One of the joys of writing historical crime is that you have centuries of fascinating characters to bring into your writing, but also the potential for inserting imagined characters who add to your story. In The Conjuror’s Apprentice, I use real people in history – John Dee, William and Mildred Cecil, Mary Tudor, Lord Englefield – but I need imagined characters to fill the gaps and add balance. For example, my detective, John Dee really existed. As in the book he was a scholar, a theologian, an astronomer and a man who dabbled with the spirit world and angels. But excellent biographies (see The Arch Conjuror by Glyn Parry; The Queens Conjuror by Benjamin Woolley, portray him as a little fractious, constantly pursuing money and fame, ultimately foolish in believing charlatans – maybe not a character terribly high in EQ. So I needed an apprentice who would balance him – female and a woman who had deep intuition, kindness, and passion for others in need. Hence, I created his apprentice – Margaretta Morgan.
If your book is a one off story then you only have to work on the arc for each character in that one tale. But a series brings a whole new challenge and journey in which you need to grow, develop and deepen your characters.
If you write a series you are going to be with your main characters for a few years. This means you need to know them well before you start. There is no point adding something in about your character in book three when it should have been part of the characterisation in book one. I nearly made the mistake of introducing my detective’s rather difficult mother in book three having failed to mention her in the first two books. Obviously, your characters have to develop in their own arc – but a fundamental like parental relationships does not suddenly appear in life. To develop my characters I do the following:
Create a full character description
This includes looks, background, character, psychology, hopes, fears, and foibles. You must decide their childhood events, their friends, their successes and their disappointments.
Research
For real characters, I read about them through bibliographies, Google research as well as online resources. It is very important to ensure you know what was happening in their life at the point of history in which you are writing. For example, in the first of my series, The Conjuror’s Apprentice, a key character, William Cecil, is lying low after trying to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne. It will be book three before he is great spymaster of Court for which he is best known.
Look to other authors
Many prominent characters will also be in the works of other authors. Read well and see how they have depicted them. Most authors of historical fiction are natural researchers and want to portray as accurate a character as possible. This will give you real insight into how another authors sees and feels about that person. You do not have to copy – but be aware that if there is a general consensus on how a person was, then stepping too far away might take you r into the realms of fantasy. For example, every fiction book I have read with William Cecil as a character depicts him as a serious, methodical if obsessive character. If I portray him as a flirtatious, fop my readers will reject the character, and likely the story.
Use artistic licence
For your created characters you have more licence. You can create characters you love, that you want to follow for years, who will grow and develop as you want them to blossom. But beware making them perfect. We all have a few fatal flaws and your characters need these too or they become too thin in psychology. So my conjuror’s apprentice, Margaretta Morgan, can be sharp-tongued, suspicious, and makes herself unlucky in love – at least for the first few books.
Your characters will also change as events happen to them in the series. In The Tudor Rose Murders, Cecil will become more cynical (true to history), John Dee more rapacious for spiritual knowledge (true to history) and Margaretta will become the product of many disappointments (my imagination – or maybe experience!)
And that brings us to their arcs.
Character arcs
Your key characters need to develop through each book and over the series. I am not a detail person and so I do not plot well. However, through reading about real characters and imagining the life of imagined characters, I pretty well know what it going to happen to my key characters and how their personas will develop over the 50 years that the series will span.
Real character arcs are pretty well dictated by real history. Good bibliographies will tell you what was happening in their lives at any given time. But you need to weave into this how they might be feeling about it. So my detective, John Dee, will start embittered by his fall from social favour and I need to imagine the psychology of a man raised in wealth and now finding himself in poverty and poor family reputation. By book four, he will have become obsessive as he delves further into the supernatural world in a wild pursuit of speaking with angels to get the fame he craves. The life-events are based in fact. I need to imagine the feelings of a man who is quite brilliant, who knows he is intellectually gifted, who has all good intention to please and support his queen but who is kept in the shadows because of the fear of magic in Tudor England. John Dee was always admired and suspected in equal part and so I must put myself into the head of a man who is always just a breath away from the respect and recognition he so desires.
Imaginary characters need to be shaped. You need to project forward in their lives and imagine what will have happened to them at key points. This means you need to know where life will take them and the reactions they will have. So with John Dee’s apprentice, Margaretta Morgan, I already know how her emotional life will work through, when her mother dies, how she will navigate the relationships with her family and how she will develop into a strong-minded and intelligent co-detective and not just an apprentice.
For secondary characters, I know when they will appear and when they disappear. Beware making secondary characters pop up as a convenience. If they are going to be key to books one and five – at least have them mentioned in the intervening books or have them taken out of sight and story through a viable story-line such as leaving the country.
Melding real and imaginary characters.
I have found that history is generous in giving your facts which by coincidence help the character you want to create. But the real challenge is to bring real and imagined together. I start with my character descriptions and then attempt the following:
- I think through how the characters would interact if they were in each other’s company. Would they like each other, trust each other? What are they hiding from each other? Would they laugh, argue, simply have a formal conversation? How do they react when one annoys another or if they have a deep bond? Maybe it’s the psychologist in me, but I need to see each character through the eyes of the other and that helps me work through their reactions and interactions.
- I think about the day to day lives of my characters. Would life bring them together or is it the events of the story? If it wouldn’t be natural for them to meet, then you have to create the vehicle.
- I think about the motives for each character for that will influence their behaviours. So William Cecil is driven by his care for Elizabeth and seeking future power but low recognition. John Dee is driven by a need for recognition and fame. Margaretta is driven by duty, a need to provide and loyalty. So my real characters (Cecil and Dee) are at odds and my imaginary character (Margaretta) has to navigate the tensions between them and the fact that they both want control.
- Finally, believe in delicious coincidence. In one character in book two, The Rogues Shadow, I needed a male character to be a secret philanderer under a veil of social gentility and good standing. Many weeks into my research – history gave me a gift. I found reference to an old rumour that he was found in a compromising position with his daughter in law and had her sent to a nunnery to cover his salacious activities. If you want to write history – it will often help you!
So to conclude, there is no story without great characters. You bring your characters to life through good research into historic figures and allowing your imagination to fill the gaps with your constructed characters. But if you are writing a series, learn to love them all for they will be your travel-companions for many years. You will befriend them, get annoyed with them, get frustrated when they do not really work. But treat them like family – you cannot always choose, but they are with you for the journey of the series and the rest of your life.
G.J. Williams is author of The Conjuror’s Apprentice, the first in the Tudor Rose Murder Series, published by Red Door Press.
'A thoroughly engaging tale, beautifully written, and highly evocative of the period…Highly recommended.' Zoe Sharp
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