Move Me, Baby...How to Make your Characters Move Like Pros(e)!

Author Article by Alicia Sparks

He walked down the hall. He stalked down the hall. He moved, his knuckles dragging against the floor. His brazen eyes cut through her as he stalked toward her, his breath echoing in the hallway, forcing her back into the bedroom. Ahhhh!!! It's enough to make an author want to scream! What is it? Character movement. Can't the characters just sit there and talk to each other? Why do they have to move? And when they do decide to move, how am I supposed to capture a very human, very three-dimensional concept with nothing more than words?

Uh.... This is where I usually bang my head against the computer desk and decide I'll "fix" everything in the edits. But I've found a way to solve this problem without so much as a concussion. How do I do this? Come here and I'll tell you. No, closer. A little closer. Soap Operas. Shhh...It's a secret. Don't tell anyone. Yes, I said soap operas.

Every time I watch Ryan Lavery sweep another woman off her feet, I study his movements, the way his six-pack abs quiver when Greenlee or Gillian or Kendall runs her skinny fingers along his flesh. I study the way his eyes sparkle with mischief when he's got a new scheme and the way his smile turns up at the corners making his boyish good looks become a force to be reckoned with. I watch how he moves, how he reacts, how he leans in close when he wants to say something important. And then I write.

My husband used to ask me why I spent so much time watching soaps and my answer was always "I'm doing research." At the time, I was not a prolific writer. Then, I was studying character development, thinking to myself, how can I find a guy like Tod Manning who is a little bit nuts and a whole lotta bad boy? When I realized what it took to put a character like that together, I thought I had this whole writing thing licked. Then I realized that characters do not sit still. They move, they dance, they make love. And they do so in a way that keeps us tuned in. So, it was back to the drawing board, back to the research vehicle, back to watching soaps.

I love soap operas and have great respect for the writers. It takes a lot to keep us tuned in every day and make us feel as if these characters are real. We, as the audience, come to care about certain characters, mourning their losses, celebrating their triumphs. And this is what I want my audience to do with my characters. So, I study the soaps. I wonder what a person's reaction would be if he or she found out that the child that was believed to have died at birth was actually the child the family next door raised as their own. I can't find that in my every day life. But I can find it on TV. I see reactions that are genuine, those that seem forced and movements that are sexy beyond belief.

What is the lesson in all of this? Repeat after me. Soap operas are good. I know, sometimes the plots seem as if they have been rehashed a thousand times. How many times can a person die anyway? But think about what we do as romance writers. We are rehashing the same plot over and over. Boy meets girl, there's some conflict in there, maybe a little more conflict and then happily ever after. What grabs the readers, what takes them by the collar and forces them to take notice, what makes them sweat in their...shoes...is the way the characters move and the way they move us.

Next time the keyboard threatens to take control of your life and your characters are stuck moving like Mr. Roboto, take some time off, put your feet up, grab some bon-bons and watch the masters at work. Trust me, you will have so much more respect for what they're doing when you realize how much it helps you with your own writing. Of course, there is the added benefit of watching Sonny Corinthos transform his mobster face into the dimple paradise it becomes when he smiles. And the benefit of watching Tad the Cad try to two-step around the tens of women throwing themselves at him. But most importantly, it is the reaction from your fans when your characters become near and dear to their hearts, as much a part of them as they are a part of you.

I would write more, but One Life to Live is on and this new character, John (you know, Caleb from Port Charles) is moving. I HAVE to go watch that!

Copyright © 2004 by Alicia Sparks

Alicia's first novel, Better Than Ice Cream, an erotic romantic comedy, is available now from Ellora's Cave. She welcomes email from her fans and other writers alicia@southern-erotica.com.

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