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A writer can have the most detailed writing, dynamite dialog and a story set in well researched locals, but if the main characters come across as one dimensional, then the whole story falls flat.
I'm Fyn and I'm a new 'For Authors' newsletter editor. I am very excited to be a part of this, and hope I can impart some useful ideas and information to you! |
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Consider, for a moment, the people you know. What do you know about them? You know what they look like. You know much of their history as well as their likes and dislikes. You know their fortes and their foibles. While you may not consciously think about these things on a day to day basis, these parts of the whole that make this person the person you know: these idiosyncrasies and characteristics affect all your interactions with this person.
Consequently, when creating a character, it is helpful to give said character a history, a sense of where he fits into the general scheme of things, in short, a life. What makes this person who and what he is? What incidents in his past color his day to day life now? Too often a writer will create a character and has them progress forward without their having a past.
Consider also, the different way you view a stranger vs someone you know. You regard the stranger, making subjective judgments based upon myriad observations such as clothing, posture, and word choices. But two things stand out. You do not 'know' this person, and, you have no emotional investment in this stranger. To make characters come alive and jump off the page, not only must you have an emotional investment in them, you must convey and then build this investment in your readers.
Characters need to be built of meat and muscle. If you, as a writer, create a fully rounded character with a history, with passions and fears, with successes and failures, with a prior life, then this character starts to become real to you as the writer and it only follows that it becomes more real to your readers. Giving your character roots, a family, and a past allows this character to exist. As details are added to a character, it takes on form and substance.
Create an outline for your characters. It can be as simple as the following.
1. Name
2. Sex
3. Description (include hair and eye color, hair length, body type)
4. Date of birth, age and place of birth.
5. Marital status, children. (How old, etc)
6. Occupation (do they like their job? How long has this
been their occupation?)
7. Education
8. Fears
9. Favorites (colors, seasons, holidays, weapons, sports,
foods,etc.)
10. Type of personality
11. Health
12. Passions
13. Traveled? Where?
14. Criminal record?
15. Special training?
This is just a sample of the questions you might consider. Fill it out in detail. It is not necessary to start at the top and work down. Start anywhere and go forward. You will create a well-fleshed and consistent set of characteristics and 'facts' that will bring this person to life. It will fix in your mind the small details that allow your character to move through the story without any mix ups.
Will you 'use' all this information you compile about your character? Probably not. But it WILL allow you to create a character with more dimension to them and they will become far more real to you as their creator. By the end of the exercise this character should be wholly visible, taking up space on your desk, blocking your monitor and asking for a cup of coffee!
Using a similar outline I created the following character. I have (or perhaps I should say had) no story in mind. I was simply creating a character. The more details I added, the more real she became. It doesn't matter if the character is created first or must conform to your idea for a story. The details are what make all the difference.
Pandora, aka, Annie Fitsgerald, is a twenty-eight year old artist. Nicknamed Pandora in college because her friends never quite knew what trouble she'd be into next, she decided to keep the name as she became a more established artist. Slim, lithe, small boned, and fine featured, with tawny hair with a mind of its own flowing wildly down past the small of her back, she has deep green eyes, lashes no mascara ever made as long, and a mouth designed for kisses, that always seems just ready to smile.
She's divorced. Her three year old daughter that had been miniature of her mother died of a ruptured appendix a year ago.. She's lived in her van for the past year and a half selling her artwork for just enough to keep her in food and gas. Thus far she has worked her way from Woodstock, NH to Hell, MI. She grew up in Woodstock, NH and went to college in Bennington, VT. Married right out of college because she became pregnant, she quickly realized that Max was not the ultimate male she'd thought he was, indeed, the words husband and father seemed to be words he didn't even want in his vocabulary. When her daughter Piper had died, their marriage died with her.
Pandora's an excellent artist, and knows that she just needs the right break to actually 'make' it. It wouldn't matter though, because for her the creation of her artwork is almost as essential to her as breathing. Fleeting images of her daughter often appear in her work.
She's smart, streetwise, inventive and upbeat. An optimist, she sees the best in people. She's confident in her abilities, a free spirit and always ready for a new adventure. She tends to favor free flowing dresses and skirts that are reminiscent of a cross between medieval times and the seventies. Pan could see herself living hundreds of years in the past in either Ireland or Scotland, or even perhaps as a gypsy traveling, telling futures for a living.
This is about a third of what I wrote. The more details I added, the more alive Pan became and now I have to write a short story about her! She's sitting atop my desk, tapping a most impatient foot, determined I won't rest until I do!
I challenge you to create a new character thus far not associated with anything you are currently working on. Use an outline and create a short bio of this character and email it to me. I'll use some of them in my next newsletter!
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I've chosen some pieces that I feel show an amazing depth of characterization. These well crafted works have characters that leap off the pages and jump into reality.
This piece has a wide variety of characters, all of whom are real and jump off the page!
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Just a taste of this one:" The ashen look and bugged out eyes showed her adrenaline was pumping like water at a three alarm fire. Off she went, limbs scattered and flailing like she was fighting off a swarm of bees, but Joey couldn’t catch her, the girl was really moving. Joey was very athletic, and he was pretty fast, so it was rather surprising to see Kari outrun him. . . His arms were pumping, and his face was as bright red as the leaves that were flying up around them. It was surely the cold, wind, and embarrassment all mixed together, but there was no way a fourteen year old boy was going to sort his feelings before he caught up to Kari, and exacted a toll.
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Amazing-- the details that come through in dialog
Details! "Mrs. Hampton did know that I lived in the Ripley Arnold Housing Projects on the western edge of downtown Fort Worth, Texas, and things did not always flow smoothly for some of the residents, especially the children. "Well let me know if you need me to call someone." She turned away and entered the school with a skeptical, backward glance."
The characters in this short story are really that...characters...full bodied and richly imbued with details!
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A multi-layered, complete character! "The only woman among them, Feeona didn’t stoop to mending their shirts or their wounds. She might help if they asked her nicely, and if they were nice to her at other times. A few of men never warmed to her presence, and she repaid their disfavor by ignoring them entirely, just as they ignored her. Only when they could not ask for help would her heart give way, resentment melting into pity, and she tended them – for weeks, sometimes – after Hoery was done fixing the worst wounds. Their minds taken by fever or pain, they often did not remember her help. She never troubled to remind them." |
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| This is my first 'For Authors' newsletter, so I don't have any feedback. Next time, I hope to have some for you! Till then may your writing flow like a fine wine, rich and full bodied, and may your work prove to be of an amazing vintage! ~~fyn |
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For Authors: August 29, 2007 Issue [#1912]
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