Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Do You Know Where Your Characters Are?


Recently I sent this tweet to Twitter, which fed to Facebook: Novelists: it's 1:30 p.m. PST. Do you know where your characters are? My, we authors are hard on our characters. Here are the answers I received:

Mine are in cryogenic suspension waiting to be resurrected by me. (Suzanne Fortin)


Mine's on a train from Omaha to Sacramento and just got accused of pushing a man off and into a deep canyon. I'm so sure he didn't do it, but you never know. . .he's got a compelling motive. (Stephen Bly)

Mine are stuck in a very difficult conversation in a bar. It's not going well. (Kika Rose)

Left mine talking to his trainer, who may or may not be a killer. (Ron Estrada)

Mine's @ a murder scene. (RobinCarroll)

Mine are heading to the hospital too--maybe they will see your character! (Debra Clopton)

At a birthday party! No blood or bodies. (Danica Favorite)

Mine's getting interrogated by the homicide detective. Another one is getting shoved into a body bag. Bad day for him. (Lorna G. Poston)

Searching for her family in an earthquake ravaged city. (Karen Dunmire Barnett)

Mine's getting her character arc tweaked to make her more interesting to an agent (no one in particular yet, but I don't want a faulty character arc preventing her from getting the nod from an agent!) (Liberty Carty Speidel)

Mine are sleeping, just finished editing the MS. Theyre taking a well deserved nap. (Gregg Endless)

She's scraping the flesh, fat, and tissue from a moose hide. (Kim Vogel Sawyer)

My heroine just got out of the hospital after going through a hail storm and tornado. (Sharon Gillenwater)

On the cutting room floor of my video program. (Tracy Darity)

Mine are running away from a foster home. (MaryGrace Dansereau)

On her porch, sipping sweet iced tea with her aunt. (Vickie Price Taylor)

Depends on which draft we're talking about. She may have just hit the sandy floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Or watched her cabbie from the top of the Eiffel Tower as he tore up his traffic ticket. (Margo Carmichael)

In an ER family meeting room. She has just been told her twin brother is dead. (Heather Kreke)

Just finished a nice kiss, first peak in budding romance. Too bad I have to rip them apart now, it was more fun leading up to that kiss. Now for some realistic obstacles and thickening subplots, and every reason why they shouldn't be together. (Anne Reed Love)

Mine are in Havens Hope! (Lisa Stowell)

Mine just fell off a ladder, played the piano at a funeral, got stuck in the rain, and argued with God. (K Grubb)

Somewhere on I-5 near Modesto, heading to San Francisco. (Bob Mueller)

At a crime scene about to be questioned by the Detective Salvador. (Dee Stewart)

Malibu. (Carrie Padgett)

Sitting on a bench, about to read a letter that will change her view of who she is, and where she came from! (Lisa-Anne Wooldridge)

Vacationing in limbo and need to get, back darn it! Course it's my own fault. (Rebecca Beckylbows Bowen)

Mine has gone back in time and is playing basketball against the high school guys, and he's only thirteen. (Duncan Prescott)

Mine just got a gun barrel shoved against the back of his head. (Janelle Mowery)

Mine is busy working with the homeless and trying to figure out what is going on with her boyfriend - this time. He really needs to be DUMPED! (Mary Ann Chidlow)

Hey, mine's about to go to the emergency room. Maybe we'll meet up there? (Lisa Wingate)

Mine's getting a personality transplant. (Christy Kyser Truitt)

Mine just discovered a dead body and got blood on her petticoat (Jaime Wright Sundsmo)

Mine is on a cliff watching his house burn down. He has just discovered that someone didn't like his opinion (he is a talk show host) He plans to try to rescue his sister from the flames. Little does he know he is headed for a big fall! (Jessie Gunderson)

Mine is reluctantly revealing the family secret to the Queen Faery of a retirement home for old (no one under 1000 need apply) faeries. (Bill Tillman)

I just talked mine off a ledge. (Emily Ann Benedict)

Mine found a magic book in the attic and some crazy witch is after it...not good, (Apryl Fox)

Mine is in a park turning down a lover and about to make a very baaad decision. (Lucile Barker)

Mine is in Royan, France. (Jim Toner)

Mine is on her way to a murder scene!! (Pam Pruitt Cowart)

Mine are pulling off a flat tire. In the first version, they were in a coffee shop. Flat tire has more action. (Gail Gaymer Martin)

Mine's on horseback in a snowstorm. (Yvonne Blake)

They were all locked in a mall waiting for the zombies to attack. It's 11 PM and I'm off work, so I can release them now. (Darlene Reilley)

Swine flu. And because they are on the run, they can't go anywhere out of their hideout. However it's always good to have contacts in the CIA who can help! Figure I have all sorts of info on how to treat it and avoid getting it for home remedies--might as well use them. Though this is a new strain so there will be a few complications; of course. (Dale Eldon Szewczyk)

A fictional place where the wonders of horrors and horrors of wonders never cease. (Lori Munnoch Gaudet)

Mine is getting attention from two men at once and is confused. (Nancy Sonneman)

Getting kidnapped. (Naomi Musch)

Mine is in tent city. (Diane Homm)

All my characters are at a hospital, 1 is a patient, 1 is his GF, the rest are in front of the hospital where a shootout just occurred with the Antagonist just getting killed. (Matt Bordtello)

And finally, this one:

Mine are hopefully seducing an editor to publish their story. (Diana Prusik)

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Do you know where your characters are?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I trying to steer mine through her bedroom door to find the present her stalker has left her: her grandfather's cat, dead. Obviously, she has more than a few problems with that, but I'll get her into that room, or she'll find out how ruthless this author can really be!

~Sasafras

Kathy Cassel said...

Mine were kidnapped in Haiti (I was there right before the earthquake)but now that they've had the earthquake, I may have to rework the plot. Setting it aside to work on a devotion project for Tyndale about Bible women. What a contrast.

Timothy Fish said...

At the moment, mine are going about their regular business. There's no dead bodies and no missing persons. It's quite boring stuff, really. Sara is either at the cafe or getting ready for school. I'm sure she'll be up to something soon enough.

Jason said...

Mine are in Thailand. Jenna is searching for the cause of her brother's death. Her friend Derek almost got pulled into a brothel against his will.

Peggy Blann Phifer said...

Mine just told a Metro Detective he'd better get a warrant and arrest her because she wasn't going to answer any questions until/unless he did. (They can't, not enough evidence for an arrest.)

Jeannie Marie said...

One of my heroine's is buried alive out in the desert in Vegas. The other just got shot twice by her stalker. (diff stories)

~ Brandilyn Collins said...

Yikes, Jean Marie! And you look like such a nice gal.

Anonymous said...

Mine is experiencing a slight personality adjustment. When she's done she will be even more grumpy, bitter, emotionally withdrawn, and all around jerky.

chris weigand said...

It depends on which book. In Aaron's Revenge they are about to perform and exorcism on a wizard.

In Myrria's Legacy the mc is being held in a cave deep in the bowels of Mt. Unzen in Japan.

l said...

Depending on which story we're talking about...

My heroine right now is stuck wondering how much her new friend is hiding.

In another story, one of my heroes is convincing another guy to let him lead the quest...without revealing that he used to be an assassin/sorcerer.

And in the final story, the hero is falling in love (but he doesn't realize it yet) and is about to start his dragon-riding training.