The birth of a character: guest post by Karen Pokras Toz

This is a busy week here at Dag-Lit Central. Today I'm please to announce a special guest, Karen Pokras Toz, who's paying me a visit as part of her Nate Rocks the School tour.

The Birth of A Character

 

Today, Jonathan asked me to talk about what makes my writing stand out from the crowd. While I love my story lines, I truly believe it’s my characters who capture my readers more than anything else.

Writing characters is not always easy. Every time I start to write a new character, I struggle. My mind, while it has a general idea of who this new character will be, has trouble closing out characters already written. I’ll often find myself yelling out loud, “Go away!” to the characters who keep trying to sneak back in. (Didn’t you know all writers are a tiny bit crazy?)

Eventually they leave, but just how do you create characters who have their own unique personality? For me, writing characters is an exercise in observation.

Almost all of my characters are based upon real people who have crossed my path at one time or another. I like to take people’s personalities and stretch them out to extremes. It sounds painful, but my goal is to make them into “that guy.” You all know who I’m talking about, right? I guarantee that everyone who reads this has a “that guy (or girl)” in their life. You know - the dad who tells the same childhood stories over and over ... and over, or the teenage sister who is a royal, whiny pain? How about the classmate who know everything about everything? Or the little brother who want to be in all your stuff? The next door neighbor who talks to much? Or the mom who buys everything on sale and in bulk? Yup, these are all characters in my books.

The thing about them is that they are not only fun to write; they are also fun to read. That’s because as readers, we can all relate to them – they may even be similar to you – or me. I’ve had lots of people ask me who my characters are based on. Well, in the interest of preserving my relationships, I refuse to say. Sorry about that. However, in my Nate Rocks series, Nathan’s mom is an abysmal failure at everything domestic, despite her best efforts. It’s perhaps a tiny bit possible that this character may or may not be based upon yours truly. Hypothetically speaking, of course. That’s all I’m saying.

As you can see, creating characters can be tricky. In the end however, if I’ve made you or your child smile, I’ve done my job.

Summary

Nate Rocks Is At It Again . . .

According to Nathan Rockledge, fifth grade has plenty of perks. Oh sure, there’s more work and that know-it-all, Lisa Crane, is still around – but, there’s a lot to look forward to as well: a laser tag birthday party, baseball at recess, and even a cool Halloween dance. Of course, all of that means nothing without the biggest perk of all . . . the class trip to New York City in the spring. If Nathan’s class can raise enough money to go, that is.

Give Nathan paper and a pencil and watch as his imagination turns him into Nate Rocks, hero and fifth grade super star. With adventures abound, Nate saves the day time and again. But will Nate be able to save the fifth grade trip?

Join Nathan, his hilarious family, and his friends, as he rocks the school in another fun Nate Rocks adventure. 

Pick up your copy at Amazon and B&N! 

Author Bio

Karen Pokras Toz lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and three children. Karen’s middle grade childrens’ novels: Millicent Marie Is Not My Name and the Nate Rocks series, have won several awards including First Place for Children’s Chapter Books and the Grand Prize Overall in the 2012 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, as well as placing first for a Global E-Book Award for Pre-Teen Literature. Karen is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI). Her first adult contemporary novel, invisible, will be released this summer. For more information, please visit http://www.karentoz.com.

Links

Website: http://www.karentoz.com
Blog: http://kptoz.blogspot.com
Facebook: htp://www.facebook.com/karenptoz
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/karentoz
Amazon: http://bit.ly/NRTSamazon
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/NRSchoolBN
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5009570.Karen_Pokras_Toz
 

Challenge, focus, creative solution, completion

At the moment, I'm sitting at my desk, looking at a little cartoon.

It's one I drew myself. Not that I'm making any claims to being a cartoonist, or for that matter a visual artist of any kind. But sometimes, I quite like to draw stuff.

The cartoon is split into four separate panes:

1. The challenge
2. The focus
3. The creative solution
4. The completion.

I didn't make up the titles. Many years ago I attended a problem-solving workshop as part of my job, and these were the titles of the four sessions which described the four stages of problem-solving.

I didn't love this workshop. To be honest, anything that involves me sitting down while other people stand up and go blah blah blah is not something that I love. So, during the first session, the challenge session, I began to draw. Vaguely aware of what the presenter was droning on about, I began to draw my own little challenge. It's a golfer, standing on the edge of a cliff, about to hit a golf ball. The flag is located on a small island, a tiny stack poking at from the water quite a distance away.

Once I had this picture drawn, I had figured out a strategy that would allow me to survive the rest of the workshop. I would draw a little cartoon to illustrate each part of the problem solving strategy my golfer would use to solve the problem of getting the ball into the hole. I'm not going to tell you what that was (maybe I'll scan the pics and put them up for a subsequent post if people are interested) but I can tell you it did involve a rather helpful whale.

These cartoons really struck a chord with me when I noticed them recently, because in some ways they encapsulates the important aspects of writing to me. Most of my stories involve a character facing a problem (the challenge), taking the time to comprehend what that problem involves (the focus), finding a way to solve the problem (the creative solution) and finally enjoying the satisfaction of a problem solved (the completion).

It's more than just the characters. It's also about the way I go about writing a story. It's like I give myself a problem and then try to figure out the best way to solve it. And I can't always rely on helpful whales to come to my assistance. But that's where I frequently get the most enjoyment from the whole writing process.

Have a great week, and hope you find solutions to all your problems.

Book blast - Nate Rocks the School

Ok - today I'm doing something a little different. To celebrate the release of Karen Pokras Toz's new book, Nate Rocks the School, I'm participating in a Book Blast!

What is a book blast? I'm not completely sure myself. But read on and I'm sure we'll both be able to figure out the answer...

Nate Rocks is at it again...

The highly anticipated third installment of the Nate Rocks series is here! 

According to Nathan Rockledge, fifth grade has plenty of perks. Oh sure, there’s more work and that know-it-all, Lisa Crane, is still around – but, there’s a lot to look forward to as well: a laser tag birthday party, baseball at recess, and even a cool Halloween dance. Of course, all of that means nothing without the biggest perk of all . . . the class trip to New York City in the spring. If Nathan’s class can raise enough money to go, that is.

Give Nathan paper and a pencil and watch as his imagination turns him into Nate Rocks, hero and fifth grade super star. With adventures abound, Nate saves the day time and again. But will Nate be able to save the fifth grade trip?

Join Nathan, his hilarious family, and his friends, as he rocks the school in another fun Nate Rocks adventure.

Pick up your copy at Amazon and B&N!

Chat with Karen Pokras Toz today at 10:30 am  EST and then follow the Nate Rocks the School Tour for appearances by the author and characters, reviews, and swag pack giveaways!

 
 
Grand Prize Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A GWR Publicity Event. Sponsored by Karen Pokras Toz.

Banging my head against a wall

Oh no. I've got blogger's block. Again.

Blogger's block is not the same as writer's block. I don't have any problem at all with writer's block. In fact, I currently have multiple stories on the go, and I could quite easily sit down and work on any of them.

No, as far as the actual writing goes, I'm totally not blocked. You could even say I have writer's unblock - far too many story ideas and not enough time to write them all.

The problem I have is quite different. It's not related to any of the stories I'm working on. It's solely related to this blog and its contents. As far as this blog goes, I've totally run out of ideas to post.

It's been going on for a while. Every time I'm due for another post, I sit down and wrack my brain and see what I can come up with. So far, I've been able to bluff it. At the last minute, some tiny little shred of an idea has come up and I've been able to spin it out enough to make it look like something substantial. Last week, I was even able to take something from a comment someone left and build up something from that.

But today, the pretense is over. I'm revealed. I stand before you, naked and defenseless, unable to come up with any further excuses.

I've just got nothing. Nil, nada, bupkiss (I'm not even sure I spelt that right). I've tried everything. I've tried brainstorming and writing out ideas on a sheet of paper. I even had an extended session of banging my head against a wall. But still, I have nothing good to work with.

So to all of you out there, I apologise. Please don't abandon me. I'm sure I'll be able to work through this blogger's block eventually.

In the meantime, I'm off to bang my head against that wall again. 

Is there anybody in there?

Firstly, I have to thank Jim Murdoch who gave me the idea for this post via a comment he left on my post last week.

Thanks, Jim.

Last week I talked a bit about characters, and how I like to base the qualities for my characters on the general bonkersness of people I encounter. Jim made an interesting point in his comment about the fact that often the central character is far less interesting than the other characters that circle around them. Jim gave the example of US sitcoms, and one of my favourites, Seinfeld, is probably a classic example of this. But I think there are lots of examples that illustrate this principle.

My favourite examples I like to use when describing this idea are Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter - which I've always seen as kind of interchangable - I'd love to see a mashup where Frodo and Harry join forces to defeat Darth Vader.

When you think of the main characters, Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, and good old Harry, what comes to mind? Not much. There's not a lot to them. I guess they're kind of brave and stolid - they fight hard and don't give up. But there's not much else you can say about them. They're not that clever or funny, and they don't have unusual character quirks. When it comes down to it, they're kind of boring.

So what do you make of that? Is that an oversight on the part of the writers to create such bland central characters? I think not. I actually think it's completely intentional, and it's actually a highly effective storytelling device. 

I see these characters as kind of like a blank page. Readers can project whatever qualities they like onto them, making it easy for a broad range of readers to identify with them. This makes them really effective as "windows" into a story, allowing readers to become more fully immersed. It also helps the personalities and eccentricities of the supporting characters to shine more strongly.

Because of this, the name I like to use to describe these characters is "blank heroes". And when I look at my stories, I can see it's a device I make use of as well. Neville Lansdowne is definitely a blank hero (maybe he's not much of a hero when it comes down to it). So are Magnus Mandalora and Kriffle the Flidderbug. Come to think of it, pretty much all my central characters so far would qualify as blank heroes.

It's such an effective device that it's easy to fall into it too readily. With some other stories in development, I'm seeing if I can break the mold and come up with some less blank central characters. We'll see how we go.

Have a great week.

Bonkers, bonkers, bonkers, bonkers, bonkers

Characters are my favourite part of being a writer.

I suppose that isn't suprising. As a reader, I think characters are my favourite aspect of a story as well. Sure, I might initially get sucked in by an interesting premise, or the promise of some sort of exciting revelation, but ultimately it's the characters that keep me hooked.

That applies just as much for writing. The aspect of writing I get the most joy out of is writing characters. I love putting them into situations and seeing how they respond. I love sticking them into a scene together and observing how they react to each other. No matter how good (in my opinion) my story ideas are, it's the characters that keep me interested in the writing.

To me, the aspect of character is so important that when I'm planning a story, once I have the basic idea, most of my time is working out who the characters are. I figure that once I have that sorted, the outline of the plot will come naturally.

People often ask me where I get my character ideas from. After all, I suppose I have some pretty strange ones. I guess some of them are obvious. I'm not going to deny that character types in Magnus Opum, such as the Kertoobis, Cherines and Glurgs are totally derived from Tolkien's Hobbits, Elves and Orcs. 

But what about some of the others? What about the Doosies, the incorrigible gossips with ears on the back of their heads but only one eye. What about the permanently energised Pharsheeth, or the Great Oponium? These characters are much less Tolkien and much more me.

And what about some of my other stories? What about the constantly bickering Flidderbug tribes, or the assortment of strange people Neville Lansdowne meets in his adventures, like the Toaster People or the Aimless  Girl or the Shouting Man? Where do they come from?

People seem to assume I have a very strong imagination. Perhaps they're right - I'm not sure if I'm the one to judge. I know that often the inspiration doesn't come from so far away.

It's mostly just from viewing people. Being with them. Listening to what they say. Seeing them on TV or reading about them in the news. There's one basic thing I take away from it all.

People are bonkers.

And once you've figured that out, coming up with strange and unexpected characters is not that difficult. To be honest, I don't think my characters are anywhere near as odd as a good proportion of the people I encounter. The sheer bonkersness of most people is beyond what I could ever capture as a writer.

Of course, that doesn't apply to me. And I'm sure it doesn't apply to you either. Have a great (and not too bonkers) week. 

Keeping my balls in the air

I know how to juggle.

I taught myself how to do it, just after I finished school. I was a bit bored one day and on a whim I thought, "Why don't I teach myself how to juggle?"

So I did. I grabbed a bunch of golf balls (to this day, I reckon golf balls are the best thing to use to learn how to juggle - they're easy to catch and don't go bouncing away) and began. I didn't have an instruction book. I just figured it out. 

I'm not that coordinated (when I used to play cricket, I was notorious for the number of catches I dropped) but by the end of the day I had gotten to the point where I could do maybe ten catches in a row. And in a couple of days, I could keep going up to 100 and over.

I even began to do tricks, like under the leg. Though I never did manage the "take a bite from an apple" trick (I always seemed to smash it against my forehead) and I could never manage more than four balls. Still, it's one of those things I'm kind of pleased about. I know how to juggle.

I've been thinking about the whole juggling thing a bit lately because these days I seem to be spending a lot of time juggling. Maybe not in a literal sense, but most of my life seems to be a struggle to keep a lot more than three balls in the air.

My work in itself is a juggle. Multiple projects is the name of the game. Gotta keep them all moving forward - multiple deadlines are getting near and that's a lot of juggling. Then there's the juggle of balancing work with personal life, and all the decisions that involves.

But the biggest juggle of all is the attempt to keep some sort of a semblance as a writer with everything else going on. There's the three current works-in-progress which I've blabbed on a bit about previously - I suppose each of those is a ball. Then there's all the social media stuff - my Twitter ball and my Facebook ball and the rather large ball that is this blog. Honestly, I have no idea how I do it.

Even as I write this, I'm still madly juggling. Here go those balls - up and down and up and down. I really hope I don't drop them. Can you imagine what a mess that would make.