A NOVEL Writing Site.com » Characterization

Writing Lesson 34 – Creating a Story World

melinda — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:00:41 +0000

Many of my posts this year focused on character development. In this lesson, I want to touch on research.

Get to “know” your characters through research…

In a character driven novel, the writer must learn what makes the character act a certain way. By the time I start a novel, I know my character as I might know a friend. I’ve interviewed them, filled out character question forms, studied their personality type, have visual images of them, and often hear them speaking in my head. No, I’m not crazy because my characters talk to me. I know them well enough to anticipate how a conversation might flow and how they might react in a certain setting or circumstance. I’ve done my research.

We can study books written about developing characters. We find help on the Internet, in other novels, and via personality tests. Some authors use the Myers-Briggs personality test to decide how a character might respond. Another psychological formula is the Enneagram of personality. I’m sure you could find others with a web search. These types of tests dig deep into the reactions and actions of people based on their emotional traits. They also help to show how characters will interact with each other.

If someone passes on a form or you look something up on a website, print a copy, or bookmark it on your computer. You might use it many times. I use some of author Kathy Carmichael’s website tools to assist with novel and character development. She gave me permission to pass along parts of her information as I wrote these lessons. Colleen Coble handed out lists of character traits and questions for character interviews at a writers’ conference. She granted me permission to use them for teaching. I appreciate their assistance. There are many tools available. Dig into the sources you find. Use a wide range of tools to create unforgettable characters and story worlds.

Research can also help you create realistic settings…

Sci-fi and historical stories have different worlds, but even contemporary stories come alive when the setting is vivid. You’ll need to plan and research for accuracy. Create a method of storing ideas, pictures, or information about that world and its people.

Pictures help me learn about my characters and about their story world. In my current work, the hero is a kayaker and a river rafting guide. I visited a location where I could take pictures of kayakers and the river rapids. Now, when I write a river scene, I’ll try to reproduce those pictures via words. I post the pictures on a bulletin board beside my computer so I have a visual reminder as I create a story and location.

In a previous book, I needed pictures of the town, a church, furniture inside a big house, and a quilt pattern for each bed. I combed through Internet sites and magazines for ideas. In this fictional story world, there might be a woodland scene from a photo I took, a fireplace I found on the web, or a kitchen from a magazine. I piece them together to create the world I want the reader to see. This type of research adds depth and details to your location and your characters.

At times, it may help to interview real people if we need to learn about their profession or some place we want to include. This can especially be true in historical novels or in some field where you have little experience. Most people are happy to answer your questions. Be sure to thank them and give credit for their assistance when you publish the novel.

Collect pictures of people from magazines and keep them in a folder. Use them to decide on hair color, facial shapes, voices, and the personality of your character.
Keep photos of various places and things—mountains, beaches, woodlands, lakes, seascapes, houses, furniture, or any item that might fit with a writing theme you have in your head.

Exercise: Write a scene using a picture of a location. Show your character’s emotions in that place using what you’ve learned about showing vs. telling. Are they happy, sad, afraid, etc.? Use dialogue or show their thoughts about where they are or what they’re doing. Is the place peaceful, noisy, frightening, isolated, challenging, etc.?

…And don’t forget to visit the contest site and get started on your entry!

Writing Lesson 32 – Let Me Show You How to Show

lynn — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:00:41 +0000

“Showing vs. Telling”

We’ve written much about this concept of using vivid action, description, and dialogue to show what’s happening in a story rather than simply telling readers about what happens.

It would be fitting, perhaps, to “show” you an example.

Below is the first paragraph of a scene in my work in progress (wip), More Precious Than Gold. Eliza is my heroine. The town’s doctor is in jail, and Eliza’s father has just been shot by an intruder who wandered into their home after a riot. Here’s how it appeared before the final edit.

Before:

A neighbor heard the shot. An eternity passed before he returned with a doctor, but Eliza understood. One was in jail and another in hiding as an accomplice. Who knew where the sympathies of the town’s other physicians lay? She didn’t ask, and she didn’t care at that point. Stanching the flow of blood was of paramount importance.

Do you see how this paragraph “tells” you about what’s happening? You can almost hear the writer (um…that would be me) narrating the story. I “tell” you that the neighbor heard the shot. I imply that he went for a doctor and “tell” you that it took a long time. While there’s nothing particularly wrong with that, it’s just not very interesting. There’s lots of potential tension in this scene. It would be so much better to “show” the action as it unfolds, allowing readers to see through the POV (point of view) character’s eyes. Look what I did with it.

After:

Eliza snatched a shawl from the hall tree and pressed it to Papa’s wounds as she cradled his head in her lap. The door creaked open, squeezing them against the wall. She stifled a cry and leaned forward, shielding him with her body.

It was only a neighbor. “I heard a shot. Do you . . . oh, Lord! I’ll get help.”

An eternity passed before he returned with a doctor in tow, but Eliza understood. One was in jail and another in hiding as an accomplice. Who knew where the sympathies of the town’s other physicians lay? She didn’t ask, and she didn’t care at that point. Stanching the flow of blood was of paramount importance.

There are still some “telling” sentences, but they center on Eliza, setting the scene for new sentences that play up the action (snatching the shawl, pressing it to the wound) and emotion (trying not to scream, shielding the victim) or the sensory aspects of the scene (the creaking door, feeling squeezed).

The vilest offender in the early version of this paragraph was the first sentence where I “told” you the neighbor heard the shot. If I’m writing from Eliza’s POV, she could only assume this, at best. Look how much more interesting it is to convert that sentence to dialogue that shows the same information, Eliza’s relief, the neighbor’s alarm.

Exercise:

Use my original paragraph of choose one of your own that seems to buffer the action by “telling” it. Using vivid action verbs, sensory elements, and dialogue, experiment with ways you could “show” the story unfolding.

p.s.—Papa doesn’t die, so you can breathe easy.

p.p.s.—I have done so many edits on this wip that I have lost count. This isn’t unusual for a professional writer. Hemingway rewrote the last chapter of The Old Man and the Sea 40 times before he was pleased with it! Writing is a tedious job, but every improvement moves the story from “good” closer to “excellent.”

Writing Lesson 29 – Showing Actions and Emotions

melinda — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:00:23 +0000

We all have unique facial expressions and gestures. In a novel, these make each character different. Joe may frown when he’s thinking. Mary may pull her eyebrows together. Tracy might purse her lips and tap a finger against them. You might cross your arms and tap your foot.

We’ve discussed showing vs. telling in several lessons. This is an important aspect of writing. I can tell you about my trip to the beach, but you understand it better when I show you a picture. You were not there to taste the salt, see the waves, feel the sun, touch the powdery sand, or hear the call of the seagulls. In a novel, we seldom have pictures. You must experience each character’s actions and emotions through the word pictures the author paints.

When a writer shows a clear picture via words, the reader sees the image. As you write, make the scene play like a movie clip or a series of snapshots. The story comes through the eyes of one character—the point of view character in that scene.

How do you show an action? I could say that Jane was angry. If I describe her as red-faced, throwing toys, yelling, and stomping around the room, you get a picture of her anger.

Describing a facial expression or a gesture is often necessary. Do his eyes light up when he smiles at his toddler? Does she stare at the ground when her mother scolds her for stealing from the cookie jar? Did silent tears roll down her cheeks when she lost her pet, or did her chest heave with sobs? Was he leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed? These examples evoke an image in your mind. They show the action.

Become a people watcher. Observe actions and facial expressions at school, in church, on the streets, and in restaurant. Write them down and practice painting the image with words so your reader sees what you have seen.

Exercise:

Show these actions in a paragraph without naming the emotion.

Joy
Anger
Fear
Sorrow

Writing Lesson 28 – Randomness

Teri Dawn Smith — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:00:48 +0000

A Creativity Tool

At any point when you create your story, you will come to places where you need to do some brainstorming. It could be at the beginning when an idea first begins to germinate. You’ll need to choose your characters, their profession, the goals, conflicts, and more.

Or maybe it’ll be in the middle of a scene where a character enters a room, and you need to decide what it is she notices. What’s that little detail that will catch her attention when it might not someone else’s? Coming up blank?

Randomness makes a great tool for such a decision. For instance, if you need to choose a profession for your character but either come up with an empty page or the same old ideas you used for the last story, try this.

Select a random letter of the alphabet. One of those red Scattergories cubes with letters works great. Or a bag of Scrabble letters will do. Suppose we roll the letter “s”. Let’s brainstorm professions beginning with the letter “s”. Try for at least ten.

Softball player
Ship’s captain
Singer
Slap stick comedian
Salmon fisherman
Sacker at a grocery store
Skater, maybe at the Olympics
Scientist—one in the Space station
Surgeon
Senator

Maybe one of these becomes your next hero. If not, roll again and make another list. Since you’re using a random letter, it forces your mind to go in directions it might not otherwise.

You can use this to choose a single item as well. Just for fun, let’s imagine a scene where someone knocks over a girl’s purse. What unusual thing might fall out? Let’s roll a “d” this time. (I wish you were here to call out the words with me!)

Dart
Diaper
Dip
Diamond
Daisy
Dollar
Dandelion
Dates
Dominos
Dragon

Hmm. I think I’ll choose dominos. Why would a girl carry them in her purse? Does she like to challenge folks to a game? Or maybe they belonged to her father who died, and she likes to keep them close. In any case, I don’t think she’ll be happy when they spill out of her purse.

See how it works? If you worked hard and pushed past ten items listing twenty, who knows what you’d come up with!

Another way to use randomness is to open a book and, without looking, put your finger on a word. Brainstorm how that word may help you. Sometimes it won’t necessarily be the word you landed on that you use, but the word will take your mind in a different direction than you expected, and you just may come up with something unique.

Need a new conflict for your character? Roll the Scattergories cube. Need to get your character out of a fix? Reach for a Scrabble letter. Need a new setting? Open a book and let your finger land on a word. Even if the word doesn’t seem to work, keep pressing through for ideas that branch from that word.

I challenge you. Any time you’re stuck or need a fresh idea. Try randomness. It’s my favorite creativity tool.

Writing Lesson 24 – Unique Character Voices

melinda — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:00:52 +0000

Today we’ll focus on your character’s speech and mannerisms. In past lessons, we’ve discussed external and internal goals, core values and conflicts, physical details, and personality traits. Another layer in a character’s personality is speech. Each layer adds depth and makes your reader feel as if they know this person. Readers sometimes see themselves in your character. If they can identify with the character and develop a relationship with them, they’re more likely to remember the novel or story. That achieves your goal—unforgettable characters.

Think of Luke Skywalker. Are his actions around Princess Leah and Darth Vader the same? Does he talk with Han Solo the same way he talks with Yoda?

To make this personal, is a conversation with your parents the same as a chat with your best friend? Are your actions the same? Of course they aren’t.

Each character has a unique voice and mannerisms. Some may use proper English while others wouldn’t. As your write dialogue, have your characters speak the way they would in real life. Sentence fragments and poor grammar often show up in dialogue.

Shy and nervous Tracy, my artist in a previous lesson, might have a hard time talking with her employer. She might stutter or stumble over her words. However, she could explain the story behind her painting with ease if she’s talking with her best friend. You get the idea.

Take the characters you’ve created in previous lessons. Add another layer by giving each one a unique voice.

Writing lesson:

Create some dialogue. Try at least two of my suggestions from the list below or come up with another relationship. Use the same topic each time. Choose one of the characters you’ve already developed. By now, you should know them pretty well. How would they sound and act?

Write a dialogue scene between your character and his/her best friend.
Try one with a parent.
Choose a scene with their boyfriend/girlfriend.
Have the same discussion with a grandparent.
Talk with a teacher or an employer.
Discuss the issue with a brother or sister.

Writing Lesson 19 – Conflict of Values

melinda — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:00:06 +0000

Creating Unforgettable Characters, Part 4

In my last post we explored Internal and External Goals. Each of us has things we value. It makes us ‘tick.’ We don’t always recognize, though, what our values or goals are. We roll on in life doing what we believe is right and never stop to ask why we act the way we do or if our actions are correct.

When you create characters, spice things up with conflict. Your story and the characters become more interesting when life isn’t normal. Giving your characters conflicting values is one way to do that.

Let’s say your hero places money above everything else in life. That may seem selfish, but it’s who he is. Money is his ‘core value’ or his ‘internal goal.’ Place him in a position to lose his money and you have a conflict. Give him a reason to spend his money on a worthy cause that he would normally ignore. You’ve created a deeper conflict. Now he’s in a position that requires a choice. It will challenge his core value and could bring about a change in the way he thinks and behaves.

Example: Mr. Rich loves his money. He meets a person who touches his heart. This person needs money and is in a desperate situation. Mr. Rich’s money would change their life. Nothing has ever tempted him to part with his money. He has a huge internal conflict. Will Mr. Rich keep his money and ignore this person? Will he follow the leading of his heart, change his core value, and share the wealth? What would it take to make him change his attitude? If he shares, will it cause a permanent change or will he go back to life as usual?

Did you recognize the story of Scrooge in the example? Tiny Tim created a conflict that forced Scrooge to make a choice. This “internal conflict” propelled the story. It forced Scrooge to make a choice and it uncovered a deeper value. He learned that people are more important than money. His core value changed. Scrooge learns some hard lessons before he lets go of his money. In his case, it’s a permanent change.

Writing lesson

Examine the internal goals of a character you’re creating. Insert something that will challenge their core value. Choose something that forces him or her to make a hard choice. Some people don’t change when the conflicts come. They remain the same and never grow. And there could be a time when their core value is correct and the conflicts they face confirm this.

Choose one of the following items for your writing lesson.

Show by his or her actions how the conflict makes a positve change in their core value. Show how they fail to change when the conflict arises.
Show how your character faces a conflict that proves their core values were correct. Show how they maintain that value when it’s challenged.

Writing Lesson 16 – Picking Ripe Characters

Teri Dawn Smith — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:00:35 +0000

Stories Start on the Brink of Change

When you’re thinking about the characters for your story, choose ripe characters. Concoct a man who is on the brink of a choice. Or a woman who must make a moral decision, say between saving her job or exposing a lie. A ripe character stands on the precipice of a journey that will leave him a changed person.

Take the father of Nemo in the movie Finding Nemo. He was a ripe character because at the beginning, he obsessed over the danger of his son going off to the kindergarten school of fish and getting too close to the edge of the great, unknown ocean. He was ripe to lose his son because the thing he feared was only minutes away.

John Bunyan chose Christian as a ripe character in Pilgrim’s Progress. His burden of sin left him on the threshold of one of literature’s most famous journeys.

You can discover a ripe character of your own by asking some questions.

What is the one thing that this character will not give up?
What is his greatest fear?
What does he most need?
What would it take to make this character do something that he would normally never do?
What is the one thing that he will avoid at all costs?

These questions may help you to discover a character that is like an unstable element on the periodic table. Mix it with another element under the right circumstances, and a major reaction is underway.

Exercises

Analyze The Wizard of Oz. In what way was Dorothy a ripe character?
Think about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. How was Alice a ripe character?
Ask your character the questions listed above.
In the comment section below, tell us how your character is ripe.

Writing Lesson 13 – Digging for Goals

melinda — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:00:04 +0000

Creating Unforgettable Characters, Part 3

Dig up a goal to motivate your characters into action. They will have depth and your story will come alive. Delve into each character’s personality and ask about the hidden fears, secrets, and the values. Find out what makes them tick.

Interview the characters you’ve created. Ask about their external goals first. What is their desire? What do they want in life? Example: Would he seek wealth at any cost? Does she wish for a home and a family? Is his dream to be the first man on Mars? Does your villain long to crush his former boss?

If you’ve followed my other lessons, you’ve gone past the external appearance. You created physical traits and gave each character personality traits in previous lessons. Digging deep into their hearts will help the reader relate to your characters.

List an external goal for each of your characters—the thing they want most in life.

For example, I created a shy, nervous artist in the last lesson. Let’s say her ‘external goal’ is to sell her paintings. That simple goal is an important part of the story but it is only one layer of her personality. There may be a gold mine of information hidden beneath her desire.

Dig deeper and discover the ‘internal goals’ in your characters. What is she honestly seeking in life? What is her greatest fear? Are there things in her life she needs to change? What keeps her from reaching the external goal? Is her goal what is best for her and those she loves? Is she hiding secrets? Do these affect her or her loved ones? Example: Tracy may say she wants to sell her paintings. What she truly wants is acceptance, because she believes she isn’t worthy of love.
List some of the ‘internal’ things you discover about your characters as you get to know them.
Look at some of your favorite books and identify the internal and external goals of the characters.

We’ll talk about these goals and adding conflicts that expand the character’s personality in our next lesson.

Writing Lesson 12 – Creating Inner Conflict

Teri Dawn Smith — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:00:35 +0000

Creating Emotion in Writing

Almost every writing class or craft book will tell you the same thing: fiction must create a compelling emotional experience. The problem is these teachers also let you know that if your character cries, the reader probably won’t.

So how do you build this emotion? Simply writing highly emotional phrases such as her heart pounded inside her chest won’t do the trick. Naming the emotion won’t work either. (She was angry.) You need instead to build warring emotions inside the character.

Remember the goal and motivation from Lesson One? Write it down again. Make sure the goal is concrete and difficult to reach. You need the concrete goal so the reader will know whether or not the hero obtains it. Sometimes students tell me their hero just wants to live a peaceable life. Personally, I think they need a more precise goal. Dig deeper.

Now that you’ve got a strong goal, write the opposite of that goal. How could your hero want these two opposite things? Suppose your hero wants to stop a villain from robbing a bank. Why might he not want to stop it? What if the thief was his younger brother? He wants to stop the robbery, but he doesn’t want to expose his own brother. Now you have warring emotions building inside the hero. Force him to make a choice: do the honest thing and stop the robbery or betray his own brother.

Forcing your hero to take a journey he dislikes, such as Finding Nemo or Shrek, causes conflicting emotions. They have a pressing need to go, but they don’t really want to. Or sending him on a journey he really wants, but placing road blocks that make him want to give up creates an emotional war inside. He wants this, but he doesn’t. Now he not only has to overcome the outer obstacles or the antagonist who hinders him, but he also has to struggle with himself.

The inner conflict of the character keeps a reader turning pages. Try it with your own hero and see if the story gains strength.

Exercise:

Pick one of your favorite books. Think about the hero’s goal. Do they have strong motives for wanting their goal? Is there also a reason for not wanting it? Can you identity the conflicting emotions within the main character?
Write down three reasons why your protagonist wants to reach his goal.
Write down three reasons why he might not want to reach the goal.
Tell me about the warring emotions of your character in the comment section below.

Writing Lesson 10 – Know Your Enemy

michelle — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:11 +0000

Create Villains as Real as Your Heroes

When you’re planning a story, it is natural to pour your efforts into developing your protagonist’s character. You may spend a lot of time imagining his or her history, strengths, weaknesses, physical appearance . . . even, perhaps, what he or she eats for breakfast!

What if you spent just as much time thinking about your story’s antagonist? This person is the one blocking your hero from achieving his goal. For instance, if Red Riding Hood is the protagonist in the fairy tale, then who is her antagonist?

Yep. The hungry wolf!

We know a lot about Red Riding Hood: how she dressed, her goal in the story (to deliver a basket of goodies to her grandmother’s house), her strengths (friendly) and her weaknesses (not always good at following her mom’s instructions). Most of us see the wolf in the story as a single-dimensional character. He’s sneaky. And he’s ravenous.

What if you took a few minutes to ponder the wolf’s character? What might you say about his appearance? His history? His motivations? His strengths?

Perhaps you’d discover that this intelligent but desperate creature had chosen to ignore doing the right thing (not lying to Red Riding Hood) because he hadn’t eaten in a week.

Now . . . what might happen if you spent some time getting to know your story’s antagonist? If you give your story’s conflict-causing “bad guy” a good trait or a believable reason for his poor behavior, the conflict between your hero and your antagonist will be more believable – and your fiction will be more truthful.

Exercise: Spend some time developing your story’s antagonist.