Caring For Awkward Characters – by Guest Author Nik Perring

This week we are delighted to welcome Nik Perring as our guest author at the Edge. Nik is the co-author of Freaks! and the author of Not So Perfect.

For me, Story is all about characters. A story is, in my opinion, what happens to the people in it. They shape it, by their actions and their circumstances and how they react to them. You can’t have a story without characters. 

So, as an extension of that, I think it’s fair to say that you can’t have a good story (however you qualify that) without having a good main character, or ensemble. And how do decide who your characters are going to be? Well, that’s the difficult bit, isn’t it, especially when we don’t find out who they really are until we’ve seen how they’ve reacted to the troubles that are put in front of them in our stories. 

For me, the best characters are the ones we can see a bit of ourselves in. Empathising is important – we have to care, one way or another, about what happens to the people we’re reading about - but what can be equally important is recognising the traits we might wish we didn’t have, or the ones we dislike to see in others. And I’m not really talking about the broad character types – the bullies, the tyrants, the liars – though they can all make for being exceptionally interesting – I’m talking about subtler things. I’m talking about things like insecurity and selfishness, about vulnerability and not quite understanding the world as, it would appear, the rest of the world does. I’m talking about the characters who struggle, who worry, who might be anxious or uncomfortable, or awkward or just plain weird. 

I’m talking about the things that make the characters real, that make them human in the same ways we are, and that’s what makes us care what happens to them. Because, really, that awkwardness, that sense of not quite fitting in – it’s something I think we’ve all felt to some degree at some point in our lives – and that’s what makes us, us. 

But it’s not just about empathy, nor is it only about honesty. It’s so much more than that – it’s about opportunity. As I said earlier, if our characters are interesting and good, then there’s a good chance our stories will be too.

Nik Perring is the co-author of Freaks! published by The Friday Project (HarperCollins) and the author of Not So Perfect (Roast Books). 

He blogs at http://nikperring.com and tweets as @nikperring, and his characters tend to be very awkward and very weird indeed.

10 things an Edge author can't live without ....... by Miriam Halahmy

1.  Chocolate – don’t get me started.

2.   24 hour access to the local police station  The Hayling Island police suddenly started to follow me on Twitter when I posted a blog called  Vulnerable kids, crime and easy money. The comments on Facebook veered from ‘Sort out your greenhouse plants!’ to They must have read Illegal!’

3.  Other authors on the Edge.  So that we don’t actually fall over the Edge,  if you get my meaning.
4.   Readers who can cope.  Please apply by snail mail in triplicate. There is a rigorous physical as part of the selection process.
5.   The Inner Critic  Mine is a tiger ( apt, you might say.) It prowls around the garden watching for the moment when it can pounce on my shoulder, as I sit  in my study, staring hopelessly at my manu and growl, “What a load of rubbish!” Exactly what I DON’T need. However, at other times, my tiger will enter quietly ( probably after a large kill next door) and say, “Redraft that scene and I do LOVE the book.”

Yes we need our Inner Critics – no, we mustn’t let them rule the writing jungle supreme.
6.   Chocolate   Ah ha! I see you don’t know me very well. Of course we have to have 2 points out of 10 devoted to chocolate!
7.   Howlers  My best one ( back to the police again, folks, sorry ) God Cop! My editor delighted in pointing this one out to me, as you can imagine. In Hidden I have two policemen, Good Cop and Bad Cop who turn up and harass Alix and Samir as they try to hide their illegal immigrant.  If you live your writing life on The Edge you’re bound to spill out a great howler from time to time.

So what is it that some of my fellow Edge members can’t live without?? ( I’ll let you know when it’s safe to take off the stab vests.)

8.     The Internet  I know that as writers we're meant to turn the thing off, but honestly I do so much research that the Internet is a truly invaluable resource.  I use Wikipedia, baby naming sites, Google... and I use an online thesaurus and dictionary that stops me making ridiculous mistakes!  Bryony Pearce
9.    Real live teenagers - to talk to about storylines, slang, pacing and believability. Hearing from readers is the best motivation of all, and my own teens and their friends are my best advisers. Keren David
10.  A heart! You need to care about the characters and the stories you write. If you don't care, you'll have nothing to lose and the writing will have no edge! Dave Cousins
11. Inspiration  : What do you mean we can't have eleven? We're Edgy, get over it : Inspiration  Whenever/wherever I find it. I read, watch, write and experience as much as I can. I never know what might spark my next novel idea.  Sara Grant. 
12.  Yeah yeah - we're almost done..... Katie Dale can't live without her laptop.  Paula Rawsthorne can't live without TIME i.e. to let her ideas and plot ferment....can't get much edgier than fermentation, can you? And last ( but not least) Savita Kalhan can't live without books -in fact she can't live without spaces actually lined with books ( imagine trying to get a shower in her house then.)

       We are The Edge authors - this is what we can't live without.  How about you guys???