Character Development: The Little Things

When my youngest son introduced me as older than dirt, I corrected him by saying, “Not so, I only go back to when I was Moses’ scoutmaster, and he skipped the meeting about orienteering.” The point being, I was using what is now the Internet before 98% of you reading this post learned WWW was not an acronym for Wide World of War. That was thanks to my involvement in journalism, academia, and government. I have watched it grow from a toddler to this humongous entity

containing nearly all of mankind’s knowledge, both a blessing and a curse. The curse is the proliferation of erroneous material, but the prudent researcher can sort through that.

As this relates to the individual attempting to improve their writing, all this stuff is a blessing and curse. What else? The curse being information put forth by individuals who haven’t a clue what they are talking about. I won’t delve into that, but instead focus on things that are important when creating characters for your story.

I recently scanned over 100 blogs (I really hate that word. It has the sound of someone tramping through a muddy cattle pen.) Anyway, many of these - web posts - say the same things about characterization. Here is a condensed list as they relate to all characters, but especially your protagonists and antagonists:

1)   Allow them to make mistakes.

2)   Stand up and be counted. There’s nothing worse than a passive character than plays an important role in the story.

3)   Allow them to struggle with choices. If you can show your character mentally torn apart, especially if his choice adversely affects himself or someone he cares about, you've created a compelling inner conflict that will make readers sympathize.

4)   Characters act consistently within the world you've created.

5)   Your characters encounter struggles.

6)   Weave physical details into the story where they legitimately belong. This is achieved through direct description or indirect references. Whatever you do, avoid an information dump like a plague.

7)   Make them real. They should be able to smell, hear, feel, taste, and see the environment around them.

8)   Give them universal, human qualities. Do they laugh or cry? Experience frustration?

Disappointment? Joy, anger, shame, guilt, or ambivalence? Importantly, will readers be able to relate to these reactions?

9)   Give them quirks, idiosyncrasies, little habits. Nothing distracting, but humanizing.

10) Give them convictions, ethics, and beliefs.

11) Have them behave logically, use common sense, and have worthy goals. This applies to the good, bad, and ugly characters.

12) Create the character as an individual, not a stereotype.

13) Give them an arc – show growth or movement one direction of the other within the story.

14) Take any scene, imagine yourself as the point of view character, and start telling the story as they would tell it.

          Ask yourself these questions as you write:

               a)  What does character notice?

               b)  How does character see other people?

               c)  What thoughts run through the character’s head as events unfold?

               d)  What past events influence my character in the present? What future events does my character anticipate?

               e)  What does my character want? What motivates my character to act?

               f)   What is my character’s deepest fear?

15) A single point of view is limiting. Is it possible to use more than one point of view?

              a)  Departing from a single point of view can divulge information that the reader could not learn from the primary point of view character.

              b)  It is possible to drop clues in the environment of your viewpoint character - clues that the reader would understand, but from which the character wouldn't necessarily draw conclusions.

        This technique might be a good idea if:

                    i)    This shows how your protagonist appears to others.

                    ii)   Your main viewpoint character is unreliable.

                    iii)  The contrast between your protagonist's viewpoint and another person's viewpoint is central to the story conflict.

                    iv)  You want to show precisely how dangerous your antagonist is.

No doubt there are other things, but considering and incorporating these into your story will develop richer characters. Some you will want to incorporate during pre-planning because they will have a decided effect on how your plot progresses. Painted other things in during subsequent edits – like adding crème de menthe to a mug of hot chocolate.

These are just thinking points for refining, like when a sculpture uses a small chisel or blade to create detail to his Michelangelo. How you use your characters and how they carry the story is the most important piece to good writing. I strongly suggest you read My Story Can Beat Up Your Story by Jefferey Alan Schechter (print and eBook). While the author’s focus is on screenplays, you better believe what he has laid out will make you a better writer and your story salable. On the other hand, don’t read it so those who do will stand out like a big, green frog in a KKK convention. More on this next – the book, not the frog.