About Characters As Story
Post 1765:
Writer people always be talking about characters and story. I would like to look at writing characters for just a second.
When you introduce a character, they should be defined quickly. This isn’t easy, though, because giving someone one leg and a scar to tell the reader they are the bad guy is a bit on the nose. It’s nice to be subtle, but too subtle means you won’t remember who they were when you first met them.
And it’s very important to remember. Because every real character in your story is a story. They will start from a place (that hopefully you remember) and end up somewhere else by the end. That’s a story. Take the character anywhere, but don’t let the reader forget where they started from, and certainly don’t forget yourself.
I think you can be subtler with the main protagonists. In most cases, the main narrative will center on them, giving you more time to add little bits to their characters. THE story is their story, if that makes sense. With peripheral characters, it’s good to define them quick and tidy. A time-tested way to do this is to check boxes. By this, I mean fill all the personality types. Let’s there’s five—there’s way more, but let’s just say—make each character a different one. This creates natural tension, helps define them, and makes it a nice way to give the reader a story for each character that can satisfy the reader.
Some of my best friends are people I had a hard time getting to know at first. Maybe we were in the same class, maybe it just didn’t seem like we would get along. Whatever. For some reason, a relationship didn’t seem likely. When we finally did get to know each other, the blind assumptions made it all the more satisfying.
It’d be nice if we had all sorts of time to get to know our characters in story, but (generally) it won’t do. People get bored. They want to know who they’re dealing with. I’d say that’s fair play. You’re asking them for their time and attention. Respect that they’re taking time off from their phones and give ‘em something to work with.
Cheers and see you after.
