The Beauty of the Fool

So yesterday I was in the midst of a Facebook conversation, where all great mind rushes seem to start, yes? And somebody pointed out the Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert fact of the day... they... the comedians... seem to be the only source of truth these days...

Image from Wikipedia

But this is not new. During the great European monarchies it was the Jester, the Joker, the Fool... those were the only people who could say the great truths without risk of execution by the king. Because of this, Shakespeare used them fairly frequently—they were both a historically accurate detail and a brilliant plot device. Some fools even acted fool, even while they manipulated their masters. Rumor has it Terry Pratchet's Discworld series uses this device—I have had these on my list forever, but my local library selection is either bad, or the books are too popular—I have trouble getting ahold of any at all, let alone the beginning.

So for Writing Wednesday I thought maybe we'd explore characters and techniques involving humor/fools for advancing plots.



Who is Eligible to be the Fool?

You know, I am not sure I think the fool works as an MC, because I don't think the reader can be in on their inner workings. I think the fool works best with a note of surprise. They should shock us. Or else they should make us laugh so we underestimate what they say, having it hit us only later. I suspect Terry Pratchet would make me eat my words, and a fool intent on actually controlling things would be a different sort of character—capable of carrying a story. Mostly, though, rather than a literal fool, I like a sidekick—a close friend willing to give uncomfortable truths and add some humor to an otherwise darker tale.

I've written such a character for my cozy mystery series. Much of the humor is in the form of Annie Schulz, BFF to my MC. And Annie speaks with my Tart voice, advising the heroine to do such things as 'go grope your boyfriend, or I'll have to do it'. But at the same time, she is the strength behind the MC.

Other likely fools however, can appear in surprising places. Consider the strange case of Professor Trelawney. She is an out of touch fruitcake, yes? I used to be fond of the saying, 'she has the sight, but hasn't a clue.' Meaning she could see the future, but was lousy at interpretation. This essay does a nice job of summing it up. Though the essay misses one of the big interpretations:

“When thirteen dine together, the first to rise is the first to die.”

Sybil comes and thinks she makes thirteen. But in fact there were already thirteen at the table before she got there—Peter Pettigrew is in Ron's pocket... and then ALBUS rises to greet Sybil. So in fact her prophecy is TRUE. She just applies it wrong.

And it is things like interpreting the Grim as death that make us not trust her, when it is not a Grim at all, but Sirius, she is seeing. Note she gets much better at interpretation as things get darker—by the Half Blood Prince almost every prediction she makes is accurate, if sherry doused.

Trelawney is a brilliant fool. She is so easy to dismiss. And yet it is her prophecy that sets the entire story in motion—Voldemort ACTS because of what she said, and by his acting, makes it true.

I love the idea that because they are funny, the fool can tell readers things they need to know in a way that they will still be surprised when they prove to be true, later.

What about all of you—have you ever used the fool to enrich your tale?

Pottermore

So there are definitely plenty of newsworthy events that I could blog about today. Amanda Knox, free to go? Occupy Wall Street? Which-hurricane-are-we-on-anyway? But you know, other people are doing WAY better jobs with those than I would anyway (including our own Tart, who nailed down the salient points of the Wall Street protest just yesterday). However, there is one reasonably topical topic that I CAN talk about...

For anyone who's got Harry Potter on their radar, it was pretty hard to miss all the fuss earlier this year when JKR announced her new project, Pottermore. (Especially for Tami, since it was announced on her birthday. ;-) ) And the news that 1 million fans would be able to enter early, to "help shape the experience" - yup. We got pretty excited. Solve clues? No problem. Find the Magic Quill? Yeah, we can handle that. Chances every day for an entire week? Sure thing.

Day 1 - well, I overslept, but since the clue went up at 4 AM in my time zone, I probably would've missed it anyway. Day 2 - I was determined to stay awake, but crashed about 20 minutes before the clue went live. D'oh! Day 3 - I was going to get it this time or die trying, so I set my alarm for 5 minutes before 6 AM, and sure enough, after hitting reload a few times, there it was! (Okay, so I needed a little help from my friend Leah - on Day 3 you had to levitate the quill, and I for one have no brains at all at 6 AM, so was trying stupid things like "swish and flick!" with the mouse {in my defense, that IS the wand movement for the levitation spell in the books}. Turned out you just had to waggle the pointer underneath the quill. Ugh.) The site generated a handful of possible usernames to choose from, so of COURSE I picked the one with a newt in it (I love newts...). And then... the waiting.

And waiting.

And WAITING.

Something I am NOT good at, may I add.

But finally, finally, I got my welcome email and signed on for the first time. And you know, while I'm not going to go completely gaga over it and say it's the best thing ever, it's pretty fun. Some of it is a little random - is there a point to "collecting" Harry's alarm clock or some slimy seaweed? Some of it is amazingly awesome - wand shopping and trying on the finally-for-real-JKR-official Sorting Hat (and yes, of course I'm in Ravenclaw...). The artwork is beautiful, the new information (on topics as wide-ranging as McGonagall's backstory and three linked Ollivander essays) is, for a dedicated digressionist like most of us around here, engrossing and worthy of some great discussions (Quirrell liked to press wild flowers, did he? Did he also put on women's clothing and hang around in bars? *snort*), and the discovery that the house cup rivalry, at least so far, is between Slytherin and Ravenclaw (not Gryffindor - they're WAY behind, and the poor Hufflepuffs can't catch a break) is quite interesting too - we've been neck and neck for weeks.

There are also some major glitches. Dueling, which was how some people who got in on the first day racked up massive scores, has also been "down for maintenance" since day 1. Potion making, the only remaining way to earn house points, can be mindbogglingly infuriating when you've waited 95 minutes for something to "brew", only to lose it in a Flash-crash or similar. And there's the PSOD - Purple Screen of Death, the dreaded "Sorry, we're busy, call back later" which tells you that, once again, the servers are overloaded RIGHT when you need to finish your Forgetfulness Potion.

As for those of you who are still waiting for the site to open to the general public - well, you might be waiting a while. And the release of the (supposedly long-awaited) ebooks is delayed until next year (frankly, I was so disappointed that JKR finally gave in on the ebook thing that I almost didn't do the quill challenge... ALMOST). And since we're only permitted to play around in the first book right now, there may be all kinds of goodies waiting as subsequent volumes open up. Will we discover our Patronuses? Fight off dementors? Solve the Triwizard Maze? Who knows... oops, gotta run, my potion is ready!

Harry Birthday Solstice

Erm... that may look like gibberish, and I won't try to convince you it's not, because gibberish IS in fact something I am fluent in... but there are a couple big things going on, and I really CAN'T ignore any of them. For once there is a topical Tuesday where I KNOW about some stuff!

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Summer Solstice!

Today marks the LONGEST day of the year and in many cultures for... forever, basically... a big celebration... midsummer's eve (though honestly, this is FIRST summer, so I don't know why they call it the middle). The majority of the cultures where this has been traditionally important are those northern places where light varies so much over the course of the year. Understandable that the longest day would be a pretty big deal.

What I didn't know, until I started looking, is that the celebration hasn't always been just the day, but a FEW days... June 21st – 24th... and this extension of the midsummer's thing makes me really happy for this very strange reason...

Created by Joris Ammerlaan

Birthday Week at the Burrow!!!

This little span of days includes 3 Burrow Birthdays. Considering we are only a dozen in total (and it is three of seven of us who blog here). Jason has a birthday tomorrow, I have one the next day, and Rayna has an IMPORTANT one the day after that (along with our buddy Leigh, who was born the exact same day as Rayna, year and everything and one of my Harry Potter friends who was born exact same day same year as ME, Auriga).

(and Chary's was just last week!)

So there is something about this stretch that compels people to write, I think. I've always attributed it to the Gemini cusp of Cancer. Which is probably not unrelated (emotion meets communication), but the fact that it is midsummer, too... Sort of puts a little more magic into all of us finding each other.

Respectfully borrrowed, Pottermore.com

And for MY Birthday... JK Rowling is giving me a PRESENT!!!

The first clue was this: http://www.pottermore.com/
And then there is the YouTube thing...: Apparently a dedicated channel...

So on June 23rd at midnight, there will be an announcement by JK Rowling as to what this Pottermore.com website is all about. Now it has been said it's not a BOOK, and I have my doubts Jo would make anything quite so personal for anything to do with the movies or theme parks... She launched the site on June 16th, and I fell immediately into my fangirl SQUEEE speculation. But going there only gives a countdown clock at the moment.

Of course if you are looking for what this is... why not go to MTVs blog where they give it some guesses. I mean... everyone who's anyone goes there for their news anymore, Jon Stewart being the last remaining honest news guy...

But whatever the case, we have a big, exciting couple days ahead... All of which surely call for you to dance naked and celebrate...

Guest: Rubeus Hagrid!

This is a major coup--the fact that we Burrowers have some truly impressive connections. I first met Rubeus Hagrid in person a couple years ago when I was a staff member for a monthly online rag called The Quibbler.  Hagrid had a section called Kreecher Feetcher, in which he would share with us more in depth details on certain creatures.  We asked him to do a little version here on Burrowers, Books and Balderdash having to do with Christmassy Creatures.

So without further ado, Rubeus Hagrid!  *endures rib-cracking hug*




Hagrid's December Kreecher Feetcher

It’s that tyme agin, another month and another Kreecher Feetcher at yer service. I have a reel surprise fer all my magikal reeders out there; this month’s feetcher is all abowt “Christmas Kreechers”. So pour yerself a nice cup o’ tea and get ready fer a real treat.

Last month I took a hike up in the mountains to visit my half brother, Grawp. On my way up, I had a fantastic exchange with a jarvey ( foul mouthed weasels), whom I have affecshunatly named Effie as “F” seems ter be her favorite letter. She had followed me fer a few miles callin’ me all sorts of funny little names when I finally stuck her in my pocket. She seemed right comfortable there, so she’s been my travelin’ companion ever since. After New Year’s though, I’m startin’ her on some lessons to get her speakin’ like a proper lady.

I also had the rare oppurtoonity to have a run in with a reel life yeti. Tha’s right, an abominable snowman! Let me start with sayin’ that their size has been greatly exajurated—this one weren’t no bigger than me! Aside from that though, their description by Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them jus’ abowt does ‘em up right. It was a bit like yours truly-- big, mad, and hairy!!! I tried to calmly walk up to it, but the beast wasn’t havin’ none of that. He must have been protectin’ a nest of baby snowballs, because he charged us barin’ his fangs and claws like a Veela in a tizzy. I would have a nice picture fer ya, but I can’t figure out how to work this camera the Quibbler supplied me with. If You can imagine it through, it looked a bit like a smallish mountain troll covered in white fur and the face of a Manticore. Now, I won’t go so far as ter say they are mean kreechers exactly; jus’ misunderstood is all. I’m sure there was a perfectly good reason he was tryin’ to make snow kabobs outta Effie and me—I bet he was tired and jus’ didn’t know his own strength when he threw that spruce at our backside! 

 

Not too much is known about yeti’s in general. European yetis are mostly found in Tibet, but the American Yeti ventures all over the upper and lower porshens o’ the continent. The South American yeti has been a thorn in the ministry’s side fer years as it keeps getting’ seen by muggles who like ter call it “Big Foot”. 

Fortunately, most muggles think it’s all a bunch of codswallop and dismiss the yeti as crazy talk.

I know a lot o’ my young reeders are wanting ter know abowt a certain type o’ reindeer that can fly and pull a sled full o’ toys. This kreecher is a bit trickier than the others, and you won’t find them in any book abowt magical kreechers because they aren’t naturally magic at all. Hopefully I can explain this properly. Reindeer aren’t so much deer as they are a funny mixed bag o’ kreechers. Ya see, a long time ago there were herds o’ centaur that lived in the very northern regions o’ Europe and America. Their numbers dwindled very low due to a tragic misreadin’ of a planetary line-up in sky. Many were forced to wander alone, and centaurs aren’t used to travelin’ like that—they’re meant ter be in a herd. Anyway, long story short, bein’ alone wasn’t workin’ for ‘em. Most of these scragglers went a bit loopy and took up with the native caribou herds, which later led to “reindeer”. All reindeer really are is caribou that talk. Reindeer have slightly different tradishuns than centaurs do. They don’t hold much stock in the stars and planets and what not, but they do have their own form of divination that focuses on the Northern Lights. They can’t fly either, but a good hover charm can trick a muggle just as good as any. Anyway, that’s what reindeer are and if ye ever happen ter meet one, don’t menshun Rudolph. His kind see him as a bit of a show boat. And don’t go askin’ yer friendly neighborhood centaur abowt reindeer either, cause they don’t like ter discuss them at all.

What abowt Santa’s elves you ask? Well, this won’t be much of a shock to most of you, but some o’ the muggle-born’s may be interested to know. Christmas elves aren’t no different than any other common house elf. The cloth that a house elf wears varees regionally; tha’s why many pictures of them show red and green colored outfits. Sorry to let ya down, but house elfs are nifty little kreechers any how and they are definitely more than capable of fillin’ yer Christmas stockings!

Well, that’s it fer this month’s feetcher. I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to come back next month for a feetcher on Golden Snidget to celebrate the start of Quidditch season! Have yerself a great hollyday and have a pint o’ Christmas cheer fer me!

Image Rubeus Hagrid

Hagrid is channeled by Burrow Buddy Marissa Montano

Writing Wednesday - Memorable Characters

 

When my kids were younger, they were addicted to the British TV show, Bob the Builder. Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely), their favorite characters were not Bob, or his partner Wendy - it was Scoop, the yellow loader, and Dizzy, the orange concrete mixer, who captured their imagination. On one memorable occasion when, in a misguided attempt at bonding, my husband wrongly identified a machine, my then three year old piped up, "Papa, you know nothing. That is Lofty, not Roley. Roley says 'Rock and roll'!!!"

The creators of the show knew a thing or two about creating memorable characters. Not only were the machines all different, they had different colors, and distinct personalities. You could argue that the characterizations were rather simplistic - Lofty the hesitant blue crane, Roley the cool green roadroller, Muck the impetuous green bulldozer, Dizzy the baby of the lot and Scoop the leader of the gang. But the key to creating memorable characters for children is to bring on the differences.

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto - even a kid can tell them apart. And kids are supposed to tell them apart. Archie Andrews the carrot top, Jughead Jones with the crown hat, Betty Cooper with her blond ponytail, Veronica Lodge with her slick black hair, Big Moose, and Reggie Mantle with his shiny black hair - there is no way you can get them mixed up.

But what if your audience is slightly older than children? Do you still concentrate on the physical and obvious personality differences?

Yes, and No. Think J.K. Rowling, a lady who has captured the imagination of billions with her memorable characters.
Harry Potter - untidy black hair, green eyes, lightning bolt-shaped scar on forehead
Ron Weasley - bright red hair, freckles, tall and gangly
Hermione Granger - bushy brown hair, brown eyes, large teeth

Hard to get them mixed up. Now double the number -
Three girls - one blond, one brunette, one red-haired
Three boys - one blond, one black haired, one red-haired

Still easy to keep apart for the simple reason they are physically so diverse. If you increase the number to include the entire Dumbledore's Army, you find that you can still keep the characters apart - the Houses the students belong to slot them to some extent, and the uniqueness is nailed down by providing one or two physical characteristics that keep them apart - Susan Bones and her blond plait and famous Aunt anyone?

But what if the characters are not too different? What if they look alike and behave alike? What if they are twins? Identical twins? Twins so similar in looks and temperament that even their mother cannot always tell them apart? What if they are Greg and Forge?

Fred and George Weasley are so unique they cannot be mistaken for anyone else. They look alike, think alike, act alike, even play in the same position in Quidditch. Or do they? Hasn't Fred always been the more impetuous one, and George the slightly calmer one? Hasn't it always been Fred who threw the first punch when it came to defending Harry Potter. Could George have come up with the memorable line, "Oi! Angelina! Do you want to come to the ball with me?"

Much as you did not want to think about it, wasn't it always obvious that the only Weasley kid who would not come out alive from the 'Final Battle' would be Fred? Fred could not have been left behind to mourn George; six books were spent preparing us for the inevitability of George having to come to terms with the loss of his twin.

Is there a lesson in it for all of us? Yes, of course. Characters make or break a book. People rarely re-read a book for the plot, but they always re-read a book for the characters. And the key to writing memorable characters is making sure they can be told apart, and then allowing them to grow.



Harry, Hermione, Ron
Fred and Geroge Weasley