Monday, January 7, 2013

Character Exchange

Greetings all, today I'm going to take a look at two well known fantasy characters and cast them as the hero and buddy in a WWII drama. I'm doing this to show how important our characters are and to illustrate that good characters can stand alone. What genre they end up occupying is wholly up to the author. What is important is that you make your characters mufti-dimensional so they are believable. Your readers will either love them or hate them and will find it impossible to dismiss them. That is the mark of a great story.

 Let's see how good a job I do.

"Let me carry it Fred, take some weight off your shoulders," Sam said. The endless days of travel weighted on the friends, they weren't far from their goal now. Problem was how to break into the secured building. There were 'SS' soldiers everywhere they looked from their rocky hideout.

"Wouldn't matter if you held the papers Sam. The instructions on how to dismantle the bomb are fused in my brain. I'm the only one who can do it. Your job is as lookout. You know that." Fred wiped the sweat from his fingers.

Sam studied his friends curly brown hair, matted with dirt. Over the past months their goal seemed impossible to reach. Now at last they were almost at the end. Recent news had come of the attack on the French village where the rest of their team waited them and left them both with heavy grief. If only they hadn't believed the German soldier who led them to the run down villa where other Nazi soldiers had set a trap. They almost lost their lives. Sam adjusted the bloody bandage over his left arm before picking up his rifle again.

"We wait for sunset," Fred said. The ground ahead of them was void of vegetation. Soldiers leaned against the fence and buildings or marched by. "If we make it to the bunker it will be a miracle."

"If anyone can do it, you can Fred," Sam said. "General Gray said so."

The plot is the same, a quest. The goal is to destroy a bomb before it can destroy the allies and stop the villain Nazi's from taking over the world.

Do you recognize the characters? Their story is as vital as WWII soldiers as it is in the fantasy from which I borrowed them.

This one's for  you Denise. I hope in some small way it helped.
Nancy

14 comments:

Charmaine Clancy said...

Didn't spot it, but certainly enjoyed it :)

Laura Clipson said...

Oh yeah, I got it. General Gray ;)

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Charmaine
One clue...one of the characters has the same name.

Hi Laura
Maybe.

Thank you both for coming by.
Nancy

Southpaw said...

I got it too! (I think) ;) Don't they live in the middle of something?

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

LOTR!

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Holly
Absolutely, the middle.

Right on Alex.

Thanks for coming by.
Nancy

Denise Covey said...

Thanks Nancy! You did great! Yes, what a great way to exchange characters and trust Alex to get it!

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Denise
Glad it helped.
Nancy

Misha Gerrick said...

It's Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, I think. :-D

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Misha
Right you are.
Nancy

Nas said...

Had fun reading the post and then the comments!

Hello Nancy! Hoping you had a great start to 2013?

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Nas
I am hopeful. Thanks for coming by.
Nancy

Pat Tillett said...

Hi Nancy! What Alex said! Nah, I'm always the last to catch onto these things... Hope you had a great holiday season.

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Pat
Yes, Alex is right.
Nancy