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The Internet provides the aspiring writer with a vast array
of tips and tricks for crafting strong plots, exciting resolutions and fleshed
out characters. A cursory look to your twitter feed (Ed. - you are on
Twitter...right) will uncover articles and listicles aplenty that discuss ways
to develop solid characterization for every hero, villain and stalwart ally in
your work. This post does nothing save expand on that growing body of free and
unsolicited advice.
We suggest interrogating your characters to get at the heart
of their characterization, what makes them tick. As an aside, what we mean by
characterization is habits and mores of your characters. This is different than
the actions of your *tagonists. That, it bears stating, is plotting. Characterization
is something that informs the plot, guides the plot, but it is not the plot. Your
story is but one of a character's life experience. Therefore, characterization does not change
with the plot, but the plot can be a useful tool to reveal something
interesting about your character's character.
Why does this matter? Because a
problem arises when the author cannot quite match the character of the hero
with the actions of the hero. When this happens, the characters feel flat.
Worse, poorly fleshed out characters become plot puppets. The heroes and
villains only exist to advance the plot, and are animated only by the elements
in the story. When they are not the focus of the story, they are in cold
storage, just waiting for the next thing to happen. Inactive characters are
boring characters and boring characters make for boring stories.
There are numerous ways to flesh out your characters. For
instance, you can make note cards that list their primary attributes (name,
age, sex, eye color, height). These character notes are great for keeping your
descriptions of the *tagonist from drifting in the story. (e.g. on page 12,
Captain Harwood has piercing blue eyes, but on page 45 our protagonist gets
lost in his emerald eyes).
What we propose is a character interview. Take your
character out of the story, and place them on late night television, or at a
local public access television show. It does not matter if your characters are
goblins from the Razor Mountains, or a synthetic construction bootstrapped into
sentience from a collection of hacked animatronic squirrels. Your characters
don't have to be able to answer these questions, but they have to have a reason
for not being able to answer them.
Here are just some questions you can ask your characters to
flesh out how they exist outside the story you are telling.
1. When did the character lose their virginity? "Hey!”
you say. "This is a young adult novel, no sex allowed." O.K., well, lots of teens and young adults
have sex. Why is your character different from your typical sex having teen? It
is O.K. to have your character be a virgin, or neuter, or unable to have
intercourse because they are from a species that does not engage in intercourse
per-se etc. Nevertheless, there has to be a reason why your character cannot
answer the question. You will find that even if you can't build character using
this questions, you can fall backwards into world building by having
explanations for why you can’t answer the questions.
2. What Social class does the character belong, what race , what ethnicity, what religion. This is Jane
Austen question. Your work does not have to be explicit on the nature of the
characters social standing, but as an author, you cannot lie to yourself. If
the character has access to goods and services not available to large sections
of the population, has access to political elite, etc, then your character
inhabits an upper social stratum. It is
O.K. to have rich protagonists; they usually have access to more resources. (ED
Game of Thrones is nothing but the 1% fighting the 1%) but what does that do to
the expectations of the character? Do they expect that they will have an
audience with the Grand Marshall? Are they cowed by authority, suspicious of
it?
3. What does the character do with a thing of immense value
that they come into possession of, which clearly does not belong to them? "Huh?" You say. Well knowing what
someone does with an ill-gotten gain teaches you plenty about the character. If
you have been trying to position your character as a roguish bad boy, but you
can't picture him buying a Ferrari with money he found in a suitcase floating
in the ocean, it might be that you are approaching his character wrong. Alternatively,
if your street-wise protagonist would never take a bag of cash left in the back
of her favorite dive bar, maybe it is because she knows that things of value
usually have owners who come looking it. So that implicit knowledge is a good
flag of her character. It is not that she doesn’t want something for nothing,
but that she knows that free is very rarely ever that.
4. Sympathy for the devil. Characterization shouldn't only
be applied to heroes. If you want a compelling, non-simplistic villain, the
antagonist of the tale needs as much heft as the protagonist. The essence of
drama is conflict, and a fleshed out hero against a stick figure villain makes
for weak conflict. Have your villain name one individual that they have
justifiably murdered, disappeared, converted into a mechanical bear. Whoa, you
say there is never a good reason to turn anyone into a mechanical bear. Well,
true, but that isn't an excuse to avoid walking in their shoes for a bit. If
nothing, it prevents your characters from becoming psychotics whose only will
is to watch all the cities of the earth burn. Sure, there are scenarios where
your villain is a nameless horror from beyond the doors of midnight, but not
every story needs to have antagonist who can’t articulate some measure of reason
and compelling justification for their actions.
Taking time to think about how your characters answer these
questions can help your craft deeper, more consistent actors in the plot. Rich
virgins who would never take a gold bar they found on the street react to
scenarios of conflict different than poor street-wise Lotharios. The author
should know well before the reader, how your character will react.
MM (2015)
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