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

A Discussion About Character

Aristotle said: "Man is his desire." Desire is motivation in life to get what you want. That is how a character in a story gets what he wants - through motivation. And in that motivation is conflict. So, what we have here is a character who wants something in the worst way, and has to try and find a way to get it. Character motivation. But nothing is easily won, so there is going to be conflict around it.

All characters must have credibility. They must be believable and appropriate for their situation. Without this, your reader will shake his head, close the book and say, "No way!"

All characters need to have purpose. Why are they doing what they are doing? A character needs to know what they want, not necessarily how to get it.

All characters need conflict. There are two kinds of conflict. Inner conflict is part of a character's growth. No one is 100% pure and facing the demons that lurk inside are part of a character's growth. A character must be capable of change so they can grow from their conflicts. Outer conflict is where a character meets difficulty with others. This can lead to the inner conflict and produce change. There has to be character development through conflict in the story to create a plot.

I have briefly discussed each idea with you in the hopes that it will help you expand your characters. These are basic character attributes and there are others that could fill a page or two. But without the basics;
1. credibility
2. purpose
3. conflict
your characters will seem flat and uninteresting. Take a moment to create a new character and tell me who he/she is and what they want and why...

S for Storyteller

Welcome to the A to Z Challenge! You can visit the Home Page HERE.

As writers, we are privileged to be a part of the grand group of historians known as storytellers. Since the advent of the pencil and before, this occupation has tickled the senses of the hearer and reader with all kinds of prose and proverb.

History of Storytelling
Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and to instill moral values. The crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and the narrative point of view.

The earliest forms of storytelling were primarily oral and with the advent of writing, stories were transcribed and shared over wide regions. Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed or inked onto all manner of medium, from pottery to other textiles and also recorded on film or stored electromagnetically in digital form.

Modern storytelling has extended from the traditional forms (fairy tales, folk tales, mythology, legends, fables, etc.), to representing history, personal narrative, political commentary and evolving cultural norms and educational objectives.

All that said, how does that affect you as a writer?
Your story, in whatever genre it is written in, is a commentary to the reader on something. Whether it is fact or fiction, believable or fairy tale, your reader is expecting to find something of you in the story. Even if your story is non-fiction, your reader wants to find the truth in the lines that tell him what is real and acceptable.
As writers, we make a contract of expectation with our readers in the very first sentence. And by the end of the first paragraph, the reader has decided whether or not to accept that contract and read your story. By presenting the reader with a plot, characters and POV, you can tell your story and entertain your reader and fulfill that contract.
Be the writer and tell your story. It will continue on in the great tradition of all those that have come before you.