SHALLA CHATS with Robert Gregory Browne

“Crafting Characters that Jump Off the Page”

by Shalla DeGuzman

First of all, who ’s Robert?

Robert Gregory Browne began his career by selling a two-part mystery story, "Nothing but the Cold Wind," to EasyRiders magazine. Shortly thereafter, he won the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and found himself in the Hollywood fast lane.

His first screenplay, Low Tide, was picked up for production by Showtime only to be shelved after two years of “development hell.” On staff with Fox Kids/Saban, he wrote the hit animated TV show Diabolik and Spider-man Unlimited, then turned his back on the business to return to writing fiction. The result is the February release of Kiss Her Goodbye, the first of a two-book deal with St. Martin's Press.
Robert recently signed another two-book deal with SMP.

New York Times bestseller Gayle Lynds (The Last Spymaster) calls Kiss Her Goodbye, "A first-rate novel that will glue you to your chair until you finish the last satisfying word." And Tess Gerritsen ( The Mephisto Club) declares it "A smashing good read."

Shalla: Hello Robert. Congratulations on the success of Kiss Her Goodbye--looks like a winner--and you winning prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, what a great accomplishment.

Robert: Thanks, Shalla. It's been awhile since I won the Nicholl, but it certainly changed my life. For about a month after I won, my phone rang off the hook – agents and producers asking to read my script. After years of dreaming about it, I had finally arrived. It was an amazing experience.

Shalla: Please tell us about your two-part mystery story, "Nothing but the Cold Wind," that was published in EasyRiders magazine. How long have you been writing short fiction before it got published?

Robert: That story was actually one of the first short stories I'd ever completed. I'd had a few false starts and was mostly concentrating on music at the time – my second love – but suddenly had this idea for a “biker” mystery pop into my head and I figured, what the hell, I'll see if I can sell it to EasyRiders.

I sent them a draft and they turned it down. Then, a couple of years later, I decided to trim it and send it to them again. This time they went for it. Published it as a two-parter.

Shalla: Do you still write short fiction? Are there differences in crafting characters for short stories and characters for novels? What about screenplays?

Robert: I don't really consider myself a short story guy. But I recently wrote one called BOTTOM DEAL, which will be part of the KILLER YEAR anthology being published by St. Martin's Press in 2008.

Killer Year is a group of debut mystery/thriller writers who banded together to help promote each other. One of our ideas was to pitch the anthology to publishers and fortunately it worked. The anthology is being edited by Lee Child and features a story from each of the Killer Year crew, plus introductions and other material from several prominent thriller writers.

As for the differences in crafting characters, I don't really think there are any. Obviously, you have more room in a novel than you do a short story, and in screenplays you can only rely on dialog and visuals to convey character, but the creation of the characters themselves is essentially the same in all three.

Shalla: Should writers bring their characters to life on the page as vividly as fine actors do on the stage or screen?

Robert: Hopefully even more so. In a novel, the writer has so much more detail he can use. Writing itself is actually very much like method acting – at least when it comes to characterization – so the analogy is a good one.

On the page, however, you don't have the benefit of those fine actors to give the characters life. You have to do it all with words and it's vitally important that you create characters that your audience can identify with and root for.

Shalla: What are the best ways to communicate the behavior, motivation, and psychology of every fictional character we write?

Robert: Through dialog, of course, both spoken and interior, and through how the character acts and reacts. Characters are defined by what they do and say and, in the case of novels, think.

Shalla: Any tips on writing natural-sounding dialog? How can we convey dialect? Accents?

Robert: Simply be observant, keeps your ears open and use what you hear every day. But remember, fictional dialog is merely an approximation of the real thing. Fictional dialog is like verbal ping-pong, with a narrow focus that can't afford to stray from a specific goal.

As for dialect and/or accents, it's smart to avoid trying to specifically duplicate such dialog and instead, look at sentence structure. Speakers from cultures that are foreign to our own often have unique ways of constructing sentences and often use words or expressions that are unfamiliar to us. You want to suggest dialect or an accent without hammering us over the head with it. For example, one character might say, “Are you going to the store?” while another might say, “You're going to the store, yes?”

Shalla: Can there be too many characters? How many characters would be too much for a short story? For a novel? For a screenplay?

Robert: You can safely assume that you have too many characters if your readers become confused. You never want to confuse your readers or you'll lose them.

Clarity is key. If you can write a short story with twenty characters without confusing your reader or short-changing the characterization, then more power to you. But the more characters you have, the less “screen” time they'll have, so they might wind up being one dimensional.

Shalla: Lastly, any other tips for creating characters you’d like to add?

Robert: I have very specific thoughts about this that are too involved to go into here. I'd urge anyone who's interested in characterization to check out the article CREATING CHARACTERS THAT JUMP OFF THE PAGE on my website.

In that article I discuss my Attitude-Emotion-Goal-Action approach to characterization and, hopefully, you'll find it of value.

Shalla: Thanks so much Robert. We’ll surely check out Kiss Her Goodbye and your future titles.

For more on Robert Gregory Browne, please visit http://www.robertgregorybrowne.com

Robert: Thanks for having me, Shalla.

Shalla DeGuzman's short stories have appeared in Poetic Diversity, the Mosaic Literary Journal, the Mad Hatters Review, etc.; her articles in The Scriptorium and L.A. Freepress; her skits at the Stella Adler Theatre. Her flash fiction The Fish In My Bed recently won the FISH AND PLANE Competition and is featured in Issue 6 of Mad Hatters Review. Shalla, a former writer and producer of a health and fitness cable show, is currently writing a novel. She is President of The ShallaDeGuzman Writers Group where she interviews literary agents, publishers, editors, etc. News! Shalla has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize. SHALLA Magazine, which features short stories and excerpts from top, award-winning writers, is here! For more on Shalla: www.shalladeguzman.com