Short and Sweet Advice for Writers: Understand the Role of Your Characters

Share only enough character detail to enable your character to play his or her role well. The rest is irrelevant.

Characters are not real people. Even characters who are based on real people are not, actually, real people. Characters are carefully crafted facsimiles of real or imagined people, designed to play a particular role in your story. 

I have heard this truth many times before, but episode three of Jessica Abel’s podcast, Out on the Wire, really drove the fact home. (FYI – I gushed about Abel’s podcast in the Mar 20 Shareworthy Reading and Writing Links post.) In Walk In My Shoes, Abel explains how characters are puzzle pieces in a story, and just like any other story element, characters have a functional role to play. For this reason, it’s important not to get lost in all the available details of a character’s life and personality.

As the writer, it’s your job to sort of “sculpt” the character out of all the available material, whether that material is based on real life or dreamed up in your head. You need to carefully pick and choose the right bits and pieces on which to build each character. You need to decide what readers get to see, and what they don’t. What matters, and what doesn’t. Abel uses herself as an example:

“Jessica Abel is a person. She gets up every morning, gets her kids to school, goes to work, draws some stuff, comes home, and goes to bed. I don’t bring her in very often. She doesn’t add much.

Jessica Abel, the character in Out on the Wire? Now, she’s something. She’s an explainer, bold and clear-thinking, who investigates how storytelling works by interviewing the best storytellers on the radio, guiding you through how to tell stories step-by-step with wit and precision.

She’s got great hair, and her shirt is always white and pressed.

Her job is to be curious, to lead you through the elements of storytelling by revealing her own discovery and telling the story of how that discovery changed her.”

Abel is a real person who does real, everyday things. Characters you make up for your stories also have “real” and full lives outside the margins of your story, but the vast majority of those lives are not relevant to your story. They can be there, but they don’t matter in the context of the tale you’re telling. Sharing them with readers will only distract from your story. Don’t dilute the power of your story with irrelevant details. They might be really cool details, but unless they are directly related to the story, leave them out.

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Exercise:

Take a character from a piece you’re working on and create a “character profile” that’s no more than a few sentences long. Try to capture the essence of the character by compiling only the most critical key back story elements, personality traits, and motivations. Strip away all the extraneous details and see what’s left, then see if you’ve created a character who can fulfill the functional role in your story.
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Jamie Lee Wallace Hi. I’m Jamie. I am a content marketer and branding consultant, columnist, sometime feature writer, prolific blogger, and aspiring fiction writer. I’m a mom, a student of equestrian and aerial arts (not at the same time), and a nature lover. I believe in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings. Join me each Saturday for the Weekend Edition – a long-form post on writing and the writing life – and/orintroduce yourself on Facebook, twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. I don’t bite … usually.
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Photo Credit: Benjamin Disinger via Compfight cc

The secret to creating perfect characters

Whether your writing is plot-driven or character-driven, there’s no arguing that strong characters are a critical element of any story. But how does one craft the kind of characters that draw readers in and inspire an emotional connection?

The secret ingredient for a perfect character

I’ve been on a bit of a self-study kick lately – reading all kinds of books, articles, and magazines on the craft of writing. I’m easily enthralled by essays on the origin of story, fascinated by discourse on the merits of one fiction structure over another, and find myself staying up late to read about the finer points of manuscript submissions, publishing platforms, and book promotion. I am a humble student, hungry to know more.

One of my recent impulse purchases was a slim Kindle book called The Screenwriter’s Fairytale: The Universal Story Within All Movie Stories by screenwriter and producer, Todd Klick. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but it wasn’t until I read his quirky “story template” that I grasped the importance of the character flaw.

That’s right. The thing that makes a character perfect is her flaw.

Seven circles of hell – three types of character flaws

According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, there are three types of character flaws:

• Minor: Surface flaws that provide texture but don’t influence the story. These might be things like a scar, a lisp, a nail-biting habit, or a propensity to re-tell movie scenes word-for-word after having had one too many glasses of chardonnay.
• Major: Core personality flaws define a character and drive the story forward. Major flaws are not only an important part of character development, they are an important element of the story itself. Overcoming major flaws is a crucial part of each characters journey.
• Tragic: Think classic Greek myths – these are the flaws that eventually lead to a character’s untimely demise.

Interestingly, a character is often blissfully unaware of her major flaw. Even though those around her might see it instantly, she doesn’t realize what it is that’s holding her back. She’s oblivious to the obvious. Before she can overcome her flaw, she needs to acknowledge that it exists and be able to recognize it.

Why character flaws are so important

Why, you might ask, would I want to give my wonderful character a flaw – minor, major, or otherwise?

Oh, dear writer, let me count the ways:

1. Flaws make your character more realistic. Nobody is perfect. Nobody. Even that cute barista you’ve been crushing on has imperfections that would, eventually, show themselves in the light of day. The Real World isn’t perfect and glossy like an air-brushed spread in a fashion magazine. The Real World is full of pock marks and speed bumps and skeleton-filled closets. Character flaws help bring that level of reality to your story, making suspension of disbelief easier for your readers.
2. Flaws make your character more human. Remember that girl from school – the one whose outfit was always perfectly put together, whose hair was always perfectly in place? She got perfect attendance and perfect grades and had absolutely perfect teeth. You didn’t like her very much, did you? As a rule, we don’t like perfect people. We can’t relate to them. We don’t trust them. Think about those creepy Stepford wives. When you give your characters flaws, they become more likeable. Readers can step more easily into the shoes of a flawed character, and when a reader puts herself in your character’s mind, she feels empathy and you’ve got her.
3. Flaws add dimension to your character. Characters that are perfectly good (or, perfectly bad) are boring. Boring is the death of your story. Adding flaws allows you to build the “layers” of your character – physical, emotional, philosophical, etc. Flaws add interest. They give two-dimensional characters some meat.
4. Flaws help create story tension. Even if you don’t spell out your character’s flaw, your reader will know instinctively what it is. Your reader will also have a sense of how that flaw might tip the scales for the character – help or hinder or doom her. Your character’s flaw is like a time bomb – your reader can hear it ticking quietly in the background, but never knows exactly when it will go off. Flaws keep us from assuming we know how things will turn out.
5. Flaws increase reader investment in your story. Bottom line – because of all the aforementioned reasons, character flaws increase reader interest in finding out what happens next.

A few examples of character flaws

Taylor Lindstrom wrote a great post for the Men With Pens blog (one of my favorites) in which she asked readers to consider the role of the character flaw for Batman and Superman. In a nutshell, she contends that Superman didn’t have a true flaw, while Batman (aka Bruce Wayne) had plenty of them, making him the more interesting and human. I’d add that Catwoman is a deeply flawed character whom I happen to love. Her “broken” quality draws me in and keeps me rooting for her no matter what happens.

The protagonist in the movie Brave (which I loved) is young Merida – a princess who is anything but perfect. Her stubborn streak is the driving force behind the story – providing the impetus for the conflict between Merida and her mother, and ultimately leading Merida to make the choices that result in loads of trouble and a great story.

I recently finished reading A Song of Fire and Ice. Eddard Stark, a central character in this first book of the Game of Thrones series has a serious issue with honor. They say too much of a good thing can be bad. That certainly seems to be the case for this character.

Think of any movie or book character. Think of the television series you watch – what keeps you interested week after week? Is it the perfection of the characters? I doubt it. It’s their quirks and foibles, their flawed humanity, and the hope that one of these days they’ll overcome their flaw and rise triumphant.

 

The character flaw is a concept worth exploring. Are you putting it to work in your fiction? Do your characters have flaws? What kinds? How do those flaws influence your story?

Friday Fun – Understanding your characters

Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, writing-related question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.

QUESTION: What are some tricks you use to get into your character’s head?

Wendy Thomas: I tend to write stories based on real life. When I think of someone whom I’m representing in my stories (memoir type writing) I try to remember how their voice sounds, the inflections, the cadence. When I do that I can remember exactly how the dialog should go. Also, I think of the person’s quirky actions, specifically what is it that makes me recognize them from across a room of crowded people. Voice and action, that’s how I fold my characters into my stories.

Jamie Lee Wallace: I have two fun techniques that I like to use. First, I write journal entries in the voice of my character. Sometimes, I journal about the character herself, sometimes about events and her reactions, sometimes about philosophies, fears, or dreams. Something about the informality of a journal entry helps me to relax about being “inside” my character and the inner dialog just flows. My second technique is to imagine my character in an unexpected situation. If, for instance, my character is a modern-day wannabe novelist who hangs out in coffee shops and is having an on-again off-again romance with her boss’ brother, maybe I’ll imagine her suddenly thrown into a battle on the high seas … in the 19th century … on a pirate ship. Putting a character into a strange situation can really give you a sense of what she’s made of. And, it’d fun!

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Deborah Lee Luskin: Mostly, I just “look and listen” and try to hear and see what the character is doing in any particular situation. While this seems to work for me, it is by no means “efficient”: I often write chapters that never make it into a novel, but which I needed to write in order to get to know my characters better – especially about their early lives.

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Susan Nye:I’m a newbie when it comes to fiction. I started writing short stories last spring. I guess I should warn friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances – you’re no longer safe. Your stories, your words, your good looks, rakish wardrobe and stylish living room could all find their way into my next yarn.

But there’s no need to become (too) alarmed. I tend to mix and match real and fabricated details to build the characters in my stories. Even if you think you recognize yourself, well, that dashing hero or dastardly villain may not be you. It could be an old classmate or colleague, someone you’ve never met or heard of … even if she is wearing your favorite shoes or he hijacked your vintage sports car.

Julie Hennrikus: When I am first creating a character, I do a character study about them. What does s/he look like, very specifically. What was his/her family like? Is s/he married? Children? What does s/he eat for breakfast? Does s/he drink? What does s/he drink? Does s/he cook? What does s/he read? Most of this just feeds the background and never gets included.

Then I look at situations in my life, and wonder how s/he would react. Everyday situations like traffic, or a crazy person on the T. Or extreme situations like an argument with a friend, interviewing for a job.

And then, finally, I listen to them.  After a while, they do speak to you. And listening is what helps round them out, at least for me.