Every book deserves a book trailer. Why do I think this? Because I love movies. And I love movie previews. (And I, like most authors, would love to see my novel made into a movie. So, why not a preview, too? )
Also, if Zappos can better describe a pair of shoes using video, then authors can do the same with their novels. Visuals can help readers find words.
While I’ll share tips and tricks for making engaging book trailers in later post, today I’ll keep it short and sweet. I’ve long wanted to make a trailer for my first novel, and while stuck at home, at last I had the time. So I give you…
GET THE NOVEL: Order a copy of Carrying Independence today. Retailers and book excerpts can be found at: CarryingIndependence.com. Or buy it direct from me through my online Bookshop.org.
BOOK CLUBS: Turn your Book Club into ZOOM Club! I’ll issue a secure link and join your club online for wine, reader discussions, and a trip to 1776. Contact me at info [at] karenachase [dot] com for details.
Today, let’s talk about the number of characters—both fictional and real—that go into the making of historical novels.
Although very few of us are getting together with people right now, bringing people together is exactly what needs to happen in fiction. By that, I don’t mean the story has to bring people physically together. I mean that your protagonist has to interact emotionally, physically, or psychologically with others. A person’s engagement or separation from other humans in their lives is part of the catalyst for growth.
How Many Characters is Enough?
Years ago, I read an article that suggested some of the better works of adult fiction have upwards of twenty characters. (Anne of Green Gables, a young adult novel, has 9 characters. Outlander has at least 15.)
To create even one fictional character results in creating that character’s entire world—family, friends, acquaintances, and maybe even his enemy or enemies.
To put it another way, think of your own world. How many people do you come into contact with, or that influence the story of your life, in a normal day, week, month, or year?
A PDF of a full list of characters from my recent novel, Carrying Independence, is here, along with hotlinks for every real figure.
Let me explain how my own character list came to be so robust (read on for the numbers —even Ben Franklin in that image above is rolling his eyes at me, I think.)
How to Determine Character Roles
I am a movie nut, and often my fiction is structured (in my head at least) like a movie script—scene-by-scene. So I look at my characters like my cast, and assign them into Oscar-like categories:
Who were my leads? Who was in a supporting role? Which figures would have bit parts or non-speaking roles? Additionally, I noted who was real, and who needed to be invented by me.
For my one main protagonist, Nathaniel, and the four main voices prevailing throughout Carrying Independence, my fictional character list was a whopping 44 (if you include the two ships and a horse).
Including Historical Figures in Fiction
There are authors, like Jeff Shaara, who construct fiction almost entirely out of historical figures and real events. For my own novel, the story focuses on one full year of the American Revolution, so I had to first determine the historical events my fictional characters would take part in. Then I began the daunting (yet fun) task of listing and researching every real person they’d encounter.
Keep in mind, not every historical figure speaks or is “on camera.” There are figures my characters talk about who would never actually appear. They still must be researched to ensure the context or mentioning them is appropriate.
The total of historical figures appearing or referenced in the novel… brace yourself… 51. Woah. That means there are a total of 95 people with major or minor roles, or talked about in one historical novel. Holy cow.
Story & Theme Before Characters
Despite those very high numbers of characters, historical novelists (or any novelist for that matter) must keep this in mind:
The two major factors in considering characters: One, if the character—real or otherwise—doesn’t advance the story, they can’t stay. Two, if a character complicates but doesn’t deepen the understanding of the main character or the author’s theme, they gotta go.
You never want to cause the reader to wonder why a character exists, or they’ll wander out of the story world you’ve created.
So, authors and readers out there, how many characters are in your favorite story?
So many of us are reading books during this time of isolation and concern, many of which allow us to escape. Sometimes, however, reading about others coping with their own imposed isolation can help us gain perspective. This is especially true when either the character’s situation might be more perilous, or their outlook in spite of that situation is insightful. This affords us a chance to more deeply develop our own character.
Here are few options based on books read in my home or through my book club. If you’re living with someone, reading aloud will take longer and allow you to discuss the book as you go. The books are not new releases so you might get them used on ABEBooks or as e-book rentals from libraries. Links to purchase all of the recommendations are also here on my BookShop list, Karen’s Reads & Book Club Picks.
Karen’s Four Fiction Reads
A Gentlemen in Moscowby Amor Towles
In this historical novel, Count Rostov has been sentenced to live his life in the Metropol Hotel in Russia, post-Bolshevik Revolution. The writing is beyond lovely, and the ingenuity and grace with which the main character chooses to live is superb. These days, I find myself asking, “What would Count Rostov do?” The author’s gorgeous website is worth getting lost in. …Buy the book.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
You’ll face the realities of a dystopian future (or what might feel like your present) head on in this science fiction work that’s become a cult classic. Living inside a virtual world, Wade has to learn to rely on himself, but ultimately discovers what is best about the world. People coming together. Great for kids, but Gen X-ers like me who lived the 80s will love it. (There’s a movie, too.) …Buy the book.
The Chef’s Apprentice by Elle Newmark
“In a world of violence and intrigue, who guards the truth?” What if your isolation was because of what you knew, and that knowledge was what everyone wanted? Here, that knowledge is the alchemy for long life. I loved this book not just for the writing and the young protagonist, who is assistant to the chef for the Doge of Venice, but for the delightful food. You’ll never cut an onion without awe again, and you’ll make cheesecake as if for the first time. …Buy the Book.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Never mind being stuck at home, imagine being trapped in one parallel universe after another. It’ll take so much brain power to wrap your head around how dark matter works or doesn’t (plus you’ll watch a Schrödinger’s Cat video about quantum mechanics), that the hours will fly. My dreams were WILD while Jason navigated a world that was not his own while traversing other parallel worlds literally of his own making. Mind blowing. …Buy the book.
Reader Insights: I enjoy giving my characters books to read, too. My protagonist, Nathaniel, is gifted a copy of Gulliver’s Travels, which was published 50 years before he receives it in 1776. Nathaniel reads the book aloud with Captain Blythe in the scene right before this excerpt on my website. Nathaniel alone carries the sole copy of the Declaration of Independence in Carrying Independence, available as an ebook and in print.
In Part One of this series, I described the Declaration as a contract. Just as we would when signing a contract today, in 1776 Congress tried to get all the parties (congressmen) into the same room on the same day to sign it—witnesses to one another. The date they chose for everyone to reassemble in Philadelphia was August 2nd, 1776.
The Issues of Assembling in 1776
When mail takes between 2–4 weeks to deliver, and you’re fighting a war with an army already on your soil, getting everyone to return to Philadelphia is a chore. Additionally, the distance imposed limits. Today I can drive from Richmond to Williamsburg in about 45 minutes, but in 1776 it could take up to 3 days–dependent on horse, carriage, and/or weather. If I’m not feeling well, I’d send my regrets, just as Richard Henry Lee did.
Today I can drive from Richmond to Williamsburg in about 45 minutes, but in 1776 it could take up to 3 days–dependent on horse, carriage, and/or weather.
How many Congressmen were in Philadelphia on August 2nd, 1776?
Let’s look at numbers. In the end, 56 men signed the Declaration. There were just 55 until November of 1776, when New Hampshire elected Matthew Thornton (topic for the next post…). Of those original 55, evidence suggests there were between 49 or 50 at the formal event. All of Congress except Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, Lewis Morris, Oliver Wolcott, Thomas McKean, Matthew Thornton, and Elbridge Gerry.
While the latter, Gerry, is generally thought to have signed it later in the fall, in a post about the signing by J.M. Bell in his blog Boston 1775, he recounts a wild story told about the signing in which Benjamin Harrison IV saying to Gerry that, “I shall have a great advantage over you Mr. Gerry when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.” Fictions aside…
Did Congress Record who signed the Declaration?
Well, that would have made writing my book all the easier! Alas, while Congress often listed individual names for voting records in their meeting minutes, the August 2nd entry in their journal showed only this.
Reader Insider Note: This same historical entry from Congress’ “Secret Journals,” page 53, helped me craft bits of fiction for Carrying Independence. The passage is included on page 80 of the novel, and when I first discovered the entry, I used it to determine:
• The name, “Mirtle,” as a surname pseudonym for my protagonist, Nathaniel.
• How much Nathaniel would be paid for his task—30,000 pounds.
• A sailing vessel, the Frontier captained by Hugo Blythe featured in this excerpt, would take Nathaniel north to Manhattan.
This blog post first appeared in November of 2016, just after the presidential election. No matter your feelings for how that election or the recent mid-terms turned out, you might be needing a reboot. A way to cope. Or a means to find compassion—for those coming in and those left out.
In a Publisher’s Weekly article on Monday, Jonathan Kurtz, publisher of Prometheus Books, said they were selling their fiction list to Start Publishing, to return to being a primarily nonfiction press. He cited that in our current world, “intelligent nonfiction is again of urgent value.” I agree 100% with raising the discourse, and do hope that future nonfiction books will aim to lift, rather than to debase, the consciousness of our country.
However, I absolutely do not believe that nonfiction alone can raise us up. So, I once again give you… a case for why….
We need more fiction!
Especially thoughtful, deep, well-researched and so-worth-pondering fiction. We need it more than ever for three reasons:
Gregory Peck (left) & James Anderson in To Kill a Mockingbird––the number one book in the Great American Read.(Image: A Public Domain clip from the trailer by Universal Studios.)
Escape. Sometimes the world seems topsy-turvy. Either we’re getting what we want, and no one else seems happy, or what we’ve lost makes us rethink everything we thought was true. Fiction can give us a break––a means to flee to another time in history, or to a utopian or more dystopian future. Inside of that “other” place we’re able to find something else.
Empathy. No matter when or where fiction is set, all great fiction is focused on the characters. Some we will love. Some, not so much. And yet all of them, if well-drawn, illustrate how humanity is complex. People are flawed. And yet, by seeing intimately into someone else’s life, even the worst antagonist might elicit compassion from us. Sometimes pity. Either way, the result is something greater.
Enlightenment. It sounds incongruent, but the goal of great fiction writers is to write the truth. The truth, however dark, beautiful, crushing, sad, joyful, odd, funny, or head-spinning. Do we weave in opinions? Of course, but how can we obtain enlightenment without them? It is only in the absence of listening to and attempting to understand a dissenting opinion that we recede into darkness.
So please, regardless of where you are these days, take a deep breath. Go to your favorite bookstore or library. Read fiction. Write fiction. And by all means, share fiction. Through a thoughtful exchange of words, perhaps we can all heal together.
A dear friend of mine was struggling to choose when to begin her novel. Not when to begin writing, but when, in the timeline of her protagonist’s struggle, her story should begin.
One method we discussed was outlined in Syd Field’s book, Screenplay, The Foundations of Screen Writing. If the chronological timeline of a story are points along a line, numbered 1 through 10, we can begin with a glimpse of number 9 (the denouement), and then return to number 1 and write the rest in order. In All Is Lost we first see Robert Redford drifting in despair without his sailboat, then we are taken back and shown everything preceding it. The result? We know what’s coming before the protagonist does, but neither of us knows if by number 10 he will sink or swim, so we stick around to find out.
In a book I recently picked up, Wired For Story, the author Lisa Cron discusses the importance of starting your novel or script for the greatest neurological impact. Humans (readers) are hard-wired to hear/need stories. When tales begin, we want to be drawn in to know whose story it is, what’s happening, and what’s a stake. In Albert Camus’, The Stranger, this is accomplished with just three words. “Mother died today.” The child will be somehow affected by a death. I want to read on.
And that, my fellow writers, is the goal that ultimately my friend and I agreed upon. We strive to begin our books so it increases our readers’ curiosity to such a pitch they must keep reading.
There are countless articles that share countless ways on when and how to begin, (this one from Writer’s Digest illustrates 10 Ways to Begin). When or where have you decided to begin?
This week legendary character actor George Gaynes passed away. Despite his handsome looks and rumbling voice, despite dozens of plays and films, he was never really considered leading man material. Instead he was most known for supporting roles, like that of the photographer/building manager on Punky Brewster.
But I see high value in such roles. Like Samwise in Lord of the Rings, secondary characters sometimes give us a glimpse into what the main character, who is often wallowing around in the quagmire of becoming, might actually become. We needed the kind, wise mentor of Gaynes’ Henry, to believe that Punky Brewster might also grow up to be kind after being orphaned.
Writer’s Digest has a great article on how to write sizzling secondary characters. Primarily though, it comes down to writing supporting characters who, through their own journeys, help us and our protagonists reach a believable end.
I suspect Dustin Hoffman would not have been as convincing as a woman in Tootsie, had it not be for George Gaynes’ character so believably coming on to him as a “her.”
So thanks for the great character work, George. Thanks for the memories, and the laughs. You can see George Gaynes in this Tootsie original trailer around :40.
I’m back for a final chat about men’s fiction with West Coast Don of MenReadingBooks.
Karen: It’s discussed on the website, The Art of Manliness, why men should read fiction. Another article from a couple years ago speculated why men weren’t reading novels anymore. Why should we, men and women, read men’s fiction? For compassion? For understanding? Why do you read fiction?
Don: It’s different for everyone. I really do read for fun. Given that I deal in real life human trauma, both emotional and the emotional impact of big physical traumas, I like stories in which there is usually a favorable outcome and where there is less ambiguity than in real life. “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, was both unfavorable and ambiguous.
Karen: I know for me, some of the men’s fiction allows me a true escape into another life. They’re adventurous. Wilbur Smith and his tales of South Africa and elephant hunts for instance.
Don: It is the vicarious thrill of adventure, and yet these stories–this men’s fiction–can still include human drama.
Karen: In the end, regardless of genre, male or female-focused, what is it we all hope to find in well-written fiction?
Don: Real life stories. I know I’m constantly drawn to them. I think, in the end, we all like to hear and read real human stories.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
If you missed our earlier discussions you can find Part I here, and Part II here.
If you’d like a comprehensive list of men’s fiction to read, The Art Of Manliness has that, as of course does MenReadingBooks. Please share your favorite titles, new and old that have been your best adventure stories in my comments below.
My favorite titles, written by men or women, include the following. I include them because of their history, great writing or context, and their ability to inform not only my intellect by my character. Are they men’s fiction? Perhaps. (Just not when I read them.)
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
The Courtney series by Wilbur Smith
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Laguna by Barbara Kingsolver
The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore
Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Shogun by James Clavell
The Odyssey by Homer
(Yes, I’ve actually read both of those last two. All. Of. The. Pages. Whew!)
I’m back with West Coast Don of MenReadingBooks to continue our discussion of men’s fiction. Like all genres and books, there is good fiction, and there is bad.
Karen: What makes great men’s fiction great?
Don: The same as all fiction. I think it comes down to three things. Plot. Character development. Quality of the writing. If the author doesn’t handle those well, it’s weak.
Karen: If those apply to all fiction, what makes it great men’s fiction?
Don: I think with the third point–quality of writing–male authors focus on combining the right amount of complexity and timing. Too many twist and turns in the plot, and it’s a soap opera. The timing refers to when I’m fed information. I want details, but facts and background have to come at the right moment for the reader.
Karen: Does that mean that men’s fiction is fact-based or can it be literary?
Don: Definitely it can be simply literary. Ken Bruen is an amazing example. He writes crime set in Ireland in his Jack Taylor series. Great plot but his writing is so good. Again it goes back to quality, and reading him is a very literary experience. It’s prose. He doesn’t try to impress with vocabulary, but it’s not too elementary.
Two factors recently made me wonder if fiction could be categorized into male and female.
First, two weeks ago James Franco’s summer reading list came out and he received some flack because it was almost entirely male authors. Second, based on a couple agent rejections, I’m worried how my historical fiction is being viewed–both as a female author and because of a male protagonist. Historical novels authored by women often have female leads and are targeted toward female readers. (Like The Other Boleyn Girl.) They are often represented by agents who also handle romance, not military non-fiction. In reality, my novel has more battles than bodice-ripping (think, Jeff Shaara), but would that alone make it male-focused fiction?
I am clearly not a dude. So in an effort to explore the topic, I spoke with Don Houts of the blog MenReadingBooks. In this three-part blog series, “West Coast Don” and I will talk about:
I: What men’s fiction is and isn’t.
II: What makes it great.
III: Why we (all) should read it.
MEN’S FICTION PART I: WHAT IT IS AND ISN’T
Karen: So, what would you consider men’s fiction?
Don: It’s easier to define what it’s not. It isn’t overly detailed about relationship stuff. That’s not to say it doesn’t include it, like in Kathryn Stockart’s The Help. But drilling down on relationships just isn’t the focus. Her story primarily captured the human experience of racism from different perspectives.
Karen: She is one of a handful of female authors included in a very long-list of male authors on your site.
Don: I would guess close to 90% of books that appeal to men, are written by men. But women like Louise Penny are in there. She’s an example of how women don’t need to write like they think a man would write in order to appeal to men. She has a feminine touch, yet she doesn’t try too hard. Her fiction is not brutal or grisly. Even male authors can overdo that.
Karen: Colleen McCullough with her factual-fiction about Julius Caesar might be considered male-fiction. Is that partly because of the genre? Or is it her historically accurate details?
Don: Often male fiction is historical. Or it’s crime. Thrillers. War. Some mystery. But again, it’s about the content. It’s about how artfully the amount of detail is handled. Academic books are often too dense. It doesn’t always have to, but men’s fiction tends to inform like non-fiction. Dan Brown is a good example of fiction that includes a large volume of data, but in a way that’s compelling.
Next week in Part II, Don and I will discuss what makes men’s fiction great.
In the meantime, readers, do you read what you would consider to be male fiction? If so, why do you think it’s male fiction? Or is there a distinction to you?
A dear friend of mine was struggling to choose when to begin her novel. Not when to begin writing, but when, in the timeline of her protagonist’s struggle, her story should begin.
