Characters With Millie Florence

By M. C. Oliver

You should definitely check out Millie Florence’s website: millieflorence.com and her books Honey Butter, Beyond Mulberry Glen, The Balter of Ashton Harper, and her most recent book The Mage Pocket.

Millie Florence published her first book Honey Butter when she was thirteen years old and, if I’m being honest, it doesn’t feel like it was written by a thirteen-year-old.

Well, okay, it kind of does. However, the descriptions are so vivid, and the word choice is so amazing and the arguments between siblings feel so real and relatable. It’s incredible and I love Honey Butter so, so much.

Anyway, onto her talk about characters:

Florence mentioned something about readers and characters that really stood out to me. She said that readers - especially little kids - ask who your favorite character is. Not what you thought of the plot, unless you're a writer. 

This means that readers are clearly impacted by characters. She went on to explain that this is even more relevant when you see videos like Jack Sparrow being Iconic for 15 min straight. So characters matter. 

She also said "Characters are set and should not be changed." She went on to emphasize the importance of "bending the plot to the character, not the character to the plot." I loved that advice but it never occurred to me in truth until the cosplay competition at my writers conference. (For context, this is where all the writers dress up as characters from their project and act as their character. Although many people slip in and out of character.) 

I was explaining to a friend about one of my main characters named Princess Sommer. I wanted Sommer to have some likable traits but the 2nd draft felt wonky and strange. 

Upon starting on my third rewrite of my story, I knew something had to change. Thanks to previous critique, I knew that the problem didn't lie in the plot but in the characters. 

After some moments of thinking about how to explain Sommer, I begrudgingly admitted she was a stuck up princess. That was something I just couldn't change. So I chose to bend the plot to the character. What will make her realize she needs to change? One character doesn't like her just because she's popular. Another (a 12 year-old-boy) complains about her and another avoids her as much as one can stuck in one house together. 

She mainly bases her identity in how many people follow her, not in God.

How do I cause her to put her identity in God? Take away the numbers. Take away the fake friends. 

When I began the rewrite, Sommer appeared to come alive. She even grew/appeared a little more extroverted, which is a little disappointing because I wanted her to be introverted but I'm going to leave her be on that regard. I'm been fighting her for the past two months and I'm finally willing to concede. It's the most alive I’ve ever seen her and her twin sister. 

Florence did suggest that "Extreme is easy. Nuance is hard." So when you're starting off in the beginner's stage of duel POV, you should make foil characters. 

I had sort of done that with Sommer and Krystall before, but I didn't make them complete opposites. But when I made them even more opposites, they seemed to pop on the page. 

However, I had a question about foil characters. How do you write foil characters from the same background? When I asked one of my instructors this, he said that it's actually more powerful to do it this way. This causes their personalities to really shine just like siblings. Of course, they are siblings but the advice helped me and encouraged me that I was on the right track. 

However, Carolyn Leiloglou warns against making characters too similar to you. It can harm you and the readers and even cause you to justify some of the actions you took. 

She also warns against making characters similar to the people you know. Apparently Madeleine L'angle did this with one of her characters and based it off her son. When asked about it, she had no apology for doing so and her daughters later wrote that it caused some major family issues and tensions after he was put in the spotlight. 

She strongly recommends making characters separate identities from people in real life as well as other characters. 

Florence goes on to say that the whole story is the character exploring the theme and that everything must link back to their beliefs about themselves and their world around them up to the way they do their hair. That's the only reason those things ever matter. 

Characters also shine the most when they act on this belief. A girl who doesn't believe she can live up to everyone's high expectations for her will probably let her hair get all messy and talk rather casually. 

However, you want them to be uniquely predictable. 

This is just what I needed. I've been struggling with my characters so much and I hope it helps someone with their own characters.

Thank you for reading!