How Well Do You Know Your Main Character?

Most books start out defining the main character in bits and pieces, giving the reader just what he needs to know to see how he fits into the story. I had a fun time exploring my main character, Ari, as I was outlining my new book. I wrote a character survey on him, defining all factions of his life, including a history of his past. This left me aching to include all kinds of extraneous details as I began filling in my story.

How much is too much?

Sometimes I want to explain my characters so the reader will understand the whys behind the action. But recently I read a comment that stopped me dead in my tracks.

If you have to explain your character, you've killed him.

In other words, if the reader doesn't see, by your character's actions, why he's acting the way he is, then you haven't built a strong enough history on your character. You need to prepare for your character's sudden change in direction. If your character is going to save the bad guy from sure destruction, the reader needs to be savvy about it and not sitting there scratching his head, asking why?

I'm learning how to present a character in a story and how to build on the information given. Here is the beginning of my new story The Puzzle Box:

“Ari! You let the fire die again! How often do I have to tell you to keep this fire hot?”

Ari’s father threw a piece of wood on the fire and fanned the bellows to re-light the coals. After the coals were glowing, he jabbed an iron bar in the fire, waited until it became white hot and pulled it out. Then, with the hammer he held in his right hand, he pounded on the sizzling hot metal.

Ari watched his father with a dismal frown. He hated iron work. Even though his father was a master sword maker for the King, he’d rather be in the forest studying his magic tricks or gathering plants for the Hermit.

So what did this beginning tell us about Ari? He's unhappy at what he does and wishes to be doing something else. Of course, he gets his adventure when he finds the puzzle box and tries to open it. To me, writing is an adventure and I get to travel with all my characters to unexplored places. Learning about characterization is an adventure of its own and creating a character out of bits and pieces is a challenge I invite you to continue on with. Have a great adventure!

 

Characterization

Creating characters that are believable and capricious all at the same time can require a lot of work. I've started a character journal in order to have my characters available when I need them. I add to their personalities as I think of things and have them on 3x5 cards in a file. I found a list of things to help me round out my characters and I'd like to share it with you.

1. Be aware of the four methods of direct character presentation: appearance, speech, action, and thought. The indirect methods are: authorial interpretation and presentation by another character. In other words, introducing the character by the author or another person.
2. Reveal the character's conflicts by presenting attributes in at least one of these methods that contrast with attributes you present with the others.
3. Focus sharply on how the character looks, on what he or she wears and owns, and on how he or she moves.
4. Examine the character's speech to make sure that it does more than convey information. Does it characterize, accomplish exposition, and reveal emotion, intent or change? Does it advance the conflict through "no" dialogue? Speak it aloud: Does it "say"?
5. Build action by making your characters discover and decide. Make sure that what happens is action and not mere movement, that is, that is contains the possibility for human change.
6. Use your journal to explore and build ideas for characters.
7. Know the details of your character's life: what he or she does during every part of the day, thinks about, remembers, wants, likes and dislikes, eats, says, means.
8. Know all the influences that go into making your character's type: age, gender, race, nationality, marital status, region, education, religion, profession.
9. Know what your character wants, both generally out of life, and specifically in the context of the story. Keeping that desire in mind, "think backward" with the character to decide what he or she would do in any situation presented.
10. Identify, heighten, and dramatize consistent inconsistencies. What does your character want that is at odds with whatever else he or she wants? What patterns of thought and behavior work against the primary goal?
11. If the character is based on a real model, including yourself, make a dramatic external alteration. Keep the character fresh.
12. If the character is imaginary or alien to you, identify a mental or emotional point of contact.

Characters are the life of our stories and without a fully fleshed out character the story will remain flat and lifeless. We can even re-create characters that we have used in the past by adding to them and turning them into a new generation of life. Good luck on your characterizations. I hope this sparks a fire in your mind.


Twelve points from: "Writing Fiction" by Janet Burroway

G for Good vs Evil

Welcome to the A to Z challenge! You can visit the home page HERE.

Perspective: The villian normally sees himself as doing the just thing, or he can also see himself as doing something that, in the end, will only satisfy himself. While that person sees himself doing right, another will most assuredly say that he is doing wrong, and human nature will usually oppose it.

The conflict between good and evil is one of the most conventional themes in literature and is sometimes considered to be a universal part of the human condition. There are several variations on this conflict, one being the battle between individuals or ideologies, with one side good, the other evil. Another is the inner struggle in characters (and by extension, humans in reality) between good and evil.

From the earliest times, writers have thematized the conflict between good and evil in religious terms. In the old testament, Yahweh (God) asks the prophet Jeremiah: "The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse - who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9)

While certainly not as widely seen as the direct good vs evil conflict, the concept of "individual vs self" is often much more compelling to a reader, especially if it is the protagonist. It requires well written character development in order to truly succeed.

The struggle of good vs evil in my own sphere of influence has given me much to use as material for developing my stories. Each person has their own diverse life experience that is worthy of using in character development for their protagonist and antagonist. A good story will speak to the heart and will foreshadow the struggle of the human condition in its characters.