Monday, September 17, 2012

Planning Historical Fiction - Characters

I'm starting to feel a little nomadic in my career path.  For about 12 years, I worked in the IT department of a large metropolitan hospital where I designed and developed about 30 software applications with corresponding databases and also planned out the transition from custom software to a new multi-million dollar system.  A lot of the time was spent diagramming and documenting processes, data flow, user requirements, and even detailed function calls.  (This is where the nerdliness of this post stops - I hope you are still here.)

Now I'm writing novels, specifically a historical fiction series that's also a family saga.  I think diagramming function calls is profoundly easier than mapping out the details for these novels.  Yikes. 

I am happy to say, I have finally named my characters.  This is a huge check mark off my to-do list. 

To decide on character names, I took names from my family tree on both sides of the family including siblings of each person - there were a terrifyingly huge number of siblings, like one baby a year until the mother died. 

I made separate lists of male and female first names.  Then I listed last names and added to that list last names I thought would be reasonable like Crabtree and McKinley.  Then I jumbled it all up to create character names that don't correspond to anyone I'm actually related to.  Some of my more senior relatives would be pissed if I used real names, especially since it's fiction...dark tragic fiction.

To manage the characters' names and relationships, I created multiple family tree charts (pedigree style) using Publisher.  From what I gather, the pedigree family tree is a sideways tree that starts with one person and lists only their immediate ancestors.  I wanted to list the siblings of the character I was mapping as well as their children, so I added boxes as well as a bar at the bottom to note the historical events that are important in the story.  It ended up looking sort of like this:




(If anyone has a use for something like this, I have no problem sharing out the file.)

The next step was to assign birth dates to each character while keeping in mind the historical context of each novel.  One of my characters needs to go to the mental hospital in 1940 because they stopped doing electroshock therapy in 1941.  That means she has to have had her second child in 1940 for the plot to work.  I knew how old I wanted her to be when she had that child, so I set her birth date to 1920. 

I realized I had complete chaos because different trees started in different generations than others. (And I wanted to cry.)  To make it easier for me to line up characters of the same generation across different trees, I put a label on the document to note the generation.  Generation 1 for the series (the most recent characters) is born around 1920, Generation 2 around 1900, etc.  So far, my series has eight generations and several families.   

When I figure out how to diagram historical dates to individual characters' lives and also note where individual novels begin and end, I'll report back.  I think I need something with a grid in the background. 

I am absolutely open to suggestions if anyone has done this.  I wish I had a copy of Rational Rose, software we used to diagram detailed function calls, which are essentially cause and effect relationships. 

26 comments:

  1. You are really doing a lot of work for this project. Congratulations on coming up with names. That tends to be the last thing I do.

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    1. I need them to have names before I start. Otherwise I get confused.

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  2. I keep a character bible to keep track of everything but none of my novels have been family sagas extending across generations. Looks like you have a good plan.

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    1. I picture a black leather cover with a red string sticking out. :)

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  3. I always do a family tree, and my main characters have been swiped from my actually genealogy! I'm having to go back further in time to find new character names though. Great post!

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    1. My ancestors had lots and lots of babies, plenty of names to choose from. Fun that we're doing this the same way!

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  4. That's a very cool method for coming up with names.

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  5. My sister does all that ancestry.com stuff. I gave her this Family Tree Maker software I got free from Amazon that works with the ancestry.com to make family trees, though I'm not sure how it'd stack up against what you've got.

    Apparently our family tree has lots of people named Ebeneezer, which I don't think would be very helpful for character names.

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    1. I kind of love Ebeneezer for a character name. Maybe for someone very unscroogelike. People could call him Neezer. :)

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  6. Um, first -- I was there every word of the way through the beginning, although I'm an EE with a background in programming (worked for EDS in the early '90s), so I guess I qualify as 'nerd', lol!

    Wonderful job diagramming the family tree, Tonja! I'm impressed. I tend to zoom in on a smaller group of characters over a smaller time-frame, so I've never had to approach the multi-generational sweeping epic, but I think you're doing a great with it!

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    1. Yes, I think you qualify as nerd, but in a good way.

      The other things I've written haven't been as complex with the characters and the impact of historical events. There's no way I can do this one without a diagram or two. I got the timeline figured out but had to send the hubby out for legal-sized paper.

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  7. I think in this case you're lucky to have your programming background. I get lost on my timeline sometimes. I draw it out and label when everything is happening, but I still get confused when I'm knee deep in a chapter. It really does help to have visual aids. Wow, good luck with all those generations.!

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    1. I wrote a children's story that spanned over one year, and the timeline was a mess. I get confused too - especially if I am working on it only a few hours a week over a long period of time. Thanks, I think I'll need some luck on this one.

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  8. What you sound like you're doing is developing a Novel bible of sorts. It's worth it to do this if you have planning or outline tendencies like I do. Then I'm mapped but I keep it flexible.

    Keep us posted, and good luck. Thanks for stopping by the blog!

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    1. "Planning tendencies" is a very nice way to put it. Yes, I have that.

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  9. I really like the idea behind your character names. I find it difficult to come up with names for my flash fic pieces. Now that I'm in the process of outlining for my first "lengthy" story, everyone is Mr. A or Mrs. X or Y...
    Your family tree charts are great! My mom is the eldest of 14 children, so I always refer to my maternal relatives as our "family forest" LOL.

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    1. I keep changing my mind about the names, which I think may be my way of procrastinating.

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  10. Wow, this is a great idea! I'm so totally unorganized, I would never think of doing something like this.

    I totally love family sagas so I think it's fantastic that you have so many generations in your story. Sounds excellent! :)

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    1. Thanks, Julie. This is too big of a project for me to do without some diagrams. :)

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  11. That's an awesome organizational system you've got going. For my handwritten magnum opus (starting in 1941 and going to end in 2050, with maybe 1% of it computer-generated), I have a bunch of lists of couplings, birthdates, and family trees. I also have some family trees and such for my Russian historical novels. Though I'm very good at memorizing names, dates, and entire books and storylines in my head, with so many characters, sometimes you can forget who's going to marry whom, who was born when, and who's whose child or grandchild.

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    1. Exactly - I have the stories in my head and know my characters, but getting the dates and relationships straight is tricky.

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  12. Tonja, if I were half as organized as you I'd be twice as organized as I am. All of the hard work you're putting into this...you're an inspiration!

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  13. wow, I think that's why I shy away from historical fiction hehehe ;)

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    1. Probably a good move on your part. I think a part of me wants to never finish - or to keep myself busy for a very long time.

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