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CHARACTERS:
INTRODUCTION & THE BASICS
First things first, of course. I make no claim to be a master of fiction
writing. However, I do read plenty. And in reading a couple of review
requests, the primary thing that I feel needs to be worked on is characters,
and as a reader, IÕve got some advice that I think most writers can
appreciate. After all, IÕm no different- I struggle with characters and
characterization every day. IÕm going to do a couple of essays on
characterization and this is a revision of the first one. IÕm going to lay out the ground rules, as I see them, for basic
characterization. Now, every rule is made to be broken, but IÕm a firm
believer in the need to learn and follow a rule before you can understand how
to break the rule without the rule breaking you.
DEFINITION: Character.
IÕm not going to provide all the reasons why I define something the way I
do, because it would take up too much space. And I understand you probably
have different definitions of your own, and I donÕt expect to change them.
These definitions are the vocabulary I use throughout the essay so that there
isnÕt any confusion.
A character is any entity that is given persona in any piece of writing.
As a writer you can give a lamp thoughts, motivation, passion- you can make
it a character. Let us not forget the lesson taught by MagritteÕs The
Treachery of Images; Ceci nÕest pas une pipe. This is not
a pipe. In writing nonfiction, about yourself, about someone else who
actually exist, or otherwise, their existence is
separate from the writing. In the work, they become a character. Or you
become a character. So if you are writing anything involving yourself,
memoirs, or otherwise, remember: I canÕt see you but through your work, how
you describe yourself. The process is no different than if it were a fiction
and I were trying to get a grasp on a fictional character. But, if you arenÕt
giving it any personality at all, then it isnÕt a character.
RULE #1: Your reader, unless you are very lucky, is human. Humans relate best
to other humans.
Period. When a human is relating to something that isnÕt a human, we tend to
emphasize and even insert human characteristics so that we can cope with the
inability to understand it better. For example, I have a ferret. SheÕs a
smart little creature, and really friendly. But ÒSmartÓ and ÒfriendlyÓ are
distinctly human aspects. IÕve got no idea whatÕs going on in her head or how
it works, but when I give her human characteristics I can understand it
better. To understand this a little better, look at the inverse. Would you
call a person ÒsmartÓ just because he was capable of escaping his room, or
understand a few rudimentary commands? Would you call him smart even though
he had accidents sometimes, and went to the bathroom on your carpet? Would
you call him ÒfriendlyÓ simply because he did not ever bite you, and his
primary concern seemed to be smelling you? Of course
not! Another great example of this is the Captain and his ship. HeÕll refer
to his ship with gender, heÕll give it a name and speak about it as if it
were a close friend; and while to him the ship is a close friend, it is not
as if the ship can possibly feel the same way about him. And heÕll call the
ocean ÒsheÓ, and refer to bad weather as ÒangryÓ waters; but you get the
point, I hope.
RULE #2: A reader must, on some level, empathize or sympathize with at least
one of your characters.
This is the only way you can get your reader to get emotionally involved with
the story, and if they canÕt get emotionally involved (In a positive way,
anyways, IÕm discounting the emotional involvement of hating a piece,
although even that is sometimes the objective.) they wonÕt enjoy the story.
It wonÕt move them, it wonÕt make them think, and they wonÕt walk away from
it with anything. The reason that this is the only way you can get readers
emotionally involved in the story is rule #1; humans relate to other humans.
So, to get a human to relate to your story, you have to have a human in the
story.
DEFINITION: Characterization
The process of making one of your characters more human is called
Characterization.
This is what you are doing with your characters throughout the story. Merely
establishing them as characters makes them more human because we
intrinsically expect characters to be human in some way.
DEFINITION: Personification
Personification is the act of giving an inhuman object personality, that is,
human characteristics. Technically characterization is personification,
because characters arenÕt actually human- but, insofar as writing fiction
goes, personification is the act of characterizing a character that is not
defined as human. This carries some slightly different rules and aspects, and
IÕll be writing a piece later covering mostly
personification, but remember that what iÕm
teaching for characterization applies to personification.
RULE #3: Humans think, feel, and act for reasons.
This is the first and most important thing I have to say about
characterization: if your character is not doing something for a reason (even
a hidden one, but mystery and ambiguity is a whole other essay) then thereÕs
not any way IÕm going to relate. If I canÕt understand the reason, then I
wonÕt be able to understand the character nor relate.
DEFINITION: MOTIVATION
Motivation is the reason characters think, feel, or act.
RULE #4: A character with motivation is immediately more realistic and
effective than one without.
While it has its limits, the more motivation, the better. Now that we are
into rules more directly applicable to writing, lets look at two examples:
(A) Bill was tired. He slowly rose out of his antique mahogany chair, an
early 1920Õs rocker, and ambled down the stairs. He opened up the fridge
door, and poured himself a glass of milk. A casual taste indicated that the
milk had turned; he drank it, fitfully, anyways.
(B) Ted had spent a long day working at his construction job and was
currently sitting on an old chair his grandfather had originally owned.
Thirsty, he walked downstairs and poured himself a glass of milk. The first
sip told him that the milk was sour. He was used to this, though, and drank
it anyways. His system was strong enough to handle it, and if he could afford
fresh milk, well, it would already be in his fridge.
ThereÕs a lot of information about Bill. We know what kind of chair Bill has,
how he walked down the stairs. What kind of taste he took before we learn how
he actually drank the milk. But what do we learn about Bill? Only that heÕs
willing to drink a glass of sour milk, and that he owns antique furniture. As
a reader, do you really care that IÕm not going to write any more of his
story? But lets take a look at Ted.
ThereÕs a lot less about what Ted is doing and how he was doing it than there
was with Bill, and the words about what heÕs doing are much less descriptive.
But suddenly Ted seems that much more realistic, because we know so much more
about him. Instead of being disgusted by his determination to drink the sour
milk, we feel bad about his situation. We know WHY he feels the way he does
and so instead of wanting to know why he does what he does, we want to know
more about him.
RULE #5: All humans are unique, and your character should be too.
Even archetypal characters need to be unique. Motivation is one of the most
important things that show how your character is unique, and the next one up
on the list is specifics. Tiny details. You donÕt need a lot of them, just
the ones that show your character as unique. IÕm in no way unique if I smoke
cigarettes, but if I tell you that I always open up a pack of cigarettes with
one hand by pushing the two corners below the lid together, I do seem much
more unique. It narrows me down into a smaller group of people, and if I gave
you a few other things that narrowed me down into small groups of people ItÕd
be clear that I was unlike everybody else. People see themselves as unique,
so they like to see unique people.
This is by no means a complete guide to characterization. This is just
what I feel are the most rudimentary things, and what I look for most when I
write something. IÕve got a few more planned:
The Heroes Journey, Plot and Conflict
Dialogue and Relationships Between Characters
Intrigue, Mystery, and Ambiguity: Why and Why Not
Voice and Characters
Nonhumans as characters: Personification
Characters and Metaphor
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