It’s All About Character
When you write a story, there’s a lot of stuff to fill in. Of course there’s the story, the
plot as it may be, the telling of the tale. How about the setting, you know, the house,
the town, even the kitchen? As you work out all of the hundreds of details that are
going to make your story a story, don’t forget to put a little extra sweat into those
characters that are going to populate the tale. A great setting, even a strong plot,
isn’t going to help much if your characters fall flat.
A character is more than just Bob who lives in a little Northern town and works at
the local mill. Bob is who he is, Bob reacts how he reacts, Bob goes and does and
says what he does, all because of who he is and what his life is like and what his
history is and what his situation is. Tony might live in that same little Northern town
and work at the same local mill, but if these two characters were real people and
you followed them around for a few days, you would see that they were nothing
alike, not inside.
So often when I read the work of new writers, I spot Jane Doe and John Smith over
and over again in the writing. It seems every character in the story is the same
person. Sure, they have different names, different jobs, lives, are different ages, but
they all talk the same, think the same, act and react the same. In real life, this
doesn’t happen, unless the Pod people show up.
What can you do to keep Jane Does and John Smith from taking over your story?
It’s really easy…okay…it’s kind of easy. It just takes a little work. A little time and
effort spent on each character, even that little walk through character that is only
going to pop up now and again. This work starts with just thinking about who you
want and need a character to be. Then you dig a little deeper. Maybe you do this
by just typing in information you think up about him or her, maybe you fill in a
character chart on the character or do some kind character interview, or maybe
even a mixture of it all. What ever it is, you need to use what tools work for you to
help you make those walking bones become flesh and blood. The more important a
character is to your story, all the better you should know that character, no matter if
she is the heroine or the villain.
Take Bob and Tony.
Bob was born in Louisiana and raised on a small farm. His father was tough and
seldom fair. They were poor, and Bob learned to work hard at an early age. As hard
as his father could be, he was always gentle and respectful with women. Bob’s
mom worked hard on the farm too, because it was a small family farm and it took
them all working hard to keep things going, but his father cared for her and
protected her, and worked to please her as much as he could.
When Bob was nineteen, they lost the family farm. When his family moved to town
and his father took a good job there, Bob felt he was needed any more and for the
first time in his life, decided to put his own wants first. He traveled and moved from
job to job. Until he landed and settled in that small Northern town where he found a
job he loved and people who made him feel welcome. He even liked the weather.
When Bob speaks, you’ll hear his southern drawl. Bob’s family farm raised both
sugarcane and milk cows. He knows a lot about both. He isn’t scared of hard work
and grew up to be a pretty tough man himself, though unlike his father, he bends
over backwards to be fair because he got the wrong end of fair too many times. His
views of women and marriage came from his family. He doesn’t plan on divorce and
thinks women are strong but need to be cared for. He’s had two serious girlfriends,
but things didn’t work out. He’s still looking for the woman he’s going to marry.
Bob also likes spicy foods, strong whiskey but doesn’t drink often, he doesn’t cook
anything that takes more than a couple of steps or the pushing of a microwave
button, he loves dogs, in fact, he loves all animals and doesn’t hunt, even though
he had done so with his father often to put food on the table. Bob likes horror
moved, motorbikes, and believe it or not, the smell of flowers because his mother
used to almost always keep a bunch of some kind of flowers on the table in the
kitchen. The smell of flowers reminds him of her.
Tony grew up one town over from where he works at the mill. His mom was on her
third marriage by the time he was ten, but at least Mr. Third had money and staying
power. Mr. Third gave in to Tony’s mom anytime she shed a few tears, and she
often laughed about what an easy touch he was. The man wasn’t too bad of a
stepfather though, and spent time with Tony, took him on out of state hunting and
fishing trips each summer.
Tony fits in well with a lot of the people in town. He’s kin to some of them. His
stepfather got him the job at the mill. Tony knows this is about his last chance. Mr.
Third paid for college….two of them….but Tony ended up flunking out of one and
getting kicked out of the other. Mr. Third got him a few jobs during and after, but
Tony likes free time a lot better than working.
This time though, his mom has put her foot down. There will be no more schooling,
no more handouts, no more anything. Tony will do the best he can at this job and
take care of himself, or live on the streets. She no longer cares and isn’t going to
see any more money wasted on him.
Tony does a good job at work, but doesn’t do one more thing than he has to, or
spend one minute longer there than he has to. He loves to spend his nights off at
one of the local bars. He likes junk food better than meals, and his favorite drink
anytime of year is ice-cold beer. He’s experimented with some drugs, but nothing
too heavy or too often. He dates a lot, but never the same woman for very long. He
doesn’t really trust women. They all seem to remind him too much of his mom. It
doesn’t take them long to start trying to find out how much he earns and what he
owns. Anytime things don’t go their way, they are usually pretty quick to turn on the
tears or the guilt. He just doesn’t need the hassle.
He likes war movies and comedies, video and computer games, and spends a lot of
time on line.
See, two guys, same age, live in the same town, work at the same job, but if neither
would do the same thing for fun or eat the same thing as a favorite, or even react to
a woman the same way.
That’s why when you write a story filled with Jane Doe’s and John Smith’s, people
talk about cardboard cutouts. If someone reads a chapter of your story and meets
three characters in that chapter, each of those characters should be, well, be a
character.
If they were talking together, their speech would be a little different. One might have
an accent, one might be bad about repeating things, one might curse, another might
always have some kind of smart comeback. If someone has a lot of college behind
them, they will probably use different words and ways of saying things than
someone who didn’t even finish high school. A nurse might compare things to some
medical situation, like if someone blushed she might say that the person’s face was
as red as if she were burning up with a fever. A Louisiana cook might compare a
blush to being as red as a fresh boiled crawfish.
If these characters went out for a meal together, they wouldn’t each order a taco
with extra hot sauce and beer in a bottle—unless that was all they could buy there
or all they could afford. Even then, they wouldn’t all request extra hot sauce.
Along that same line, they would each pick a different fun evening, a different kind
of movie, ect… Even if they all went to the same place or the same movie, they
would each act and react differently.
Different is all you have to remember. We are all different, even twins. I have a
good friend who has a twin sister. I can’t tell them apart by looking unless it’s one of
those times when they aren’t wearing close to the same hairstyle. And yet, if I see
one of them in a flower shop, I know which one it is, because the other one doesn’t
care for plants at all. If I talk to one of them for a moment, after just a couple of
sentences, I know which one I’m speaking too. When we were in high school I could
even tell sometimes just by what clothes one was wearing or what kind of notebook
one carried. One liked short skirts, one jeans. One liked notebooks with animals on
it, and one seemed to always have a solid colored notebook with drawings all over
the cover that she did while sitting in class.
So, if a reader picks your story, when she meets each character, even if their
names aren’t used in a section, just by speech, action, taste and style, they should
be able to tell which character is which. And if you know your characters well
enough, you should be able to pull that off with ease.
It just takes a lot of work beforehand to make it that easy later.
You can find a free character chart at http://www.charlottedillon.
com/CharacterChart.html
Charlotte Dillon ~ www.charlottedillon.com
plot as it may be, the telling of the tale. How about the setting, you know, the house,
the town, even the kitchen? As you work out all of the hundreds of details that are
going to make your story a story, don’t forget to put a little extra sweat into those
characters that are going to populate the tale. A great setting, even a strong plot,
isn’t going to help much if your characters fall flat.
A character is more than just Bob who lives in a little Northern town and works at
the local mill. Bob is who he is, Bob reacts how he reacts, Bob goes and does and
says what he does, all because of who he is and what his life is like and what his
history is and what his situation is. Tony might live in that same little Northern town
and work at the same local mill, but if these two characters were real people and
you followed them around for a few days, you would see that they were nothing
alike, not inside.
So often when I read the work of new writers, I spot Jane Doe and John Smith over
and over again in the writing. It seems every character in the story is the same
person. Sure, they have different names, different jobs, lives, are different ages, but
they all talk the same, think the same, act and react the same. In real life, this
doesn’t happen, unless the Pod people show up.
What can you do to keep Jane Does and John Smith from taking over your story?
It’s really easy…okay…it’s kind of easy. It just takes a little work. A little time and
effort spent on each character, even that little walk through character that is only
going to pop up now and again. This work starts with just thinking about who you
want and need a character to be. Then you dig a little deeper. Maybe you do this
by just typing in information you think up about him or her, maybe you fill in a
character chart on the character or do some kind character interview, or maybe
even a mixture of it all. What ever it is, you need to use what tools work for you to
help you make those walking bones become flesh and blood. The more important a
character is to your story, all the better you should know that character, no matter if
she is the heroine or the villain.
Take Bob and Tony.
Bob was born in Louisiana and raised on a small farm. His father was tough and
seldom fair. They were poor, and Bob learned to work hard at an early age. As hard
as his father could be, he was always gentle and respectful with women. Bob’s
mom worked hard on the farm too, because it was a small family farm and it took
them all working hard to keep things going, but his father cared for her and
protected her, and worked to please her as much as he could.
When Bob was nineteen, they lost the family farm. When his family moved to town
and his father took a good job there, Bob felt he was needed any more and for the
first time in his life, decided to put his own wants first. He traveled and moved from
job to job. Until he landed and settled in that small Northern town where he found a
job he loved and people who made him feel welcome. He even liked the weather.
When Bob speaks, you’ll hear his southern drawl. Bob’s family farm raised both
sugarcane and milk cows. He knows a lot about both. He isn’t scared of hard work
and grew up to be a pretty tough man himself, though unlike his father, he bends
over backwards to be fair because he got the wrong end of fair too many times. His
views of women and marriage came from his family. He doesn’t plan on divorce and
thinks women are strong but need to be cared for. He’s had two serious girlfriends,
but things didn’t work out. He’s still looking for the woman he’s going to marry.
Bob also likes spicy foods, strong whiskey but doesn’t drink often, he doesn’t cook
anything that takes more than a couple of steps or the pushing of a microwave
button, he loves dogs, in fact, he loves all animals and doesn’t hunt, even though
he had done so with his father often to put food on the table. Bob likes horror
moved, motorbikes, and believe it or not, the smell of flowers because his mother
used to almost always keep a bunch of some kind of flowers on the table in the
kitchen. The smell of flowers reminds him of her.
Tony grew up one town over from where he works at the mill. His mom was on her
third marriage by the time he was ten, but at least Mr. Third had money and staying
power. Mr. Third gave in to Tony’s mom anytime she shed a few tears, and she
often laughed about what an easy touch he was. The man wasn’t too bad of a
stepfather though, and spent time with Tony, took him on out of state hunting and
fishing trips each summer.
Tony fits in well with a lot of the people in town. He’s kin to some of them. His
stepfather got him the job at the mill. Tony knows this is about his last chance. Mr.
Third paid for college….two of them….but Tony ended up flunking out of one and
getting kicked out of the other. Mr. Third got him a few jobs during and after, but
Tony likes free time a lot better than working.
This time though, his mom has put her foot down. There will be no more schooling,
no more handouts, no more anything. Tony will do the best he can at this job and
take care of himself, or live on the streets. She no longer cares and isn’t going to
see any more money wasted on him.
Tony does a good job at work, but doesn’t do one more thing than he has to, or
spend one minute longer there than he has to. He loves to spend his nights off at
one of the local bars. He likes junk food better than meals, and his favorite drink
anytime of year is ice-cold beer. He’s experimented with some drugs, but nothing
too heavy or too often. He dates a lot, but never the same woman for very long. He
doesn’t really trust women. They all seem to remind him too much of his mom. It
doesn’t take them long to start trying to find out how much he earns and what he
owns. Anytime things don’t go their way, they are usually pretty quick to turn on the
tears or the guilt. He just doesn’t need the hassle.
He likes war movies and comedies, video and computer games, and spends a lot of
time on line.
See, two guys, same age, live in the same town, work at the same job, but if neither
would do the same thing for fun or eat the same thing as a favorite, or even react to
a woman the same way.
That’s why when you write a story filled with Jane Doe’s and John Smith’s, people
talk about cardboard cutouts. If someone reads a chapter of your story and meets
three characters in that chapter, each of those characters should be, well, be a
character.
If they were talking together, their speech would be a little different. One might have
an accent, one might be bad about repeating things, one might curse, another might
always have some kind of smart comeback. If someone has a lot of college behind
them, they will probably use different words and ways of saying things than
someone who didn’t even finish high school. A nurse might compare things to some
medical situation, like if someone blushed she might say that the person’s face was
as red as if she were burning up with a fever. A Louisiana cook might compare a
blush to being as red as a fresh boiled crawfish.
If these characters went out for a meal together, they wouldn’t each order a taco
with extra hot sauce and beer in a bottle—unless that was all they could buy there
or all they could afford. Even then, they wouldn’t all request extra hot sauce.
Along that same line, they would each pick a different fun evening, a different kind
of movie, ect… Even if they all went to the same place or the same movie, they
would each act and react differently.
Different is all you have to remember. We are all different, even twins. I have a
good friend who has a twin sister. I can’t tell them apart by looking unless it’s one of
those times when they aren’t wearing close to the same hairstyle. And yet, if I see
one of them in a flower shop, I know which one it is, because the other one doesn’t
care for plants at all. If I talk to one of them for a moment, after just a couple of
sentences, I know which one I’m speaking too. When we were in high school I could
even tell sometimes just by what clothes one was wearing or what kind of notebook
one carried. One liked short skirts, one jeans. One liked notebooks with animals on
it, and one seemed to always have a solid colored notebook with drawings all over
the cover that she did while sitting in class.
So, if a reader picks your story, when she meets each character, even if their
names aren’t used in a section, just by speech, action, taste and style, they should
be able to tell which character is which. And if you know your characters well
enough, you should be able to pull that off with ease.
It just takes a lot of work beforehand to make it that easy later.
You can find a free character chart at http://www.charlottedillon.
com/CharacterChart.html
Charlotte Dillon ~ www.charlottedillon.com
This article, and all of my articles, may be used for free in a free
newsletter or on a free website as long as 'my name and a link to my
homepage' is given. You may not include my articles in an e-book
without asking unless it's a free e-book and my name and link are
included. You may not charge in any way for others to read or reach
these articles. They may not be used in any way for profit, like in a
workshop, class, site where people have to pay for a membership, ect...
If you find my articles being used in any way that isn't free and open
and including my name and link, please report the situation to me so it
can be handled. If you are unsure if your use will fall under what is
allowed, please contact me and ask. Thanks!
newsletter or on a free website as long as 'my name and a link to my
homepage' is given. You may not include my articles in an e-book
without asking unless it's a free e-book and my name and link are
included. You may not charge in any way for others to read or reach
these articles. They may not be used in any way for profit, like in a
workshop, class, site where people have to pay for a membership, ect...
If you find my articles being used in any way that isn't free and open
and including my name and link, please report the situation to me so it
can be handled. If you are unsure if your use will fall under what is
allowed, please contact me and ask. Thanks!
Copyrighted 2008 by Charlotte Dillon
 | |  | |  |