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This week: Edited by: archgargoyle
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You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. ~ James A. Froude (1818 - 1894)
Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence. ~ Elihu Burritt
An idea is salvation by imagination. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)
I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me - shapes and ideas so near to me - so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down. I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught. ~ Georgia O'Keeffe (1887 - 1986) |
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Characterization
Hello, I'm archgargoyle, your For Authors editor this week.
Last month I showed how imagination and creativity are vital to everything we do as authors. As authors, it's even more important to show creativity and imagination in how we develop our characters and their personalities. We're nearing the end of NaNoWriMo quickly, and I'm sure that for those of you who are cramming 50,000+ words, you have most likely developed many characters and some of whom revealed themselves unexpectedly. Love is a Mommy (no foolin)  was a prime example of this this past Saturday, when as she wrote, the story took over her fingers and POP there's a new character that she now needs to figure out who he is.
I'm still new to writing short stories and creating characters within my own writing, however, I think that from reading some spectacular authors, I can give a little insight from what I like to read in the personalities within a novel. Character development needs to be just as creative as the rest of your story, but at the same time, your many personalities need to be brought to life. I honestly think that realism is crucial here. If the people or creatures aren't believable, or alive within their own rights, then I don't think a story can be sold to the reader.
How can an author breathe life into their characters?
Well, I think a character needs to have internal conflict. Every human being in real life has issues. No one is perfect and no matter how powerful a character is, there's always some kind of internal conflict that makes them who they become within a plot. Look at Harry Potter, or Frodo from The Lord Of The Rings saga. They have conflict and they are quirky.
Do your characters have raw emotions? I don't know any one person who can really shut out their emotions. I know that there are characters out there like Spock and the Vulcans from Star Trek, who shut out emotion in place of logic, but think about something for a minute. Spock has always been believable because deep down, he still had emotions that he had to control. One thing I love about Terry Goodkind and his Sword of Truth series is his character development with emotion. They laugh, cry, become extremely angry, and have shown sadness and sorrow.
Even some of the most extraordinary alien creatures have conflict and emotion.
I know I said last month that I don't think that movies can really give us a good bit of creativity, but there are times, when they may spark a little bit of it. Last week, I watched the movie Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. The movie, I thought was done very well and moved through the plot with an even pace. Since I watched this on DVD, I had to browse through the extra features. I found a spot where the producer, writer, or director (can't remember which) talked about how the actors were made to flesh out who they were to become in the movie. He would ask them questions like, what happened in their childhood. What does the character like doing when he's not driving a taxi or (Cruise's character) not being an assassin. What do they like to eat? Where do they like to hang out? Boxers or briefs? Paper or plastic? Cash or credit? How did they start in the profession they're in? What are their dreams and aspirations? And finally, what kind of music do they enjoy?
Well, maybe not all of those questions, but you get my drift. Getting personal with your character and their past, the smallest of things within their lives helps make the personality quite a bit more believable.
So, after touching just a little on a couple of things that help bring life to a character, what are some of the ways we can help bring that forth?
One example I've seen is by interviewing your character when you're not sure who this person is yet. That works great, but in some aspects, I have a hard time fleshing out a personality just by asking questions and then thinking of an answer. One of the most amusing ways I've seen, was from the NaNoWriMo forums, where Love is a Mommy (no foolin) showed me an author who was having a conversation with his character about where the story was going. He talked with the character about discrepancies, plot direction, and other characters.
Some people like to type out a bio of a personality and work to paint an image to themselves what they may look like. All very good ideas and very helpful.
What about researching a bit about a different culture? Would that help bring forth who your created personality is? What about their faith and moral standings? How about their habits, likes and dislikes? Or even, what about something as small as what they would do in their spare time if they weren't involved in this plot you've thrown the character into?
We create characters everyday just by logging into our Writing.Com account. Some of us may be completely different people in real life compared to our online personality, but that online personality is still developed to be very real. Look at me, archgargoyle. My online character is me in real life, yet enhanced one way or another. 
So, before you take a healthy bite out of your Thanksgiving turkey, ham, or God forbid, duck, think about who your dinner was before it became a blessing to you in your stomach. Think about what kind of life and character interaction these animals once had with other creatures they were around. |
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So, if you would, humor me. Can you write a character profile or short piece about me, Duck? (There might be bribery involved here. )
What about your own online personality? Does it differ much from you in real life? What kind of characterization workup can you give yourself?
Last month, I asked the following questions:
How do you associate the normal into interesting and flamboyant ways of creativity? How do you find creativity and imagery?
Some answers were as follows:
Good newsletter, good question. I find creativity and imagery most often by relaxing and letting 'free association' take place. I get more good ideas when I'm totally relaxed, i.e., sleeping, than any other time. The night before last, I dreamed I had a 'vulcan' baby (too many Star Trek re-runs?) and people were discriminating against the baby and me. That silly dream gave me an idea for a story. When I 'try too hard' to be creative is when I am least creative. I'm sure there are many other ways to bring out creativity. This is what works for me. ~ Iva Lilly Durham
When doing a math problem (what's more normal and dull than math?) I ran acrossed a word problem involving how many people were "serendipitous". Not knowing the exact meaning, I asked my mom. It means, roughly, over-optimistic (or "air head", if you prefer). The idea came to me how ironic it would be to have a MAJOR pessimist named Serendipity. Thus, I am know planning on writing a story in which Seren is a main character. I'd never thought I'd get inspiration from my math, though! ~ Breezy-E ~ In College 
One of the marks of being a writer is the ability to put more into seemingly mundane scenes from here and there. Occasionally, when I can't concentrate on a blank page, I pick up the crochet hook or the paints and do something creative, it usually breaks out my imprisoned writer in no time. ~ PastVoices
My grandpa was like that; able to make the smallest thing in life fun and creative. He had a cottage on a lake, and when the kids would start running down the hill in their' bathingsuits, he'd always yell, "Where are you going?" We'd answer, "Swimming!" He'd scowl and say, "Don't get wet!" ~ Aradne |
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For Authors: November 23, 2005 Issue [#733]
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