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| >> Static Item >> Editorial >> How-To/Advice >> ID #1541377 |   |
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"A writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature." ~Ernest Hemingway "The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible." ~Mark Twain   Character is King Character: the set of qualities that make somebody or something distinctive, especially somebody’s qualities of mind and feeling. Synonyms: nature, quality, temperament, personality, disposition, moral fiber. (Encarta Dictionary) Some characters are so life-like they stay with you long after the book has been shelved. I know Kathy Bates (who played Annie Wilkes in "Misery") is a fine actress and probably a model citizen, but if she rang my doorbell my instinct would be to run and hide from a nightmare in the flesh. She's exactly how I pictured that character years ago when I used to sneak horror books under the covers. Annie Wilkes is real. (So real she showed up last year to win the Review Fools contest!  )While I've yet to try the horror genre, I've dabbled in the dark arts of organized crime and premeditated murder. Throwing my inner evil on the page has exposed parts of my psyche as well as flaws in my writing. The most horrifying realization was that I don't know my own characters. When a kind reviewer pointed out I'd recycled the name Donna, I had to scour my brain to find even one. Eventually I pulled out three: a Good Sister, a Redneck Shrew, and a Jealous Wife. I'd forgotten them because I used those poor women to develop my plot. They're cardboard stand-ins; none of them are real. I didn't even care enough to give them a unique name. If we don’t know and love (or hate) our own characters, neither will the reader. We want our creations to spur admiration, jealousy, fear, or just gratitude at being alive. Three-dimensional characters inspire us. They jump off the page and follow us around. To show those dimensions we must go beyond their physical appearance, to their personality, and even further, into their psychological makeup. Appearance Think of someone in real life whom you'd consider a "character". What's the first phrase that pops into your head? I bet it isn't "blue eyes". While most short stories need physical description, word counts can limit the depth of the picture. The writer must choose the most important features to show, lest the description read like a shopping list. In art as in life, appearance is not the most important part of who we are. After all, whether I scrounge around for a shirt without stains or spend hours matching my shoes to my earrings, you only see what I allow you to see. It's surface. How much description and which details? As always, it depends on the story, but I'm firmly in the less-is-more camp. If the character's eye color denotes a supernatural quality. If height or weight relate to inner issues. If dress displays social status, greed, humility, etc. And, of course, if we're seeing these details through another character's eyes. (Remember, any idea that doesn't work double duty needs to go. Be ruthless.) For a character to be real to me, I want to know what is behind those baby blues. She must have quirks and flaws like the rest of us. Personality Luckily, personality is easy to show in a short story. Body language, mannerisms, and dialogue convey emotion and personality, but it's still surface. While we sometimes slip up in conversation and show parts of ourselves we wish to keep hidden, for the most part we hold to socially accepted norms. In other words, we’re acting. Is your character gregarious or shy? Serious or funny? I could say my character is arrogant, but that takes all the fun out of reading. "Arrogance" might be shown through the cumulative effect of a raised eyebrow here and a smirk there, or it may be a major plot point to bring our hero to his knees. Donna the Redneck has plenty of personality. She wears tight skirts (appearance), swears a lot (speech) and props her feet up on the dashboard (mannerisms). She’s a cartoon, but that's okay; she's drawn that way. If she were a major character, I’d need to show what makes that girl tick. To do that I'd need to get inside her head. Psychology Readers want to know why people behave the way they do, but inserting background details into a story can be tricky. It's tempting to throw in a paragraph of backstory to bring the reader up to speed. When you meet someone, do they tell you their entire life story? Probably not; it’s considered rude. Developing trust in a new friend takes time. In the same way, allow the reader to get to know the character gradually. I was just reading the title story from Stephen King's Everything's Eventual. He's a master at teasing the reader with snippets of background information. What happened to Skipper? What new job? I had to know! Reading In the end, I not only found answers to my questions, I realized how Dink's mind works. I was rooting for him to fight his way out of a desperate situation. But—I have absolutely no idea what he looks like. Part of that is the first person point of view (admittedly the easiest way to get inside a character's head). More importantly: His looks don't matter. What matters is Dink's reaction when King writes him into a corner. Does his moral compass point north or south? (I’m not tellin’.) Major plot points are the easiest place to display the true nature of a character. When police sirens are wailing behind you, when your child is lying in a hospital bed, when there's a gut-wrenching choice between doing the easy thing and doing the right thing, that's where character appears. Plot is intimately tied to character. Amazing characters have amazing experiences. While short stories must be based in reality, they also need to take us beyond our everyday existence. We read to jump into someone else's life, to be scared out of our wits, to travel the world. To feel. To feel, we need to care about the character. Getting to Know Your Characters Conventional wisdom says to make your characters conquer their greatest fear to obtain their greatest desire. If your characters are like cardboard Donna (flat, flimsy, and full of pulp) ask them what they'd give their right arm for, what makes their stomach clench in fear. An interview, diary entry, résumé, even a grocery list give clues to our character's inner landscape. A full character profile might be overkill for a short story, but hypothetical questions get your characters talking. All you have to do is listen. This newsletter barely scratches the surface of characterization. Please see the editor's picks below "On the Subject" for great overviews and tips. I have a lot to read and a lot to learn before I go deeper. My first step is to take my own advice, so I invited Donna the Good Sister to tea, and she's early. Her fat little nose is smooshed against my clean window. Although appearances can be deceiving, she looks a lot like Annie Wilkes. 
© Copyright 2009 1296462 Rising Stars' Best (UN: kimchi at Writing.Com).
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