Discarded Characters!

I often wonder what happens to those brilliant characters writers create that don’t quite fit into the novel they are writing.

When I was working on Lucy Springer Gets Even, I had an amazing time because so many of the characters could be drawn from real life – mothers in the school pick-up line, women at the gym, men and women I’d worked with. In fact, many of the characters, while essentially being made up, had very similar personality traits to people I’d met before. (Hence putting to bed the long running rumor about authors – though I can only speak for myself – yes, we do eavesdrop on conversations and then write about you – but generally speaking, vital statistics are changed to save us from totally plagiarizing our friends’ lives and getting sued. In truth, fictional characters are much larger than life. They may share elements of people we know but these are then exaggerated ten or twenty-fold to make for truly interesting and memorable characters.

These characters are like my children. I know what they look like, their daily habits and foibles, and am on first-name terms with their friends and enemies. I’ve tapped into their hopes and fears. In short, I know them better than they know themselves. And their greatest fear? Being cut from my manuscript, but sometimes it just happens.

There are characters I have written, who in the initial few chapters command significant page presence, only to find that a further couple of chapters along, they really aren’t that important after all and can be done away with or at least their attendance reduced to a fleeting bit part.

Maybe it’s because the main character or plot line has developed along a different path and that particular best friend, lover, or pregnant sister, is no longer necessary to keep the story moving forward.  They are superfluous. But it’s still heartbreaking for me to relinquish them, especially after I have spent weeks and possibly months, molding their personalities, creating their identities and breathing life into them. (Am I being overly dramatic? Maybe, but I have spent upwards of 100 hours on these characters and feel like I really know them (yes, perhaps I need to get out more!).

Sometimes it turns out that a character I love is just too similar to the main character. In the past, I’ve written about people who share the same mannerisms and speech inflections without realizing it until I have re-read the entire manuscript. That’s when the hard decisions have to be made and characters cut or drastically altered.

So what happens after those characters are discarded? From my point of view, I can tell you they rarely get used again. Characters that were abandoned in Lucy Springer Gets Even sadly have not made it into subsequent manuscripts – even though they were interesting and entertaining personalities to write at the time. Maybe it’s because I’ve moved on, or the characters in my new manuscript have different friends…whatever it is, these rejected characters rarely see the light of day again.

It’s sad. A writer invests so much time creating compelling characters and when they don’t work out, it’s almost like a death in the family. ‘Where did Billy go?’

‘Ah Billy!’ you say, nodding your head sadly. ‘Billy didn’t fit in anymore.’

End of story. Sadly, Billy was written for a particular plotline. If he didn’t fit in there, it’s unlikely he’ll find a home elsewhere.

About Lisa

Favourite Food:               Fresh seafood like lobster, snapper, prawns and mud crab

Favourite Drink:               A crisp Petaluma Riesling

Author I like to read:       Marian Keyes

Favourite Books:             Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway series and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

If I was stranded on a desert island name the following three items I would take with me:

CD:                                 Glee!

Person:                           Oh…controversial so I’ll say Jeff Probst (He’s hosted Survivor for 20 seasons so he’d know every survival trick… he’d also have some great stories.

Book:                              Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe. I haven’t read it, but being stranded on a desert island, it would no doubt come in handy.

Lisa Heidke lives in Sydney, Australia, and was a feature writer on several national magazines including Practical Parenting and Bride To Be, before leaving to pursue novel writing full-time.

Lucy Springer Gets Even (Allen & Unwin, 2009) is her first novel and was quickly followed by What Kate Did Next (2010). Her third novel, tentatively titled Claudia Changes Course, will be published early 2011.

Follow Lisa on Twitter @lisaheidke and visit her website at www.lisaheidke.com. Lisa’s books can be purchased at www.allenandunwin.com and www.amazon.com

Meet Louise Thurtell! She’s the publisher for the Arena imprint at Allen and Unwin… and that makes her my publisher!

I’m really excited that she’s here today, talking about her initiative Friday Pitch and also a few things that make her… her! Food, wine and so on!

I can remember my first phone with Louise, so very well. (My guess is that most authors can remember the first contact made by their publishing house, word for word… and that the publisher that made the call has no recollection of it!)

‘Hi, it’s Louise…’

Pause and all the while, I was thinking, ‘who the hell is Louise?’

‘From Allen and Unwin.’

I almost dropped the phone, stuttered, ‘Hi,’ and then pretended that I was very professional and of course I was expecting her phone call. I answered her questions matter-of-fact manner and without any emotion. All the while, my brain was screaming: ‘You’re talking to Louise Thurtell! You’re talking to Louise Thurtell!’

Louise told me that after the first call that she thought I was the most unexcited author she had dealt with – that was until she got to know me a bit more!

Louise is an amazing woman. Not only is she a well known and respected publisher, she won a fellowship to study publishing in New York (where, amongst other things, she got to observe the editorial process for The Lincoln Lawyer by my favourite author, Michael Connelly) AND she has a Science-Law degree!

After a visit to the A&U offices, I’m in awe of how she deals with her job and I understand why there is such a wait for publishing houses to get back to their authors, let alone the ‘to-be’ authors. The meetings, the deadlines, the editing and so on – the phone never seems to stop. It’s a busy and full-on business. One that I’m excited to be involved with and even more privileged and thankful to be involved in, with Louise.

Hi there,

I’ve worked in publishing for over 20 years and STILL get excited about coming to work. It’s been the perfect career choice for me despite my tertiary education being totally unrelated.

Having worked at a couple of different publishers over the years, then freelanced, I spent three months in New York on a Beatrice Davis Fellowship in 2005 where I got to spend time at several different US publishing companies. This experience really focused my mind on what I wanted to do in publishing (commercial fiction) and where I wanted to work (Allen & Unwin) when I returned to Australia. I’ve been at Allen & Unwin for nearly five years now and it’s turned out to be every bit as wonderful as I’d hoped it would be. When I started I was only doing commercial fiction, but I’m now commissioning commercial non-fiction as well, which has given me a new challenge that I’m enjoying enormously.

Friday Pitch, which is now Allen & Unwin’s company-wide unsolicited submission system, is the thing I’m proudest to have initiated in my career. The idea for it came from years of freelancing while my children were small, during which I balanced all the tight-deadline work I did for publishers by working directly with authors who were refining their manuscripts for submission to publishers and literary agents. It was during this period that I realised how hard it was for authors to get either publishers or agents to look at their work.

As someone who’s been in publishing for a long time, I know just how hard it is for publishers and agents to keep up with all the reading of both unsolicited and agented manuscripts, despite it being an integral part of our job. The guilt I feel about taking a long time to get around to reading a manuscript is huge because I’m very aware of how much effort many people put into producing their manuscript. With email technology it seemed a good idea to invite authors to email a synopsis and the first chapter of their manuscript so I could read it on screen with a set time limit in order for me to let the author know quickly whether or not I was interested in their work. I’ve bought several highly successful Friday Pitch submissions, including Fleur’s wonderful Red Dust. The major challenge with Friday Pitch is finding time to read the manuscripts I request, especially now that I have an established list.

Anyway, enough of work. I’ve got three wonderful children – Jack, who’s 14, Rory, who’s 10, and Ella, who’s 9. Rory and I are the sports nuts of the family, both playing (back in the day for me, currently for Rory) and watching lots of different types of sports. I love rugby and cricket in particular, and spend way too much time watching both on tele. I’ve also got into (watching) soccer and AFL in the last few years.

An ideal weekend would be spent reading books between covers (cf manuscripts, which I prefer to keep at work), watching Rory play soccer or cricket, hanging out with Ella at the local park or beach, and chatting with Jack. I love film but it’s mostly DVDs these days, though Jack and I went to Rocket Science last weekend. When I don’t have to be in Sydney on the weekends, I like heading down to the south coast of NSW.

At the moment, I’m loving Masterchef (Marion’s my fave, Justine was in the last series), Modern Family, rugby internationals (I love how Robbie Deans is giving young up and coming players a go, though I miss George Smith), the Football/Soccer World Cup (when ARE they going to introduce video technology?)

My favourite books of all time (that I haven’t published) are: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brother of the More Famous Jack, The Road, The Poisonwood Bible, Love in a Cold Climate, Pursuit of Love, Cloudstreet, The Broken Shore, Frangipani, The Shipping News, Atonement, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda and The Secret River.

There endeth my first blog.

Jodi answered my first phone call to Queensland Writers Centre. From that moment I was hooked on their generosity, willingness to help and love of words.

Since then, I’ve made a few phone calls and everyone I speak to exactly the same – as helpful as possible and just… lovely to deal with!

An organisation like QW, is so important to people like me. As well as being able to help people in Queensland, the online courses they run are necessary for interstate people, who can’t get to them. The courses are exemplarity and QWC lead the way with some of the MS programs, working with many well known Australian publishers.

Jodi is the WQ editor – the monthly magazine that is filled to the brim with author contributions, advice, information and every thing that you need to know, about writing for that month.

From QWC website: ”Jodi’s project management skills and problem solving abilities have been crucial in the implementation of the new-look AWMonline website. Having recently taken the reins as Editor of WQ. Her vision is behind the luscious redesign of QWC’s monthly magazine, WQ. She has BA(Hons) in English from the University of Queensland and holds an ambition to become a book editor.”

She is willing to answer any questions you may have about QWC and what it can do for you, or anything to do with the writing industry, so please leave a comment if you have any questions at all.

Jodi

When I was young, I wanted to be a writer. But then I realised that I preferred reading to writing. This led me to discover the fantastic job of editing and that’s been my goal ever since. (There was a brief six-week period where I wanted to be a forensic pathologist but I blame that on a series of books I was reading at the time.)

At the moment, I’m the editor of Queensland Writers Centre’s monthly magazine, WQ . QWC provides information, services and support for writers and writing in Queensland. The magazine has feature articles that examine issues and topics within the Australian writing industry, as well as competitions and opportunities for writers to get published. My job involves organising each month’s theme, deciding the subject of the articles and then commissioning them, liaising with the designer and printer, generating advertising, proofing, and all the other jobs you need to do to get a magazine into the hands of the reader.

The best thing about my job? I love seeing the finished product – having the mag in my hands and seeing it (hopefully) have come together thematically and be an issue that other people will find informative, interesting, and engaging. That lasts about 10 minutes and then I’ve falling in love with the next issue I’m working on.

My background is short. I did a Bachelor of Arts at The University of Queensland with majors in English and writing. I worked in a bookshop for a bit and volunteered at QWC in my spare time, working on the monthly magazine and helping with the 2009/10 print edition of The Australian Writer’s Marketplace (www.awmonline.com.au). Volunteering at QWC led to my current position; I was in the right place at the right time. I feel very fortunate that I was given the chance to play and create a whole magazine, especially one that explores a topic I love and feel so passionate about.

I didn’t have a lot of experience when I started, so I had a pretty steep learning curve in my first year. While I had been working part-time on the magazine, doing various bits and pieces, suddenly having the whole job to do was intense. But nothing beats learning on the job (and making a few mistakes along the way). I love my job at QWC. I work with fantastic people and it feels great to be a part of the writing community. And I get to meet, talk with, and help writers. I first met Fleur when she rang up the centre. She’d heard about us through another writer and wanted to learn more about what we do. I think the writing community is one of the nicest communities around. Writing might still be an activity that you do on your own, but when you’re a part of a network that supports you and shares the highs and lows, it makes the journey that much easier.

I’d really like to work on a commercial magazine one day, or cut my teeth editing a book. I love food so to work on a cookbook or a collection of food writing would be wonderful.

I love reading biographies about editors and the writers they have worked with and the books they have worked on. I know the industry they may have worked in will be different to the one I’m entering, but the writer/editor relation is still such an important one to develop and nurture that I don’t think editors will be cut out of the publishing industry anytime soon. The future of publishing may be uncertain, but I know I’ll always find a place there somewhere.

Kylie Ladd is an inspirational, amazing woman – in fact, I’m not sure I know anyone with as many letters behind their surname , as she has!

Kylie is another of my Allen and Unwin friends – she had her first fiction novel, After the Fall published by them in 2009, so along with Lisa Heidke and I, Kylie calls us the  ’Allen & Unwinettes!’ It’s lovely to be lumped into a such a supportive and friendly bunch!

For me, writing and being published, is something that has come around, quite unexpectedly. For Kylie, it was just going to be a matter of time. She is a freelance writer whose essays and articles have appeared in The Age, Griffith Review, Etchings, O magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Medicine, Sydney’s Child, and Readers Digest, amongst others. In 2006 she co-authored Living with Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias (Michelle Anderson Publishing), and in 2008 co-edited Naked: Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity (Allen and Unwin). She holds a PhD in neuropsychology and continues to work in public and private practice in this field. (See? Very clever!)

Kylie jokes that her husband, Craig, has been going through a midlife crisis… I would have to say, at least a ’sea-change crisis’ as, why else would her family just up and move from Melbourne to Broome for a year?! Lisa and I were quite amazed when Kylie told us what was happening in her life and Lisa said ‘Well, at least Craig is taking you and the kids with him!’

Being in Broome is only going to accentuate her love of reading, swimming, running, the beach, reading, eating, reading, her PC and reading!

Kyle’s novel, After The Fall, is about the aftermath of an affair-  what happens when you meet the love of your life, but they’re married to somebody else and as had rave reviews (check out www.kylieladd.com to read them and be able to follow her on Twitter and Facebook.)

She’s happy to answer any of your questions and will be giving away TWO signed copies of After the Fall. I can say, that I have to agree with all the reviews, I’ve read on Kylie’s site – it is a page tuner, a breath holder, and an un-put-downable book.

So, without further ado, here’s Kylie…!

Kylie -

When I first heard Fleur’s writing back story- after meeting her on Facebook through a mutual friend and fellow Allen and Unwin author, Lisa Heidke- I was astonished. Actually, I was gobsmacked. Red Dust, I was amazed to read, was Fleur’s first novel and was picked up, without an agent, by the first publisher she sent it to. My own journey to publication was a little more circuitous…

I first decided I wanted to be a writer at the age of eight, when in my free time at school I penned a novella (OK, it was about 100 words and it was in texta, not pen, but stay with me) called “Pip and Peppy go to boarding school”.  I’m not sure it was particularly original- I was a huge fan of Enid Blyton’s ‘Malory Towers’ series of boarding school books at the time- but I loved writing it and imagining all the adventures my two doggy protagonists got up to. I probably should admit that as much as I loved writing it, I loved what happened next even more: my adored teacher adored my manuscript, gave me five house points and read it out loud to the class, who were duly encouraged to clap. I kept Pip and Peppy, and I can tell you that it’s really pretty ordinary, but every would-be writer should be gifted with such a reception for their first book. God bless you, Mrs Whitla.

I continued to write stories all through primary and secondary school, switching to terrible tortured poetry at university. By this time my long-held plan to study journalism and become a real writer had been overturned by my parents (you can read the whole terrible story here: http://bit.ly/a5gb2B ), and I found myself studying psychology via a short and ill-fated detour into medicine. Thankfully, I discovered that psychology was also full of stories, full of motive and deliberation and impulse, and came to love it, eventually completing a Bachelor’s, Master’s and then PhD in the area.

But I never stopped wanting to write, and to write something other than academic papers or grant applications. A year after I finished my PhD, my husband was relocated to Edinburgh with his work, and I happily threw in my own job and our life in Melbourne to go with him. Edinburgh will always be incredibly dear to me: it was where I had my first child and wrote my first novel. I’d always wanted to write, and suddenly here was my chance: though I’d secured a job at the University of Edinburgh before we left Australia, it took six months for the funding for the position to come through, and while I was waiting, I wrote. That first novel was dreadful- “Pip and Peppy” had greater literary merit- and I think I knew that all along, but it was still an incredibly useful exercise… nine months after we’d arrived in Scotland I had a 100,000 word manuscript, the knowledge that I could do the hard yards of actually sitting and thinking and writing day after day, but more importantly the realisation that that was all I really wanted to do.

I stopped writing to have a baby, wrote a second unpublishable (though slightly better) novel, moved to Canada, had another baby, and eventually- unable to return to psychology in Montreal due to language laws and my French being limited to ‘croissant’ and ‘Yoplait’- began a third novel. During this time I also made my first forays into freelance journalism, which I kept up when we returned to Australia. Over the next five years I was published in The Age, Good Health, Reader’s Digest, SMH, Oprah magazine, Griffith Review, Good Weekend and a slew of parenting magazines and websites- particularly Sydney’s Child, who were incredibly generous with their advice and encouragement. I learnt a lot in those freelance years. I learnt about writing to deadline and to a proscribed length; I learnt about tailoring my work for differing audiences and different editors; I learnt about being edited (the horror!) and eventually how to edit myself. It was all fabulous experience, and I loved the regular publication and pay cheques… but I still wanted to write fiction.

By this time the third novel, which I’d begun in Canada, had been finished, sent out to publishers, roundly rejected and shoved in a drawer with the other two attempts. Undeterred (OK, rather seriously deterred, but unable to give up) I turned to non-fiction, and had two books published: Living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias (arising from my work as a neuropsychologist) in 2006, and Naked: Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity (arising from my innate voyeurism) in 2008. A few months before Naked came out I saw an ad in the Victorian Writer’s Centre newsletter asking for submissions for a literary speed-dating event at the upcoming Emerging Writers Festival. Successful candidates would be allotted ten minutes each with ten different publishers to pitch their work… I hauled out my third manuscript, dusted it off and wrote my application.

Luckily (oh, how grateful I am for this) I was one of the ten selected to participate from around 300 submissions. The session itself was rather intimidating… actually, it was pure, distilled, essence of terror: ten meetings of ten minutes with ten publishers trying to convince them that they should publish- or at least read- your manuscript; almost two solid hours of non-stop pitchpitchpitch. It worked, though. The next day I had emails from five of the ten publishers present asking to see my book. Elated but confused, I called the agent I had only just acquired when Naked was sold, explained the story to her (given my track record, I hadn’t even told her I’d written any fiction) and she swung into action. An agent is a beautiful thing: Pippa (not Pippy, but ooh- how symbolic) read my third novel, suggested ways I could improve it and held my hand through the rewrite, then sent it out to the interested parties, having in the interim explained the situation to each.

Within six months she had an offer from Allen and Unwin. After The Fall was published in 2009, almost exactly ten years to the day I started writing my first novel in Edinburgh in 1999. It’s been a fascinating if somewhat convoluted journey… frustrating and depressing at times (writing is hard and lonely work; rejections suck, and they continue to suck even after you’ve had your fair share), but ultimately incredibly rewarding. Hopefully it’s one I will continue on: after its publication in Australia, After The Fall was picked up by Random House in the US and will be released there in June. My second novel (sadly currently titleless) has just been signed by Allen and Unwin and will come out around this time next year. On the personal side, my family has once again relocated- we’re having a year’s sea change in Broome in the far north of WA, where I’m attempting to write what I hope will be my third published novel, and not just spend every day at Cable Beach. Broome is wonderful. I love the climate and the calmer pace, all the new experiences my children are having here. It’s only a small town, but thankfully we live opposite the wonderful public library… where just three days ago I borrowed the first Malory Towers book for my own 8 year old daughter.  Who knows what journeys it will take her on?