The best plot in the world. The most thrilling story of the century. A tale so compelling it changes the lives of millions. None of them work if the characters don’t ring true.
You might think it’s easy for a female writer to create believable, convincing female characters. It isn’t. Nothing about the writing process is ‘easy’. Having said that, I’ve discovered a way to flesh my women out, make them life-like and three dimensional. But it wasn’t always that way.
The essential male / female split
Before I was published, I wrote three novels. None have seen the light of day, and they never will, because they weren’t ready. I had to learn the craft of fiction. To wit, in one of those novels, two male police officers were the protagonists. One of them walked into a house to question a witness, and the first thing he noticed were the curtains in the window.
“Um… no,” said my writing group. A solid, beefy cop would NOT notice curtains when he walked into a house. “You need to learn the difference between a man and a woman’s point of view”, they said. Looking back, it seems obvious now. But at the time it felt like a revelation.
I took their advice. Knowing what men and women think, do, and see differently, and applying it to my characters, helped enormously (more about that later). I eventually discovered I loved writing about women, particularly women whose options have been stripped away from them… who are up against the wall and desperate. How do they survive? How do they triumph over their obstacles? Many of my stories focus on these themes.
But there’s more to a woman’s personality than her gender. It’s the fine detail that makes her complex. After I figured out the male–female POV, I discovered a powerful tool. I now use it regularly to create female protagonists who come across as real … credible, authentic, and unique.
Backstories are the key
I use backstories for character development. There are plenty of books and articles on the subject, but it’s easy to boil it down. Here’s my take.
After I decide on the main 3-4 female characters in the novel, I dive in and start writing about who they are. It usually takes the form of “stream of consciousness” in that I don’t pay attention to grammar, punctuation, or even complete sentences. I am simply sketching them out. Often, it’s a ragged start. I’ll falter and dither with no idea who they are. But then something strange happens. I’ll start imagining a scene from their life. It might be when they were a little girl, a teenager, or even something in the present. Suddenly I can’t write fast enough. I need to get it down. What happened… how she felt about it… was there a victim? A perpetrator? Or was it all sweetness and joy? What were the consequences?
To this day, I still don’t know where this comes from – I assume it’s my subconscious – that I’ve let it loose to play. Whatever it is, it takes off with a life of its own. And once I have that (for lack of a better term) “Important Event” on paper, I fill in the gaps.
Who is this woman, her family background? How does she react to events? What were her parents like? Her upbringing and schooling? Her choice of career… or not? Her affluence or lack of it. Ability to trust others. Her dreams, loves and hates, vices, and/or other formative experiences.
The backstory usually ends up being two or three single-spaced pages. But here’s the thing: I only use two to five percent of the backstory in the actual book. The rest stays on the paper. But their background helps me understand them and helps me create plot points, since I know what they’re capable of and how far they’ll go.
The ‘mother from hell’
For example, my crime thriller EASY INNOCENCE is about a high school prostitution ring that’s run by one of the girls. Her mother is Andrea Walsh. I needed to figure out what kind of mother would produce a teen-age girl who came to manage a group of high-school hookers.
Andrea’s backstory provided the answers. She grew up in a blue collar “Lace Curtain” Irish neighborhood on Chicago’s south side. She had an abusive father. Becoming a paralegal allowed her to escape her roots, marry a wealthy young lawyer, and move to the North Shore. Once I had that, the plot moved along smoothly. Because I knew her intimately, I knew how she’d raise her own child and why.
Female Mafia Chief
I also wrote a major backstory for Frankie Pacelli, the protagonist in my thriller HAVANA LOST, who becomes the first female Mafia family chief. At the beginning of the story Frankie was 18, headstrong, and spoiled. Probably not surprising, since her father was a ruthless Mafia-boss and casino owner. Cuba’s revolutionary history, rich in strife, provided a complex backstory that shaped Frankie as well. And a love affair gone bad didn’t hurt. The upshot was a woman who came to chase power instead of love.
Neither book would have worked without my knowing the characters on an intimate level, and I discovered it through their backstories.
Jump Cut
The same goes for my latest Ellie Foreman book, JUMP CUT. Thanks to an ever-evolving backstory and four prior crime thrillers, I know Ellie as well as I know myself. But I didn’t know the new characters, especially the ambitious and secretive Charlotte Hollander. So I wrote her backstory and by doing so, was able to make her motivation and behavior credible.
You’ll notice I haven’t discussed hair styles, fashion, body image, or some of the other issues often mentioned in women’s fiction. While some authors might feel they are necessary, I don’t. Yes, they can provide “business” ie, a woman plans her next move while she’s putting on her make-up, or she twists an ankle in ultra-high heel designer shoes and thus can’t tail someone.
But what’s important to me are the traits I believe differentiate women from men: the ability to hold contradictory views simultaneously, the ability to internalize and project, more empathy and compassion. Or the absence of those, which REALLY makes a woman interesting.
What do you think?
Giveaway
One commenter will win a copy of JUMP CUT
JUMP CUT marks the return, after a ten year hiatus, of Chicago video producer Ellie Foreman, in a thriller that PW, in a starred review, calls “exceptional.” Ellie is producing a video for a giant Chicago aviation company, but half way through, the project is cancelled. In her efforts to find out why, Ellie is soon entangled in a web of espionage, drones, hackers, and spies, all of which threaten those closest to her. It will be released March 1, 2016. More at libbyhellmann.com
About Libby Fischer Hellmann
Libby Fischer Hellmann has been writing all her life.
She turned to fiction eight years ago. Her amateur sleuth
series, featuring Chicago single mom and video producer
Ellie Foreman made its debut in 2002 with An Eye for
Murder. It was followed with A Picture of Guilt and An
Image of Death. An Eye for Murder was nominated for an
Anthony Award for Best First in 2003. It also won the
Readers’ Choice Best First Award a the Love is Murder
Mystery Conference the same year.
Libby has published numerous short stories in both
American and British publications. Three new short stories
will be released in the coming year: A Berlin Story, in the
MWA “Show Business is Murder” anthology, “Common Scents”
(Blondes in Trouble anthology) and “House Rules”, in the
IACW Las Vegas anthology edited by Michael Connelly.
When she’s not writing fiction, Libby writes
and produces videos. She also coaches individuals and
groups in presentation skills, speech delivery, and media
interviews. (Fischer Hellmann Communications.) A transplant
from the East Coast (she was born and raised in Washington,
D.C.), she’s been living in the Chicago area twenty-
five years with her family and a Beagle, shamelessly named
Shiloh.
She is currently Vice-President of the Midwest Chapter
of MWA and serves on the national board of directors of
Sisters In Crime.
She is also a founding member of “Sex, Lies, and
Videotape” and can often be found haunting bookstores,
conferences, and events with Deborah Donnelly and Roberta
Isleib.
WEBSITE |
About JUMP CUT
Chicago video producer Ellie Foreman has been absent from
thriller author Libby Fischer Hellmann’s repertoire for
almost a decade. Now, in Jump Cut, she’s back…and is soon
entangled in a web of espionage, murder, and suspicion that
threatens to destroy what she holds most dear.
Hired to produce a candy-floss profile of Chicago-based
aviation giant Delcroft, Ellie is dismayed when company VP
Charlotte Hollander trashes the production and cancels the
project. Ellie believes Hollander was spooked by shots of a
specific man in the video footage. But when Ellie arranges
to meet the man to find out why, he is killed by a subway
train before they can talk. In the confusion, she finds a
seemingly abandoned pack of cigarettes with a flash drive
inside that belonged to the now-dead man.
Ellie gets the drive’s contents decrypted, but before long
discovers she’s under surveillance. Suspecting Delcroft and
the ambitious Hollander are behind it, she’s unconvinced
when Hollander tells her the dead man was a Chinese spy.
Ellie and her boyfriend, Luke, try to find answers, but they
don’t realize how far they have ventured into the dangerous
echelons of hidden power– where more lives are on the
line―including their own.Chicago video producer Ellie
Foreman has been absent from thriller author Libby Fischer
Hellmann’s repertoire for almost a decade. Now, in Jump Cut,
she’s back…and is soon entangled in a web of espionage,
murder, and suspicion that threatens to destroy what she
holds most dear.
Hired to produce a candy-floss profile of Chicago-based
aviation giant Delcroft, Ellie is dismayed when company VP
Charlotte Hollander trashes the production and cancels the
project. Ellie believes Hollander was spooked by shots of a
specific man in the video footage. But when Ellie arranges
to meet the man to find out why, he is killed by a subway
train before they can talk. In the confusion, she finds a
seemingly abandoned pack of cigarettes with a flash drive
inside that belonged to the now-dead man.
Ellie gets the drive’s contents decrypted, but before long
discovers she’s under surveillance. Suspecting Delcroft and
the ambitious Hollander are behind it, she’s unconvinced
when Hollander tells her the dead man was a Chinese spy.
Ellie and her boyfriend, Luke, try to find answers, but they
don’t realize how far they have ventured into the dangerous
echelons of hidden power– where more lives are on the
line―including their own.
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