MESSAGE BOARD TOPIC #16

[Comicality]

Whenever I'm reading a story online, or even in a book at home, what I find that connects me most to the plot is a general concern for the characters. Honestly, even a simple story with a mediocre or everyday plot can truly be interesting to me if the people in the story are lovable and realistic. I think it's a big part of the experience for me, getting to know somebody new through someone's writing. But is it just a coincidence that I latch on to these 'fictious' people? Is it a direct skill implemented by the author? I guess the question I'm asking is...

 

=How do you go about creating original and interesting characters in a story when you're writing? And for you readers, what is it about these characters that you can relate to and enjoy?=

 

Do you care about these characters? Do you picture them having lives outside of the structure of the story you've been 'given'? Do you give them faces, looks, and voices in your mind? Or could they just be anybody, in any story, and it wouldn't make a difference? Some things to think about. I'd be interested to see what you think? This week's subject is the 'life' given to ficticious characters.

 

The board is open!

[gpaulbishop]

Hi Folks,

 

Comsie, When I write, even as I read too, in my mind is a motion picture playing out the scenes in my head. As the "film" progresses I drift into it and feel as though I am a part of the action. When I first start a story, the characters are pretty much two-dimensional, but as I progress, they take on a feeling that eventually makes them breath, feel, have human emotions and speak, thus to me they are real people.

 

In alot of ways, writing is having a conversation with myself, but as I write there have been times that a particular point is reached where I will write something and suddenly the characters will balk and refuse to talk that way because they do not talk like that; it is NOT them, funny thing is that I have had more than one argument with a character over that issue.

 

I create characters that anyone who reads the stories can relate to as a friend. When I tell a story, I want the reader to get as caught up in it as I get. Imagine sitting around with a group of your friends, rehashing over a tale that everyone knows. Whether it is sad, happy, or painful the affect is the same. The pure enjoyment of being with people that you care for, and in some cases love, reinforces the spirit of family, togetherness, and the fellowship and most importantly, the connections that we all make as human beings.

 

"I am not alone," I know this, the proof is in the stories that I have read including yours Com, that bind us as a group into a family. My characters give that connection voice. I create them to draw people into that spirit of humanity that always brings cheer and good feelings to my heart and soul.

 

Okay, once again I am a windbag, but there you go.

 

Paul Bishop

[Gentim]

I know that with the story I wrote that I was very much into the characters, especially the protagonists and their friends. The emotions that they felt, I felt as well, although to a lesser degree. That made it very hard to write some of the scenes were the characters went through some hard times. There are times when I got so involved with what was happening or going to happen in the story that I wasn't able to pay attention to what was going on around me. They say that time flies when you are having fun. So I guess that I was having a lot of fun writing parts of the story.

 

In the ending to one of the chapters, I wrote that I was sorry that it had taken so long to get that part out. But that I knew where it was beginning and knew as well where I wanted to end that chapter. It was just a matter of going from point A to point B. HA! I wish that it was that simple!

[dkstories]

The very best stories that I have read, or that I have written, the characters have been living, breathing individuals that I love, hate, like, dislike, sympathize with, or otherwise can accept as being 'real'. Beautifully crafted plots, wonderful settings, and awesome concepts pale when they are not placed together with characters that can take on lives of their own. I once had an instructor who said 'breathe life into your character, and your story will work."

 

The stories of mine that have worked the least have been those where the characters did not breathe on their own, where they were little more than extensions of my own thoughts. Most of the time when I can't write the next chapter, or hit some other stumbling block, it is because I want a character to do something they WILL NOT do, or will not accept. There's been times where a character has said "I would rather die than do X" and I end up killing them because the event is central to the plot line. It hurts whenever I do that, and I've been known to cry over that death.

 

As a reader, I have to use the example of the character Javan Haldane in the Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz. In the book King Javan's Year, I fell in love with Javan, a clubfooted young man who overcame huge disadvantages to claim his birthright. All through the book I hung on every word of this young character, every action, and was happy at every victory he achieved. If you haven't read the book and are likely to read it, stop reading this paragraph right now. Near the end of the book, the bad guys in the story manage to draw him into a trap, a fatal trap. I don't think I've ever read a story where the main character dies quite that way, where not only does he die with a sword in his chest, but so does EVERYTHING he works for. His heir, and younger brother is captured and forced to be a puppet king for the men who killed Javan, and a royal stud to bear future puppet kings. The defeat was near-absolute, and everything I'd read, everything I'd cheered, everything I'd loved was GONE with the stroke of the pen. Literally, when I read the chapter where he died, I screamed so loud the neighbors came to check and see what was wrong. When the book ended with the younger brother, Rhys-Michael captured, drugged, and facing the future as nothing but a puppet, I picked the book up and threw it across the room before stomping it a half-dozen times.

 

Okay, spoilage over

 

What KK did there was spectacular, and so very dangerous as a writer. Taking a character that was involved in two earlier books, that people had come to love, and who HELD the front seat so very well and doing what she did was a great risk and it worked, because I loved the character and looked on him as real.

 

What makes the character real is a combination of things. Just saying "Mike is 6'1, 195 pounds, has blond hair and blue eyes" may tell us what he looks like, but does not make him real. To make a character real it isn't even necessary to describe their physical attributes, but rather to reveal the character over time. When we first see Mike, we notice he's tall and lean. Later, as he's talking to Jennifer, we might notice that his dark brown hair has a habit of falling over his left eye, and that when he looks into the sunset with a longing gaze, the light reflects off of the blue in his eyes and makes them shine, as if with unshed tears. When Mike talks to the caretaker, his deep voice trembles slightly, and the dozen red roses also tremble slightly from his shaking hands. As he bends over the gravestone, and we can see the drop of liquid fall from his eyes we notice that his left leg seems stiff, as if from an old injury. After he places the roses on the gravestone, we notice his long, thin, and pale fingers lovingly caress his sister's name before he stands up again with a look of resolution on his face.

 

Later that night we see him at a party with his best friend, who is shorter, closer in height to the rest of the people. Mike is smiling again, but somehow it doesn't quite reach his eyes, and we notice that look of resolution again as he turns down the offer of a beer. When he speaks, only to ask for soft drink, we hear the firmness in that deep voice, the resolution to not accept the drink again.

 

Obviously that's a rushed way to introduce the character, and not exactly how I'd introduce all the features at once, but Mike, a young man whose sister died when he drunkenly ran off the road becomes more real than if I'd just stated all those things in a sentence or two.

[Comicality]

Well, to me, a character is much MUCH mor than a 'description' at the beginning of the story. One of the reasons that my stories begin with some kind of 'monologue' is because I need the person to be much more 3 dimensional th your average teenager. One of my writing teachers taught me once, that there is a huge difference between 'story' and 'plot'. Because the 'story' can exist sooo much further outside of the 'plot'. The story creates a history for the character, and a future. It explains his actions and reactions to certain things. Smeone with an abusive past will respond differently to criticism, heartbreak, or disappointment, differently than someone who grew up withot it in their lives. Someone who has never been in love before, will respond to sex, flirtation, and fear of rejection, differently from someone who has been there and done that. So creating a full 'life span' for my characters always helps. And I can go even deeper into those life spans like I did with certain spinoffs like "Ryan's Heart", "kiss Of An Angel", and "Taryn's Song". That helps.

 

Also, all of the characters are different parts of my own personality. Even the ones I've based on real people. The way they tak, the way they hndle certain problems, the way they..um....have sex. Hehehe! But I try to put as much of myself into the characters as I can without suffocatng them or denying them room to breathe on their own.

 

To me, characters are one of the most important parts of ANY story. And should be treated with care and respect. I TOTALLY agree with the mention of them not wanting to do what I tell them to! Hehehe! There have been times when I had to build the story around their whims, because they refused to do anything 'out of character'. (I guess...as any responsible actor would) So the character can move the story into avenues that I never would have considered without their 'input'.

 

Thanks for the answers you guys! I really appreciate the feedback on these questions. I hope the next generation of quality writers are taking notes.

 

Just remember, ALL of the past topics and their replies are available in the "Comicality Cafe Archive" just above! So any tips you need, or any questions you want to ask, they can be found there. K?

[Myr]

Wow DK... I had much the same experience when reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I read the whole book in one day in pretty much one sitting. I did have to get up several times because I threw the book in anger. Probably another reason I've been lax in writing HP stuff lately. HP 5 was good... but not good enough.

 

I've read Mercede's Lackey's "Magic's Pawn" a dozen times now. There is certain scene where I cry every time. I just can't help the overpowering emotions I feel when I read it. There is another book of her's, Joust, that has the same affect on me. I've read that scene a dozen times.

 

When I read, I want to feel for the character and be dragged into the story. I try to invoke that when I'm writing, and I always love authors that can pull that off.

[Agincourt]

I find my biggest challenges are (a) creating contrast among the various characters, and ( maintaining and even heightening that contrast as the story progresses. Otherwise, there is great danger that all the characters will tend to converge into a single character.

 

I often draw elements from my own life, but the way I do that varies. For example, in my in-progress story "The Study," my main character (a 15-year-old) is extremely neat -- his bedroom at home is organized and tidy, which garners much comment from his more typically slovenly teenage friends. I purposely chose this to contrast with myself -- my personal spaces tend to be piled with stuff and generally look like a bomb went off. I may give a character great self-confidence in a situation where I personally would not be so confident, just to explore what it would be like.

 

I have found it immensely helpful to jot down some notes about the principal characters very early on in the writing process, and to update those notes as writing progresses. James Frey advocates having the principal characters tell their history with detail in an autobiographical piece that will never be seen by anyone other than the writer. Elizabeth Lyon, in Manuscript Makeover, has proposed an extremely detailed catalog of character attributes that the writer can use to flesh people out:

 

Physical Appearance

:

 

Gender

 

Age

 

Height

 

Weight

 

Body build

 

Body hair

 

Race

 

Skin color

 

Skin texture

 

Hair body and style

 

Hair texture and color

 

Smell of hair

 

Head size and shape

 

Facial hair

 

Eye shape and color

 

Shape of brow

 

Shape and fullness of lips

 

Teeth size and color

 

Personal grooming

 

Handshake

 

Hands

 

Nails

 

Body smell

 

Added scents

 

Carriage and posture

 

Activity level (lethergic to manic, focused to attention deficit)

 

Deformities

 

Hereditary physical attributes

 

Scars

 

Overall health

 

Habitual stances and gestures

 

Voice quality -- volume and timbre and pitch (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass)

 

Quality of laugh

 

Head-to-toe clothing (style, functionality, quality)

 

Accessories (jewelry, bags, satchels, gloves, scarves, hats)

 

Emotional/Intellectual Disposition

:

 

Attitudes (strongly held opinions, beliefs, values, viewpoints, judgments, mindsets, biases, prejudices, superstitions, pet peeves, preferences)

 

Passions (desires, keen interests, needs, yearnings, obsessions)

 

Emotions hidden or obvious

 

-- Most dominant emotion (sad, mad, glad, inscrutable) and how it is shown or expressed

 

-- Sense of humor and expression of it (jokes, puns, silly humor, slapstick, wry, sarcastic, dirty, whoesome, raunchy, perverse, flirtatious, irreverent, political, racial, sexist)

 

-- Temperament (introvert to extrovert)

 

-- Operating mode (logical thinker to intuitive hunch taker; sensate/empirically based to feeling/emotionally based)

 

-- Intellectual type (scholarly/abstract, experiential/concrete, quick, slow, bright, dull, methodical, multitasking)

 

-- Dominant perception (tactile, visual, auditory)

 

-- Orientation to life (cynic, pessimist, realist, optimist, idealist)

 

-- Hard-wiring (compulsive/thorough, phobic/fearful, vacillating mood/sensitive, impulsive/risk-taking, neuroses/distortions, psychoses/without basis in reality)

 

Results of the above

:

 

Moral codes and behavior

 

Political and religious beliefs

 

Personal and lifestyle habits and choices

 

Leisure-time preferences

 

Job choices

 

Favorite channels and programs on radio and TV

 

Games and frequented sites on the internet

 

Selections of magazines, newspapers, books

 

Obviously, not every one of these items will be significant or meaningful for every character, and not every character will warrant this kind of depth and detail. But it opens up a lot of possibilities to at least think about these things, especially when seeking to make the various characters stand out from one another and not blend into minor variations on the same theme.

 

A

[Nephylim]

I never create a character at the beginning of a story. I also 'see' my stories as if they are replaying as a film on a screen. I see the people who are already in existence, they are there complete and whole and it's up to me to describe them and the things they do. i don't make them up, I don't create the character I just describe them.