I didn't do anything to "get even" with Mr. Arella, but what about a student character who did plot vengeance?

Or what if the teacher character has a different motive for letting the student embarrass himself? What if he's getting even for the student's failure to serve as his lab assistant?

Or what if I choose a different experiment, one that causes even more embarrassment than simple failure?

Or what if I change the relationship and make it a husband and wife? The wife is going into the same line of work as the husband; she gets a terrific idea and sets to work on it. He encourages her, and she goes to great effort, but fails. Only later does she discover that he knew exactly how to do the whole job, even had key pieces of equipment or information that might have allowed her to succeed. When she confronts him, he says, "I figured you'd want to do it on your own."

"I didn't care about doing it on my own! I cared about doing it right, and you could have helped me do that!"

"What kind of career is it if your husband steps in and makes it easy for you?"

"I put you through college, you jerk! What kind of education would you have had if I weren't the kind of wife who stepped in and made it easy for you! People in business sometimes help each other. Nice people do, anyway. They don't let somebody drown while they've got a life preserver in their hands!"

"OK, I'm sorry, I made a mistake!"

"It wasn't a mistake. You meant me to fail. You wanted me to blow it, because if I did it right then I'd be a threat to you!"

"Oh, I see, I'm not just a husband who made a mistake, suddenly I'm a symptom of the whole male conspiracy against women. The trouble is, if I had helped you, that would also be part of the male conspiracy against women, since I would have been plotting to prove to you that you couldn't succeed without my help!"

And so on. This relationship has some story potential, though the scene itself is far too abstract to be useful-real people don't stick to the subject so relentlessly while they argue. This scene would never end up in a story, but these characters, this relationship, might. And if such a story

34 CHARACTERS AND VIEWPOINT

ever comes to be, who would guess that it emerged from the incident with Mr. Arella and the electrolysis experiment, which came to mind solely because I was randomly exploring through times and places in my memory.

IDEAS FROM THE STORY

As you work on a story, it will suggest characters to you-as long as you

know how to look for them.

Who Must Be There?

Let's say you're telling the story of a young princess who's being held captive in the top of a tower. If fairy tales don't appeal to you, update it: A young girl who has been kidnapped off the streets of New York and is being held captive in an abandoned building. Or if melodrama doesn't appeal to you, a girl who has to spend the summer with somebody unpleasant while her parents are off on a long working vacation in Australia.

The story idea itself will imply certain characters. Since the girl is being held somewhere against her will, there has to be a person who is holding her-a "villain" who has caused her confinement. Also, there must be some people she was kidnapped from. If she's a princess, by implication there must be a king or queen-or both-who want her back. Or perhaps she feels that her parents wanted to be rid of her. Either way, one or both parents must figure into the story.

If she's staying with relatives, then those characters must be added as well. A bossy aunt? A boring uncle? Or, more sinisterly, an aunt who is always off "shopping," while the uncle stays around home like a couch potato, sleeping in front of the television; only it turns out that the uncle is mixing up hallucinogenic chemicals in the basement all night, while the aunt makes drug deliveries during the day. No, no, you say-you're getting melodramatic again. All right, the aunt is always away because she's supporting the family, and the uncle is every bit as lazy and dim-witted as he seems. He's even dumb enough to think that his young niece will appreciate suggestions for a relationship closer than nepotism.

Whether any of these ideas interested you, you can see how the process works. The basic idea of the story requires certain people to be present. Once you know the story roles that must be filled, you can use the process we've already talked about to create interesting, well-rounded characters for those roles.

Who Might Be There?

Besides the people who must be there because of the story, there are also characters who might be present simply because of the setting. Let's take the girl living with her aunt and uncle for the summer. They might have children. Younger ones that the girl is required to tend? Older ones, who exclude her from their good times or otherwise make her miserable? One

Where Do Characters Come From? 35

exactly her age who resents having her there-or who is horrible and boring and wants to be with her all the time?

The aunt and uncle must live in a place, of course, so is it a town? Are there neighbors? A local 7-11 store, with a clerk she befriends, or kids who hang out playing pinball or video games there?

Maybe the aunt and uncle live at the beach-there are always people coming to the beach. Could she meet an interesting person who takes an early morning walk along the beach every day?

She came from somewhere, so could she be writing letters to a friend back home? Trying to carry on a long-distance romance with a boyfriend who is actually dating her best friend now?

Could she be attending summer school? There are teachers and students there. Or maybe she gets a summer job-proofreading at the local weekly newspaper? Then there'll be an editor, a typesetter who might resent all her corrections, an eccentric society columnist, maybe another kid who doubles as delivery boy and cub reporter.

Or maybe the aunt and uncle live on a farm, and there are some migrant workers who come for the midsummer cherry picking. Or maybe they live in the mountains, and she meets a poacher, or a forest ranger, or some interesting hikers-or some dangerous ones.

This process is a simple one, but it's amazing how many writers forget to do it. All you have to do is take your eyes off the main characters long enough to see who else is nearby. Most of the characters you discover this way will remain minor ones, or even background characters. Still, by using them you'll enrich the story and make it more real.

These other characters will also add possibilities for conflict or complication, or sources of help for the main characters. And some of them will become so interesting that you'll have to move them into major roles in the story after all, even though they were never part of your original plan.

But if you don't look to see who might be there, you'll never find these people, and your story will be the poorer for it.

Who Has Been There?

Even though your main focus will be on the characters who are present in the story, it's also important to look into the story's past to find the characters who are no longer around, but who still helped shape the characters who are present. So often we see stories with heroes who seemed to come from nowhere-they never remember anybody who isn't present, never meet anybody they knew from long before, never even refer to parents or old jobs or anyone else. Yet in real life you are constantly remembering people who aren't present, bumping into old acquaintances, and responding to present situations in ways that clearly grow out of old relationships. When the teenage girl in our story becomes friends with the funny-looking clerk at the 7-11, does she gradually and uncomplicatedly fall in love with him? Or does he remind her of a slick exploitative guy she knew at school back home? Maybe she's trying to stay faithful to her boyfriend