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Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Learning Your Repertory

My recent search for personal rules and clever bits of advice from the famous writers of the world led to this interesting quotation from Gore Vidal:

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.

Says the man whose most famous books are arguably Burr, Lincoln, and Myra Breckenridge. All title characters based on the same player type, I wonder?

I recorded text books and novels for the blind for the Manitoba Department of Education as a professional narrator for over twenty years. One of the last big novels I got to do was the final instalment of J.K. Rowling’s famous Harry Potter series. I had also done novels two, four and six of the series, and had certainly read all six previous books, so I was familiar with the characters. Towards the end of the last book, in a scene Reality Fiction can only aspire to, Rowling draws back dozens of characters from throughout the series in one giant mob scene for the final battle. And she gives them all dialogue.

I don’t how many different characters I can write, but I know I topped out on voices after thirty. After that, like the man says in the opening quote, you start recycling the same sounds.

I have to admit to being equally intrigued and appalled by Vidal’s statement. I’ve read a lot of his books, and would credit him with many more players than ten. But you’d think he’d know for sure.

Taking that into account with my own penchant to overpopulate my books, I had to wonder … How many players do I have in my repertory? To examine this, I’m going to take a look at the full roster of Contestants for Reality Fictions One and Two, and see who I can group together and why.

Let’s see now … we’re talking eighty characters here!

I worked through the two lists, attempting to group players I see a relationship between, even if my readers might not. As I did this, something about Vidal’s statement became more apparent. People I wouldn’t have linked together off the top of my head ended up in the same list after some deeper thought on the subject. So it’s not so much how you typecast, as how you cast the type, if you’re smart.

Second, I’m not certain how to define some of these groups clearly so as to convey what I think I mean by relating them as a group. So I am definitely learning something about my repertory by performing this exercise. Hence, a very worthwhile undertaking.

I came up with seventeen groups. Higher than Vidal’s ten, lower than Shakespeare’s twenty. But that’s just my overrated opinion of myself. Maybe someone truly studying my writing — go ahead! You’re welcome to! — might decide there were really only five. Maybe as I get older, I’ll decide the cast wasn’t as varied as I thought either.

In order from largest group to smallest, with some attempt at defining the nature of the listing, here’s my eighty Contestants from Reality Fiction as published to date:

Player One — Ten Members: Yer basic good guy — sometimes sort of nerdy, sometimes flawed, sometimes essentially an administrator at heart

Billy Garlock

Bucky Winslow

Kent Wesley

Primary Prefect Reuben Baladis

Sir Edyrn, Son of Nudd

The Cat

Michael the Boat Guy

Indecisive Lad/Boy

Tsig Odomo

Jervis Mendrick

Player Two — Eight Members: Fun monsters -- with a tendency to the comic bookish

McBubgub the Little Orange Demon

Murdair LeBad

Constanzia Dementia

The Goth Moth

Crosshatch the Mute

Alphonse

Vixeena

The Prelate

Player Three — Seven Members: The good gals -- Again, sometimes flawed, but on the whole stronger in character than yer basic good guys

Princess Amaleh

Inspector Virginia Finn

Major Dez Rega

Scarlet the Vampire

The Ponytail Princess

Special Agent Carolyn Bolduc

Aunt Clara

Player Four — Six Members: Male protagonists of significant presence -- More of a match to Group Three than Group One is really

Coyote

Gully Bechet

Morgan the Vampire

Solitude the Vampire

Hobson the Hangman

Benny Dredful

Player Five — Six Members: Antagonists of significant presence

Preacher Man

Prevailer Char

Stephanie

Shadewulf

Knuckle Biter the Brain Drainer

Jaxon

Player Six — Five Members: The mystery femme

The Limp

Luna Damsel

McKenzie Telstar

The Dream Whisperer

Suki the Psychic

Player Seven — Five Members: The eccentric artist

Phoebe Hush

boB the Poet

Murgo

The Evil Sneed

Count Rolando de Orfeo

Player Eight — Five Members: yer professional gal -- Probably should be linked with Player One

The Velour Angel

Larysa Sandoval

Marysa Sandoval

Lyndsay Lovechild

Fifi LaFume

Player Nine — Four Members: Something more than an ingenue

Theda Bara, Dr. Lyjia Argullus:

     (The one case where Vidal truly nails me. Essentially the same character. They even look more or less identical. No surprise I got rid of one of them in the very first Episode.)

Elly Johnson

Dusky Dredful

Player Ten — Four Members: An agent of chaos

The Iron Clown

Dr. Tenderly

Polyphemous Blueberry

Mordecai, the Tall Purple Demon

Player Eleven — Four Members: A professional with something more to offer

Lou Moon

Suzi Coffin

Lady Helena Murray

Louise Moon

Player Twelve — Four Members: The Gothic ingenue

Scintillisha Evans-Holyrood

Ruby Skipstone

Lori Lightning

Annabelle Teach

Player Thirteen — Three Members: Surprising women

Gwen

Vispar Endmar

Sylvie Bourgoigne

Player Fourteen — Three Members: Unique men

Mak Skeeter

Mr. Snuff

Agent Only

Player Fifteen — Two Members: Entitled antagonist/protagonist

(someone I won’t mention)

Prince Eidolon

Player Sixteen — Two Members: the older, wiser hero

John T. Longhorn

Count Ormulan

and Player Seventeen — Two Members: The supposed alter ego

Jason Midnight

The Evil John B

Some of this I don’t have any more to say about. One of the side benefits of writing Reality Fiction is having the opportunity to explore which of my characters truly have legs. So I’m satisfied with how most of the groupings played out. But I would make further commentary next week on a few issues …

Dusky Dredful. Someone who starts off as a literally forgotten character, where I start writing her not even knowing what sex she is or what she looks like or what her name might really be. How does she turn into a player?

Jason Midnight and the Evil John B. Are they really alter egos? Were they ever?

And finally, Amaleh. If the two bozos in the last question are supposed to be my alter egos, why does Amaleh feel like the character closest to my true nature?

(And of course, all these characters can be checked out in detail at the blogsite listed below. Make your own decisions!)

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REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

This week:

Theda Bara’s winning novelletta Thirty-One Across continues this Friday at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

When you least expect it, usually on a Monday morning, everyone will totally let you down.