When chemistry fizzles

[Feo Takahari]

This is going to be more muddled and inarticulate than usual from me, and I apologize for that.

I've been putting off work on Growing Strange and Different for a while now. I considered putting it on hold to finish a much earlier project, Lovers' Duel. While thinking about this, I realized that I had a lot more fun working on Duel, and I think it's because the characters have more active chemistry. I have a very physical and straightforward character and a very psychological and subtle character bouncing off each other, alternately charming and tricking each other, with a lot of surprising reversals as they adapt to each other's tactics. But in Different, I don't have anywhere near that surprise factor, and I'm not sure how to create it on purpose. How can character chemistry be generated?

To be clear, I have some of the basics--for instance, some of the characters have personalities that seem opposed, but know each other well enough to work around each other's quirks. I also think I have characters who're complex enough to be used for this. I'm just having trouble putting it all together.

 

[skip.knox]

Can you provide more specifics? You say a bit about characters in Lover's Duel, but you tell us almost nothing about the characters in the other book. It's hard to make suggestions about a blank canvas.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I should probably clarify that both are planned to be relatively short, so I don't have a lot of space for incidental occurrences and such to slowly build character. (Growing Strange and Different in particular probably couldn't be maintained as a longer work, since it'll only function as intended if the characters face no outside threat until the end.)

I have four really major characters in Growing Strange and Different. They're all heroes in a pseudo-Edwardian setting--having once stumbled into saving the country, they've found themselves facing greater and greater threats. At this point, they live alone in a single house, far away from other people, only leaving when ordered by the crown to defeat some new enemy.

Victoria's a disgraced noble. She's well-read, well-spoken, and somewhat arrogant, but she recognizes her longtime companions as her equals. She's also very, very vain about her looks. She sees herself as the group's guide and advisor.

Jonas is an outcast priest who sometimes sees the future. He's very friendly and affable, and often acts in a clownish manner to prompt others to crack a smile. He picks up on his friends' emotions much faster than they pick up on his, even when they're trying to hide their feelings. He sees himself as the group's unofficial psychiatric counselor.

Pat is an ex-soldier from a long line of heroes. She's blunt and direct, and tends to support the quickest solution to any problem. She and Victoria have been known to butt heads, though the two always make up later. She has five sisters and two brothers, and she misses them quite a lot. I haven't quite figured out her role in the group yet.

Kelly, the main character, was originally an assassin ordered to kill the others. She sees the group as her saviors, and treats Victoria with the same subservient devotion she originally showed to the man who raised and trained her. She's the quietest character, although she does give advice and comfort. Her thoughts tend towards both the cynical and the sadistic when interacting with outsiders, but she's ironically something of a mother figure within the group, protecting the others from any threat she perceives.

My overall view of the group dynamic is mutually parasitic, with Kelly at the center of the problem--because trouble so often follows them, she encourages them to stay inside and avoid other people when not actively pursuing a threat. Jonas recognizes the potential for agoraphobia, and is trying to stave it off, but he's not having much success. Beyond that, I don't have much to use. It feels like a lot of the potential rough edges and conflicts would have been sanded away by such a long time in such close proximity to each other.

 

[skip.knox]

One issue I see from the summary is that we don't know what these people want or what they fear. You hint at it a bit with Kelly, but that's all. We have static characteristics, but no drive, no compelling force. For example, maybe Kelly wants only to keep a low profile and whatever she does to stay away from her former employer. A plot device could force the group right into the midst of that.

It's odd that the ex-soldier would miss her siblings, since soldiering would have taken her away from them. The time for that crisis would have been in the past, no? Anyway, maybe Pat longs for the excitement of the old life. Maybe she grabs at anything that smacks of adventure or risk, even if it's unwise.

Surely Victoria would want nothing more than to be restored to her former position. Or maybe it's vengeance she wants on those who ran her out.

You see what I'm driving at? The characters need something they're driving at. Preferrably not a pedestrian.

 

[Mathias]

I agree with skip, you need either an individual or common goal these characters are struggling for and if individual a reason for them coming together. Maybe another evil has threatened them and these once enemies must now come together to fight them. You have done a good job of describing these character's personalities but you need a central plot for them to interact with each other. One other piece of advice I have is maybe adding some history between a few of the characters wether that be direct or not. Maybe two of them grew up in the same town/city and while never met each other before knew the same people and can relate that way. Maybe two of the characters figure out early on that they disagree with each other on many things but that later on their disagreements can bring them a 'happy medium' that then makes them the perfect partners.

I don't know if you can see what I'm getting at but basically you need something that connects your characters more than just their present situation. I think you have great profiles for the individual people and to create that chemistry you just need to create similarities, history and/or a common goal.