Marland Monday: Getting to Know You, Getting To Know All About You…
Hey Kids, what time is it???
No, it’s not Howdy Doody time!
It’s Marland Monday!
Yes, Marland Monday. where I’ve been exploring the writing rules of Douglas Marland, one of the best writers of the soap opera genre. I’ve also looked back on pivotal episodes of Guiding Light he wrote this summer as well including a wedding and an almost wedding, and a confrontation. No funerals though!
Now, what rule are we going to look at today?
Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them into existing characters. Don’t shove them down the viewers’ throats.
This is definitely a soap opera rule. In a novel, you have to introduce new characters right away. You don’t have much time.
One of my favorite novels is Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult. Picoult sets the story in Salem Falls, New Hampshire. We meet Addie Peabody, the local eccentric in town who won’t anyone sit at a certain place in her diner. She also faces a calamity: both her refrigerator and dishwasher die at the same moment.
We also meet Wes, a deputy who is crushing on her and is “handsome enough to make women in Salem Falls dream about committing crimes.” Then we meet Addie’s dad Roy who is way too fond of alcohol and “wrapped his car around the town’s statue of Giles Corey, the only man who’d been a casualty of the Puritan witch hunts.” Then Picoult shakes it up and we meet Gillian Duncan, a girl who pretends to be sick, then spends the day listening to Alanis Morrisette “and painting her toenails electric blue.” We also meet Gillian’s dad Amos, her friends Whitney, Chelsea, and Meg. The four girls dabble in witchcraft. Into this universe comes Jack McBride, a drifter with a past and is trying to find “a place where he can disappear for a while.”
Picoult introduces other characters as well, but I want to concentrate on the beginning. Each character here has a story, a character trait. We concentrate on these characters for a while, then once we get to know them Picoult adds more to the mix: Charlie who is also a policeman, Deliah the waitress. There are also townspeople, a local DA, and Jordan McAfee, a recurring character of Picoult’s. I don’t want to tell too much-if you’ve read Jodi Picoult you know if you know too much of her story the whole book will be spoiled for you-but you might be thinking hmmm. she’s breaking Marland’s Rules, isn’t she?
Well, yeah. And no.
See, what Picoult does is introduces eight characters. Waits a little while, then introduces more characters. Charlie is Meg’s dad. Deliah works with Addie at the diner. The Wiccan girls go to the diner for lunch. They’re attracted to the handsome dishwasher. Who is it? Jack McBride, who is way overqualified for a dishwasher job. Wes doesn’t like this new guy. They all interact with the characters we met in the first ten pages. Picoult keeps the plot going: what is Jack’s secret? Why won’t Addie let anyone sit at that certain place at the diner? What secrets are going on?
Again, don’t want to say too much, because Salem Falls is a great late summer novel you can read for yourself. But Picoult bent Marland’s Rules but kept to them, resulting in my favorite novel by Jodi Picoult. Although skip the Lifetime movie, it’s not that good.
When Marland took over writing Guiding Light in 1980, he had to figure out a way for Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow) to spy on estranged wife Holly (Maureen Garrett) and daughter Christina (Cheryl Lynn Brown) I’ve mentioned the carnival where he spied on them, but before that he posed as an old man, renting a room at the local boarding house. There was a nosy girl at the boarding house, who kept wondering who this stranger was and had a big imagination. Her name was Nola Reardon. Introducing Nola was a way of showing who she was: a girl who was nosy had a big imagination, and want to know what was going on with the new border. A couple of months later, we met Nola’s mom, Bea. A year later, we met Nola’s brother Tony, then a year after that, her sister Maureen, who later married Ed Bauer. What happened to Maureen in 1993 would be debated about for years (you can google it) but let’s just say I’m surprised no one came to the New York studios where GL was filmed with pitchforks.
Around the same time, Mike Bauer (Don Stewart) was involved in a bad car accident. We saw his mom Bert (Charita Bauer) call Ed (then played by Mart Hulsitt) and told him that Mike was in an accident that left one person dead. Could Ed go to Cedars and see what was going on? Of course. We then find out the accident concerned the Richards family. Mother Jennifer (Geraldine Court) was about to work for Amanda Wexler (Rita Lloyd) Her husband Walter died in the accident. After a suitable mourning period, Jennifer started dating Mike. Her daughter Morgan (Kristin Vigard) fell behind in school and needed a tutor. Enter Ed’s godson, Kelly (John Wesley Shipp) If you’re thinking these two crazy kids fall in love, you’re right! (And Nola won’t be happy about it)
You cannot force readers-or viewers-to love a character. But if you flesh them out, give them traits and make them memorable, you can just maybe have them care what’s going to happen to them, and keep them wondering what’s going to happen next. That’s the writer’s job.
Tune in next week…
