Contrast to Compare
By Kathleen Bolton | September 12, 2011 |
Yo, WUers! It seems like forever since I’ve posted. Like you, I’ve been busy juggling writing and real life. I do want to give you a head’s up that Therese and I have been working on an exciting new initiative that will dovetail with the WU community, and that project has been my focus for the last few months. We can’t wait to share it with you! Stay tuned for details, they are coming soon.
Some of you may know (or remember) that I write YA novels for Working Partners LTD, a book packager. I had great fun writing the First Daughter series, and it was well-received by readers. But sometimes I collaborate on projects that don’t sell for whatever reason (just like any writer). Maybe it doesn’t hit the right niche or the trend has passed. And just like that, a year has passed. It’s disappointing, but that’s the way it goes in this industry.
But what IS exciting is getting the opportunity to try other project. Currently I’m working on a concept that targets girls ages 9 to teen. Without giving too much away, it’s what I call a bon-bon read – fun and quickly consumed, the kind of book that has them giggling, frothy and humorous.
How the process works is that I get the storyline and characters, do some research, give myself a basic schedule and then jump into the writing. But as I started working, I realized something wasn’t clicking. The protagonist was bubbly, funny, empathetic—the sort of girl that other girls would like to have as a friend. The story itself was amusing, the concept solid. But it was missing that spark, the thing that takes the story to another level.
Then it hit me: it was too sweet, too frothy. You know how sometimes a good dish is made all the better for an unexpected element? Like how sea salt brings out the creaminess in caramel, or how dried cranberries provide a zip in a savory dish? This character needed a trait to contrast with her overall sweet personality which would not only make her more multi-dimensional, but add internal and external conflict where necessary. She needed to be tarted up, for lack of a better analogy.
Contrasting character traits is a useful technique, one that can open up your storytelling and allow for more internal angst and external character-driven plotting. The stories I like best to read AND to write are when the main character has a trait that hews against their basic personality—and this trait brings out the best and the worst in them at inconvenient times. Note I didn’t say flaw, but trait. A character who loves deeply can also be fooled by love; a stubborn protagonist won’t give up until the killer is caught but can also get themselves killed in the process.
Let’s take, for example, everyone’s favorite gothic heroine, Jane Eyre. Jane is mousy, naïve, and shy. She also has a will of iron. Bronte made sure she fell in love with a jaded raconteur for lots of juicy external conflict. But all the decisions Jane makes are based upon her principles, which she is able to hold onto because of her immense willpower tempered from a difficult childhood. She looks weak, but inside she’s strong enough to give up the love of her life when she has to.
Katniss is the anti-heroine willing to do what’s needed to win the Hunger Games, including killing to survive. But she holds something more dear than her own life: when she loves someone, she will do everything in her power to save them even if it costs her own life.
Faramir’s sense of duty and family honor is strong in The Lord of the Rings. When his father, in his madness, asks him to sacrifice himself, Faramir can only give one answer–yes–even though he knows he will never win his father’s approval.
Do you have a contrasting trait embedded in your characters? If not, consider doing so. The result could be adding a richer layer and more satisfying arc for your characters.
Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.
She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.
Very well said. :)
Can’t wait to hear the news! Kath, thanks for a great post. I had the same issue with my MC. She was a perfectionist and read as too perfect! I knew she wasn’t perfect, but she was so busy trying to hide her imperfections that the reader never saw just how insecure she was. I had to go back and reveal some of her cracks and it’s made her so much more relatable. It’s not that she wasn’t likeable before, she was too perfect.
Those quirks and character flaws are so vital to moving the character from cardboard to one with depth.
Terry
Excellent tip! And wonderful examples. You put Jane and Katniss into words that I was vaguely thinking but could never quite elucidate. Thank you!
Thought provoking post, Kathleen. Interesting examples, and Faramir in particular reminded me of something. At first I was angered by Peter Jackson’s rendering of him. In the movies Faramir totally caved, was almost instantly lured by the ring’s power. In the books he was much stronger and wiser–even in his grief for his brother. I can see why the script deviated. The plot point has Faramir grasping, almost blindly, to seek his father’s approval–a much stronger and more direct line to conflict. In the longer form of a novel we have the luxury do delve deeper, to make characters much more complex–something I love about reading vs. movies.
I’m stoked to hear the WU news too! Thanks again for setting my revision wheels in motion this morning!
“The stories I like best to read AND to write are when the main character has a trait that hews against their basic personality—and this trait brings out the best and the worst in them at inconvenient times. Note I didn’t say flaw, but trait.”
Yes-yes-yes! In other words, I agree.
Can’t wait for the big reveal.
Love this: “The stories I like best to read AND to write are when the main character has a trait that hews against their basic personality—and this trait brings out the best and the worst in them at inconvenient times.”
That’s a great reminder of something that’s easy to overlook when building characters and illustrates how great plots are inextricable from character.
I also love to consider contrasts when building a character list. Creating foils for an mc is a fun technique and one I love when I encounter it in books and manuscripts.
Thanks for the post,
Martina
how about a heroine who is an anxious fraidy cat but never locks her house or car door and has been known to walk through Central Park after midnight.
Excellent examples. Excellent post.
That was very helpful; thank you!
Fun post! It’s also interesting to apply this concept of contrasting traits to real-life personnages, for example Anne Boleyn. Here was this woman with a superior intellect and formidable political savvy. Yet she made a huge miscalculation in promising (during courtship) that she could produce an heir for the king. ‘That’ was the one thing that no amount of political address could bring her; it was just a huge gamble that failed.
So a master-calculator makes a fatal miscalculation: and that is fascinating!
Thanks for the food for thought : )
I love characters that have conflicting traits because they are so easy to connect to–a character I have in the screenplay I’m working on is striving for a career that she totally does not have the personality or “people skills” for, which drives both the action and emotional plots–it’s turning out to be a doozy. :)
So many of us have goals where certain parts of our personality conflict with those goals. I love bringing this aspect of life out in my characters (sometimes it gives me the epiphany I need in my personal life too, LOL!).
Who could you be talking about, Thea? hmmm?
Vaughan, I recently read (for the zillionth time) Lord of the Rings, and I was struck again how Jackson’s scriptwriters –their names escape me now, too lazy to google — were able to take Tolkien’s Victorian POV and modernize it while still retaining the essential storytelling. Endless lessons in that movie.
Therese and I can’t wait to share our news! Should be soon….
Excellent advice. It’s one of those elusive things that deserved to be pinpointed and will also help with character consistency as I analyze my characters for this.
Thanks!
Great post. By adding these extra layers, we show characters who are more complex and not one dimensional and it creates more conflict to engross the reader.
I like my characters to be rounded off so they have traits that are pleasant whilst certain things bring out more disagreable behaviour. Your post has captured the essence of using strengths that go deep into the character of the person. Very good.
Loved this post! I have a tendency to make my characters too “nice” and what you say resonates with me regarding something I have to watch out for.
Thanks.
Patti
Nicely done, Kath, and a thing to remember and apply.
Great advice. Thanks.