Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

A Changing Central Character

A Changing Central Character (Wanging with the key board)

I have participated in a number of contests in the past year and even tried to get one up and going. My one previous attempt failed to catch on. So bad did it flop that there was not even a single entry. Now I don’t believe in celebrating failure, however, it is a great teacher if you take the time to consider, that maybe there was something you did wrong or neglected to do that contributed to the demise of your hopes and expectations.

I concluded that there is not much fallow ground in the old contest garden and it takes some cultivation and a lot of seeds to get one to sprout. (…Not to mention coaxing one to maturity) It takes writers to sustain a contest and they are a precious commodity indeed.

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One of the things a writer needs to consider in a longer work are several important factors. First is the starting snapshot, then a life changing event and finally a series of crisis that will loom up along the way.

I have already talked about these in some detail and rather than repeat myself will now express a truism that pertains to both a reader and audience. They want to see some change. It may be for the better, it may be for the worse but change is what they are looking for. Nothing is more boring than a central character who fails to change in the course of the story… and this happens more than most writers are willing to admit. In my one act play class one of my best tactical writers had a central character who simply failed to change. The CC was the same when the drama finished as she was when it started. The only thing that happened to her was she kicked the can a little further down the road of life.

You do not want to let that happen in your story. You want to make that life changing event gut wrenching. Think about your own life and the anguish you felt on the cusp of such a traumatic experience. If it was truly a life changer it forced modifications in who you were. This is what the consumer of your literary creation is looking for. CHANGE! In the furnace of adversity a melt down begins to happen and the CCs character becomes transformed. This is fascinating stuff to watch and read about and it will raise an eyebrow or cause someone to lean forward in their seat.

So a writer needs to show this. Anybody who has ever seen metal worked in a forge could not help but notice that the process took some time. A first the piece of steel just lay in the coals, but then it started to turn red and finally it began to melt. When it turned red the smith began to bang on it with the hammer. He didn’t want it to turn into a molten puddle and in same sense neither does the writer. Instead wait until the time is right and the character becomes malleable and then begin your Wanging. The time window opens when the first crisis looms and closes when the final hoopla is brought to climax….Then the smith, holds the creation up for everyone to see and dashes it into the water….Voila! as the steam clears there emerges something new and different, something is reformed and born again. The reader claps their hands in delight and feels something akin to a religious experience.

In the process of all this happening they have been privileged to be able to see the change that has been wrought, with each blow, (stroke of the pen) one image after the other, … served up on the video screen of imagination. The audience watched spellbound, jaws hanging open, nodding their heads in acclamation, thinking (Yes! Yes!)

This is what you have to do with your story….Show that change that is happening. If you do you’re onto something, if you don’t…(Do I really have to go there?)