Rachel Jameson

The Athena Effect

How do your characters come to you? Are they fully formed? Or do you see only a glimmer of them, and slowly flesh them out later? A bit of both?

I have to say, for the most part, my characters tend to jump out of my head fully formed just like Athena leapt from Zeus’ head. I call this the Athena Effect.

Recently, I had a story wriggle into my brain. Parts of it exploded like usual, but for some reason, all I can see of the Hero is that he’s tall, stoic, and thinnish. My Heroine is a true Athena, coming to me in an instant with every feeling, thought, hope and dream she involves.

How does this work for your stories? Do you see the entire story? Is it fully formed instantly in your head and all you have to do is let your fingers type what you see? Or do you see a small flash of something, but you’re not sure what?

I tend to get big scenes in complete movie form in my head. However, here’s where I get screwed. I don’t see what connects those scenes very well. So my hardest task as a writer is getting those big fully formed scenes to connect and to connect well.

How does it work for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

19 Responses to “The Athena Effect”

1. By Sabrina Darby on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   It really depends for me. Because sometimes my stories start with an idea, a theoretical concept, and I think, what kind of people would be involved in that? So, more like unlocking a puzzle.

   Sometimes though, I do get those head explosions. Speaking of which, how did Zeus’ head ever close back together? Did he go around after that with a hole in the head? Maybe *that’s* where that expression comes from.

2. By Jinxie_G on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   For me, it depends on the character and the story. Some jump out fully formed while others I sit and wait on to see what they’re going to do. I usually know the beginning of the story and the desired end, but rarely do I see the middle until I write it. Lately, I’ve been getting only small snippets of stories and have no clue as to what’s happening, where they’re supposed to go, or how they’ll end. And it’s driving me insane.

3. By Kim Knox on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   I often get the one of the characters in a flash, somewhere near where the story will start. Usually it’s the heroine in a setting, ie, her in a bar full of mythical creatures, at a war memorial with a demon, on a shuttle heading to an ice planet to fulfil a rather special contract.

   Then I write that scene and let it simmer for a while as I try to work out who the hell this person is and where the hero(es) slot in

   I love the term ‘The Athena Effect’, btw. I wish full characters would spring at me, lol, though they never do…
   And I imagine Zeus with a Terminator T1000 effect – his forehead shlooping back together in a liquid rush. *grin*

4. By Emma Petersen on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   Usually a fragment of something, a song lyric, melody, line in a movie, etc will get the gears turning in my mind. For example, I was listening to Jamey Johnson earlier and his voice and the lyrics of the song made me think of his history, what the person he was singing was like. So a snowflake formed in my head so I went to my CP and told her about it and the the idea grew and grew until I had an outline.

   My stories don’t always start like that but they sometimes do. Interesting post, it made me think about how my stories come about.

5. By Kat Mancos on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   My characters come to me in various states of completion. Sometimes they are Athenian, other times they are snapshots of who they can be by the end of the story. Sometimes I know them when I do my character sketches and interview, and they end up nothing like that by the end of the book, or I run off on tangets with them as I write.

   I do love the name of this phenomena – The Athena Effect is a killer title for a book. If you don’t want it, I swear I’m going to steal if from you – if it’s not already taken that is.

   -Kat

6. By Hailey Edwards on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   I love the phrase “Athena effect.” I need to remember that one. lol

   Everything I have ever written started with a character, always male, fully formed, popping into my mind one day. I know who he is, his flaws/strengths, and his ultimate personal goal.

   The story? Not so much. I struggle to figure out what the heck these people running around my head want to do. Exterior conflict makes me stop and think -a lot. Character relationships are much easier to write for me.

   If I take too long, someone else is bound to stop by and join the party. It’s why I love reading/writing series. The characters are so real, so vivid. It’s only a matter of sorting out what kind of trouble they plan to get into this time. lol

7. By Jeannie Lin on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   Though I don’t like to use the analogy of characters telling you things — my characters don’t start out fully formed at all. They’re mysterious to me. I think about them a lot before I ever start writing and in the process of writing, I usually find out a little bit more every step of the way.

8. By Jeannie Lin on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   Oh! I wanted to add, I like the term “Athena effect”.

9. By Cambria Dillon on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

   What happens to you happens to me EVERY TIME. My heroine is completely formed down to the kind of underwear she likes. The male…meh, not so much. I find that I have to really work (i.e.: completing character charts, etc…) to know who my hero is and what his motivation is all about. I also get those movie reels of entire scenes and must work on making the transitions flow from scene to scene. I was a theatre geek in high school and college so what helps me is acting out the next logical scene to see what works or doesn’t. My dog usually looks at me kind of funny, but it it’s worked so far!

10. By April Morelock on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    I like that… the Athena Effect. I wish it were that easy for me. I usually only see the scenes … I very rarely actually know what the person is seeing or feeling. I have to empathize and figure out, “Why is my character acting like that? What in his or her past are making them do that?”

    Then I have to backwards engineer the people. Sometimes I hear and see them but it’s more a feeling that my “guesses” are on track. It’s like flinging yourself out of a plane without knowing if you have a parachute or not. You just hope it sticks and makes sense.

    I’m getting used to the feeling but I’m still always surprised when I land safely back on earth unharmed, with fully formed characters and a story that I can’t believe I just wrote and that it makes sense.

    Just color me blind and very un-Zeus-like.

    April

11. By Victoria Janssen on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    I love that name, “the Athena effect.”

12. By Heather on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    The Athena affect, I love that! Sometimes my characters come to me like that, sometimes they reveal themselves slowly. Same with their stories. It doesn’t feel so much like I’m crafting their story as it does that they’re telling me their story.

13. By bettie on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    The Athena Effect–great term, and a thought-provoking post.

    My characters don’t come to me fully formed. With third person, I see a scene and have to figure out who the characters in the scene are and what’s going on. With first person I get a sense of a story seen from one perspective, and then have to figure out what kind of person would tell this story, and how they’d tell it. Some stories leap out more or less fully formed, but the characters are always work.

14. By cassandra vert on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    I start with the story I want to tell. Then I work backward to figure out what kind of character would take that kind of journey–what does s/he know and what does s/he need to learn? Then I use that profile to figure out what the love interest brings–what does the love interest need to bring to help the journey and what will the love interest learn from the other person? Then I create the supporting characters to bring completely different qualities, from paternal wisdom to comic relief.

    It’s like creating a design scheme on a color wheel. You pick your story color, say blue, a traditional story. Then pick the character colors. You want these three to harmonize but also allow for conflict: blue-red-yellow is too much harmony. Blue-green-purple is better. You’ve added a little eccentricity with the secondary colors. This could describe the story of two committed singles who fall for each other.

    You could also go green-blue-purple. Now you’ve got a less traditional story (green) with one very traditional character (blue), maybe someone who needs to let go a little, and one less traditional character (purple).

    Then you pick your accent colors, for example fuchsia, chartreuse, yellow–two tertiaries and a primary. That makes a nice balance. You’ve got some grounded characters, some that are a little more adventurous, and some that are best in small doses.

    I build characters important feature by important feature, but very early in the process, they come to life in my mind. I still finish the character profile, though, because after a point there is too much to remember without one.

15. By Cate Hart on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    I love the term “Athena Effect.” I think I tend to have both. Sometimes, one character springs out fully formed, and I know exactly how they are. But I think that sometimes as I write the story and scenes change, then the character becomes more well-rounded as they expose to me more inner things. It’s alomst like what pops out of my head is the movie poster or stand-up for the character. It’s larger than life, but still only two-dimensional. Sometimes, I have an idea. Like for my MS Broken, I knew I wanted to create a paranormal world with angels. I didn’t have a particular idea in my head of who Caleb was, and especially not Sarah. On the other hand, my current WIP, Conjured, I had the name first and his whole backstory pretty much from the get go. But I always start with the characters first.

16. By Rachel Jameson on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    Hi!
    Wow! Thank you SO much for all the wonderful comments! It’s just great to see how all of you write. So similar and yet so different!
    And, I’m glad you like my Athena Effect. It erm.. came at me in an instant, much like the lady herself, har har.
    Thank you again! I’m glad so many of you got something out of this post!
    -Rachel

17. By Ms Menozzi on Dec 17, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    For me, they’re usually pretty fully-formed but they take a little more coherent shape over time. Rarely do they spring utterly complete from the depths and recesses of my creative lizard brain, though.

    Once in a while, however, they do emerge with urgency, and they drag me along to tell me their story. That’s what I like best.

18. By Kinsey on Dec 17, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    Rachel: Great post, great name for the phenomenon. My H & H usually grow in my head, but they always come before the story. I’ll have an idea about a specific person with a specific problem or situation and it builds from there. but I carry the characters around in my mind long before I give them a whole story. That’s what always takes so long. I knew I had this remarkable girl who threw herself between an enraged werewolf and a little boy she loved so much she’d die for him long before I knew what her whole story would be. I can force myself to make up a story, but I can’t force the characters, for some reason. That has to be more organic.

19. By Rachel Jameson on Dec 17, 2009 | Reply | Edit

    Thanks for stopping by, Kinsey and Ms Menozzi! I appreciate it!
    I hope they’re not dragging you along by your hair, Menozzi!

    Kinsey – I find I tend to have the same thing about half the time. Character before much of the story. The other half is the story, and sort of glimmers of the chars. I try not to force anything, which means that sometimes it takes AGES! When I force things though, its not the story that needs to be told.

    Thanks again, gals!