in a way that helps me understand them and come to terms with them, find a context in which the fiction actually says more than the truth.
Check out the awesome trailer for Finny below, and visit Justin Kramon’s website to learn more. Don’t miss the Finny’s World feature, which introduces you to the rest of the characters Justin has created.
No related posts.
I love it how a bad experiences was turned into a memorable character in a book! I guess you just never know where the story-worthy penises will come from and you have to look hard for them.
Sandy´s last [type] ..Mid-Year Update
I love the sound of those characters and that scene!
I went to a reading with a friend by Annie Proulx. My friend was incensed when she asked Annie if she ever drew inspiration from real people and Annie said no. My friend insisted she MUST have gotten at least a spark of an idea from observing real life and Annie again said no. I thought my friend’s head would explode. She just couldn’t accept it.
Lenore´s last [type] ..Book Review- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by randomhouse and Pam van Hylckama . Pam van Hylckama said: RT @bookladysblog: When does size matter? When you're talking about a character's penis! So says Justin Kramon, at least: http://bit.ly/cExBtt [...]
What a great post….I’m still chuckling. To find a way to make fiction say more than truth is a very tall order….and something all the great authors have in common. Kudos to those of you who have the talent to do just that!
Michele@A Reader’s Respite´s last [type] ..In which our imagination kicks into overdrive
Hi everyone,
It’s so nice to hear your thoughts about this subject of turning reality into fiction. It really is one of the things people ask me about most — and it’s always fun to discuss (and possibly scary for my family).
Rebecca, I really appreciate your posting this piece, and am so glad you’re enjoying the book so far. As you know, I’m very excited about the event, too.
Sandy, it’s true (and perhaps also frightening) that story-worthy penises are everywhere.
Lenore, it’s interesting to me to hear that about Annie Proulx, since I know she does a lot of research for some books — going to live in places where she sets novels, etc. I wonder if she’s just doing a great job protecting her sources…
Michele, thanks so much. It’s funny, but because I am so attached to fiction, I sometimes wonder how nonfiction writers get so much out of reality!
-Justin
I also met Justin at BEA and was excited when he sent me a copy of the book, especially after reading this post and also Daniel Goldin’s (of Boswell Books). Must fit it in soon!
erica´s last [type] ..mary karr’s LIT- on sale now-
Wow! The trailer for this book was fantastic. I love that he incorporated Dickens and Irving. Great combination! Looking forward to reading it!
Jen-Girls Gone Reading´s last [type] ..WWW Wednesday- July 7
I loved this book, and loved meeting Justin at the Book Blogger Con reception. I already had his book in hand, and because he was going to be there, I made an effort to read it before I met him.
I wish him the best, and hope the book does really well. It’s awesome!
Jennifer@5 Minutes for Books´s last [type] ..Books on Screen- Let the Great World Spin-Man on Wire
I’m surprised to hear that’s one of the first questions asked, I suppose I’m thinking from the other side where “what genre” and “what’s the story” come to mind more often, but it makes total sense that it would be a question early on.
That owner sounds too much in real life but fabulous for a story! Good luck with the book! I love the sound of it.
[...] more about Finny at Justin Kramon’s website, and check out his guest post on creating characters if you missed it last [...]
Great post! Using real life people as a base for your characters is a great idea. So I guess writers can’t just be introvert and stay inside their room typing away at the computer.
Great post – I love how Justin took that real-life dynamic and transposed it to humorous effect to a different setting for his book.
I remember reading an essay by Barbara Kingsolver about this question regarding the relationship between characters and real-life people. Kingsolver had a book where a character’s sister dies and she had readers automatically assuming Kingsolver herself had lost a sister.
Christy´s last [type] ..Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs