Thursday, January 18, 2024

Poll results and characters.

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.

---

Daily Diary, Day 1234:

How do I choose which characters get to be in a story?

Today in this post I wanted to look at the poll results regarding people’s favorite characters, and then discuss briefly what often goes into my decision about using already established characters or introducing new ones.

In the polls on people’s favorite characters from the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, there were some clear winners. From the boardinghouse, Kathleen, the servant, and the Minnie and Millie Moffet, the two elderly dressmakers, were definitely the front runners. However, I was pleased to see Laura Dawson, Nate’s sister, with a respectable showing, given that if I go by reviews, she is a character that readers either seem to love or hate.

I suspect that the choice of Patrick McGee and Seth Timmons, for favorite non-boardinghouse characters, are probably related to the choice of Kathleen and Laura, since Patrick is Kathleen’s beau, and Seth is Laura’s beau. I am going to take this as an indication that people are interested in furthering the story of the romance between these couples.

In polls on the non-boardinghouse characters, I was also pleased to see Mr. Wong get a good number of votes. Like the Minnie and Millie Moffet, he already has a short story that features him, as well as showing up in longer works. However, I wouldn’t mind coming up with another short story for both Mr. Wong and the Misses Moffet (not necessarily in the same story--smile.)

The truth is, at this point in the series, I have an abundance of characters to choose from when I think about who is going to show up in the next book. Many of them like Beatrice O’Rourke and Mrs. Stein went from minor supporting roles to getting to be major characters with their own stories, and some of them, like Biddy O’Malley and her mother, started out with very minor parts that were supposed to be confined to one story, but had become so compelling in my mind that I reintroduced them into subsequent books.  

The question then becomes, since I have so many choices, what does determine whether or not to give a former character a role in a new book? One of the factors is whether or not much of the activity in the story is going to center around the boardinghouse. If so, it is natural that at least the servants in the household will be part of some of the scenes. In addition, a character’s occupation might be the determining factor. For example, because Laura Dawson’s beau, Patrick McGee, is a policeman, if the police are going to be consulted in the course of solving the mystery, then it would be odd if he didn’t play a role.

In addition, particularly for the novels, I need to consider what new characters I want to introduce, and this might determine which old characters to include if there is some reason this new character might have a connection to a regular supporting character. However, this might also affect what roles I would give these new characters. Will they possibly know a continuing character? How might that effect the fact that this new character will be a victim, villain, or a red herring?  

So, let’s look at the next full-length novel I am going to do and see how some of these factors could come into play, with the caveat that this is all speculation on my part at this point in the process.

I have definitely decided that the next full-length Victorian San Francisco mystery is going to features a woman or women who are artists who provides illustrations for books, newspapers, magazines, etc. Consequently, I am pretty sure that Nell Granger, a woman based on a real San Francisco illustrator, and a character I introduced first in a very minor part in Deadly Proof, will be in this next book. In addition, since in Deadly Proof the mystery focused on the printing trades, it will make sense to reintroduce some other characters from that novel. For example, in that book I had Nell Granger living with another minor character, Iris Balor, who is the forewoman in the printing company where Laura Dawson works as a type setter, so it would be is natural for Iris will show up in this new story.

And, since Laura is still working as a typesetter for the small printers, a book about someone who provides illustrations for that printer means this is the perfect book for Laura Dawson to play a major role.

And, if Laura is involved, so might her boyfriend, Seth Timmons, who has also worked in the printing trades, and might know some of the people involved. In addition, Seth is currently going to law school and clerking in Nate Dawson’s law office. That means, depending on the plot, particularly if there is some element where Nell is in legal trouble, Seth and Nate might be become directly involved. 

And, if there are enough scenes in the law office, then I might decide to look into what Nate’s uncle Frank has been up to. Nate keeps thinking his uncle is going to retire, which would give him more responsibility (and more money), so maybe this should be the book where he finally retires!  This thought prompted another thought, which is that some point I actually hinted that this Uncle Frank might be wooing the widow of the victim in my very first novel, Maids of Misfortune. So what if his retirement is because he plans to marry that beautiful widow, Mrs. Amelia Voss, this would bring her son, Jeremy into the picture. And lo and behold, just by coincidence, Jeremy Voss, if any of you remember, was a very talented painter, and therefore might legitimately also know Nell Granger!

See how this works? One character leads to another. So, suddenly I have a chance to give Laura and Seth major roles (both favorite characters according to the poll), give several characters who have had minor parts, major ones (Nell Granger, Iris Balor, Uncle Frank) and resurrect characters that had major roles in a much earlier story (Amelia and Jeremy Voss.)

If I sound gleeful, that’s because I am. Just in writing this post my ideas have started to pop, and I don’t even have a whisper of a plot yet. Now, I just have to finish the science fiction book I am working on in order to start my research and find a plot where I might realistically use these characters, as well as create new ones!

Meanwhile, I will leave you with a lovely rose bush from my walk yesterday

If you enjoy my daily posts and would like to subscribe for free or become a patron (where you will get the pleasure of giving me the resources to spend more time writing and less time marketing) click the little button below. In addition, please do click on the heart so I know you’ve been to visit and/or share with your friends, and I always welcome comments! Thanks!