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| Someone didn't get his coffee this morning. (Image attribution via Wikimedia Commons: Puma concolor shot at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum |Source=self-made |Author= User:Cm0rris0n) |
Fellow author of shifter literature Abigail Owen approached me wanting to
make the villain of her second book, Kyle Carstairs, a bit more menacing.
Here's our initial exchange:
Character name: Kyle Carstairs
Age: 28ish
Gender: Male
Species (if applicable): mountain lion shifter
Cultural or historical context: these shifters are very
similar to their wild counterparts - loners and very aggressive. They've been
forced to band together in pride-like groups.
Brief description and relevant history: Kyle is my villain in the 2nd book in a
series. He was co-villain but mostly off-stage in the 1st book. Kyle's father
was the Alpha for one of the prides. He ruled with an iron fist. He and his
father were challenged together. The dad was killed, and Kyle ran off. In book
2 he's joined forces with a larger off-screen villain (the reason cougars had
to band together in the first place - these people take more shape in book 3).
Where you're stuck, or why your character needs a
psychologist: Trying to make him more menacing without going over the top.
Getting behind his motivations.
What you may not want me to share generally in the post:
Open to sharing all that in the post. :)
Note: I removed one question/answer pair that may lead to spoilers.
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| Rawr. (Image in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons) |
So I sent the following questions for follow-up:
Are your mountain lion shifters (love it!) female-dominant?
The society is male dominated, but with a twist. I based the
society on real mountain lion behavior. Mountain lions don't live in packs or
with other lions - they're very much loners. The older males are the 'big dogs'
because they're bigger and stronger only. Cougars are known to kill each other
for territory. I add another twist. Due to natural environments shrinking, the
types of shifters who do live in packs (lions, wolves) are attacking the loners
like cougars, and killing them to gain their territories. Cougar shifters
banded together to form the Shadowcat Nation - a group of ten Dares (like
prides) that are Alpha Male led. But it's a really tense situation, since their
animal forms don't naturally live in groups.
Even if not, what was Kyle's relationship to his mother or
any other significant females? Yeah, paging Dr. Freud. ;-)
Kyle's mother doesn't even rate a mention in book 1. His
father is Alpha of the Carstairs Dare, and Kyle wants the job. Based on the
above scenario, Kyle's mom has been out of the picture a while. If she didn't
run away from his father (who's a sadistic tyrant) then he killed her. Kyle has
never asked which.
What is Kyle's greatest insecurity?
Not being in control. He wants to rule everything in his
domain and destroy anything that threatens him (typical cougar). But he takes
it to another level, trying to force one woman to be his mate (wife) (for
political gain) while trying to force another woman to mate him (difference is
this is just sex) in order to produce a cub who would inherit the mother's Seer
ability. But a Seer he could control after he killed the mother.
Similarly, what strength does he have that he needs to
control better? In other words, what's gotten him in trouble before?
I had to really think hard about this. My initial thinking
is that his strength lies in - ironically - his strength. He's a massive
cougar, very intimidating, with an ugly temper and temperament. He manages by
fear. So far, only Jaxon has "bested" him in a fight, and even then
not completely. Kyle still got away, though being so beaten threw his
confidence a bit.
So here are my thoughts:
It seems to me that you've figured out Kyle's motivations –
power and control – but they need more depth to make him truly menacing. In
other words, what is his internal conflict? For example, has he ever thought
about why he wants to lead the
Carstairs Dare? It's a fairly straightforward motivation for someone to want to
be king, but people still want to do so for their own reasons. How will him
being the leader help him resolve what he's struggling with? Sure, he can want
external things like wealth, but it will add depth to his character to give him
more to deal with internally. You're on the right track with his insecurity and wanting control, but control of what?
I did a
workshop at the 2012 Moonlight & Magnolias Conference called Characters on
the Couch: Personality as the Key to
Believable Internal Conflict. Since you did an online Myers-Briggs personality
profile and came up with INTJ as his personality, here are some possible things
to consider:
INTJ is a good type for a fiercely independent
person/shifter because independence is one of their strongest characteristics.
So is the ability to come up with a vision of how things could be
so much better-run or organized and strategy, although they may be less
interested in implementing it themselves. In pursuing their vision, they often fail to
consider how others are thinking or feeling.
So what is Kyle's vision for the dare if he should become
king? Or does his vision go beyond it? How could you integrate his need for control?
I hope this was helpful, and I look forward to reading this
series when it's published!
If you would like to type your characters, here's a link to a
free online MBTI, which I find is accurate enough for character typing: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
As for typing yourself, I recommend finding a psychologist
who administers it and paying to take the real thing. A lot of companies also offer
them as part of career development testing.
Oh, and here are some mountain lion kittens. Because kittens:
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| Too freaking adorable! (Image in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons) |
If you have a character you'd like to send to my couch, please send me an email at cecilia (at) ceciliadominic (dot) com. You know what to do to make that an actual email address. I'm a clinical psychologist by trade, so I bring real-life psychological knowledge to help you through those stuck points. And no, I don't charge.
