Tip needed: Keep your character consistent

[Ashi]

Hi everyone,

 

How do you keep your character from going schizophrenic? I found one of my characters (the main character even) had a chasm between the early chapters and later chapters. Yes, a character should grow up, but it was too much, and I can't quite pinpoint why.

 

Is there any method or tip you guys employed that would keep your character consistent? Thanks.

[JamesSavik]

An old southern expression that you might hear from time to time: there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

Some of the most interesting characters in fiction are the ones that change or grow during the course of a story arc. Sometimes they grow, other times they fail.

 

Many people are undecided about an issue and won't make up their mind until the last possible minute. You may explore this as an inner conflict and how the character works through it.

[Ashi]

An old southern expression that you might hear from time to time: there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

Some of the most interesting characters in fiction are the ones that change or grow during the course of a story arc. Sometimes they grow, other times they fail.

 

Many people are undecided about an issue and won't make up their mind until the last possible minute. You may explore this as an inner conflict and how the character works through it.

 

I'll keep that in mind as I write. Thanks! I think my story's problem is, the styles are too different.

[kitten]

In addition to what James said, it's also possible that the character doesn't change/grow but that you want the reader's perception of the character to change in the course of a story. e.g. the only the character's bad points may be initially obvious but later we see he has a 'hidden heart of gold'.

 

Re: The character you found going schizo... was there a big time gap between writing the early and later chapters? If so, and if the character change was accidental, it can be avoided by re-reading earlier chapters before writing the later chapters. That way you can keep the character consistent. Also, if you have an outline of the whole plot and the important roles of major characters when you start the story, it can provide a sort of rough road map and so help stop character's personalities from straying too much.

 

If the later personality of the character was necessary for the plot and his/her earlier personality wouldn't 'work' in the later chapters then you could introduce a reason e.g. either 'growth' for a real change, or previously hidden parts of a personality for an apparent change. If you can't make that convincing, you can consider a rewrite so that the important plot part played by the schizo character is given to another character.

 

Finally, if all else fails, you can always re-write a couple of key scenes to make the character's two personalities more consistent. You can do that even if one or two of those scenes are in already posted chapters. This may irritate a few people who've already read the early part of a story but that is a small price to pay if you end up with a better story left for later readers in years to come. Don't think so much about the people who've already read that early chapter, but think of your posterity and how students in next century's Literature classes will appreciate your improved version of the whole story!

 

Kit

[Ashi]

Yes, Kit, it's "accidental." Hate to admit it because that shows my inability to write and probably would kill me in the eyes of judges. It's not entirely accidental in a way that I indeed intended a growth of character, but the growth is just too huge to be believable.

 

I don't intend to serialize my story. I know I am not a Mozart.... So I won't encounter issue where I need to go back and revise my early chapters after I posted it.

 

Your tip is very helpful. I had already decided to rewrite one of the early chapters, so hopefully that would solve the problem. It also has a target audience issue.... That is, it might turn off people who would appreciate my latter chapters early on, and attracted people who couldn't finish my story. I think that's the focal point of my fear, not that I mind having a schizo in my story.

 

I guess I am too old to remember the setting I am using in the story.... I did some research to remind me stuff. Problem exacerbated because I was a social outcast back then.... Oh well. I'm excited nonetheless about my growth as a writer.

Edited August 29, 2009 by Ashi