Building Character: Know More Than Your Reader
By J.C. Hutchins | August 26, 2010 |
Conflict is the rocket fuel for any good story, but how your characters react to that conflict is what provides direction and resonance for the tale. Of course, how your characters react hinges almost completely on what kind of people they are.
And defining what kind of people they are hinges solely on you, and your ability to intimately know their motivations.
Are you doing everything you can to understand the players in your story? It’s harder than most new writers think. The best characters are complicated, even if the conflicts they’re facing aren’t. They must do and say and think things that are clouded in the very same nigh-arcane thought processes that you and I have. Pieces of their hearts must be cracked or broken — just like ours. They must be more than chess pieces on a game board. They cannot merely react to events; they must contribute to them.
This is hard stuff to write … and yet that’s the brass ring, baby, that’s the stuff that turns potboiler page-turners into bestsellers. Imagine King’s The Stand or Bag of Bones without those novels’ brilliantly-realized characters. Those stories never would have risen above their high concept plot hooks — never would’ve become the miraculous, special Somethings that transcended readers’ expectations. Without such remarkable characters, two of King’s greatest books would have been merely Good.
(A prayer to the Writing Gods: May we all be blessed to write one Good book during our careers. Amen.)
By my reckoning — and hell if I know if it’s true; I’m always growing and learning as a taleteller — the secret to making a Good story a Great one is to know more about your characters than your reader. This sounds insultingly elementary, but recall that we’re tasked with building people solely with our words, people packed with as much infuriating complexity and contradictions as ourselves and our best friends. Even simpletons go deep, man … we have all kinds of gears whirring in our little mind machines, most of which we can’t fathom what makes them go.
Permit me a real world example: I don’t like to be told no. I bristle at its finality. I can think of a dozen-dozen reasons why this emotional tic may have made itself manifest, but can’t precisely pinpoint its origin. It’s certainly helped forge me into the man I am today, but its source is buried under thirty-odd years of living, memories and just being. And when it bangs on its cellar ceiling with a broomstick, I usually put my ear to the floor.
The major players in your story must have similar subterranean motivations, and ideally provide such curiosity-sparking mysteries for your readers. Perhaps you eventually reveal what makes those gears whir — in a revelatory flashback, for instance, or a final, crucial sliver of information presented in act three — or perhaps you don’t. What’s important is that you must know what makes them tick (and tic), and slyly weave these details into your narrative.
Don’t put it all on the page. Hold a few of those cards close, damned close, to your vest. And understand that if your entire knowledge of your characters is what your readers directly experience on the page, you may have written a Good story … but probably not a Great one.
Photo courtesy Flickr’s tallkev
J.C. Hutchins crafts award-winning transmedia narratives, screenplays and novels for companies such as 20th Century Fox, A&E, Cinemax, Discovery, FOX Broadcasting, Infiniti and Macmillan Publishers. His latest creative endeavor is The 33, a monthly episodic ebook series.
So true. I find that after writing a quick outline with only plot-points and some minor character detail, it’s best for me to write a fake letter from one character to another. It gives you the ability to experiment with their voice, and puts you totally in their POV. I might do this several times, responding to the letters, taking other points of view until I feel comfortable with the voice. It tends to have a positive affect on the story as well.
Here, here! I completely agree with holding some of a character’s back story “close to the vest.” As we all know, the impulse to info dump every bit of backstory onto the page is the kiss of death to pacing.
Plus, imho, it’s easier to “own” the story if I haven’t given all my characters’ secrets away. Please don’t question my sanity but, in a strange way, I feel like they trust me more when I don’t. ; )
Wow, great post! I’m still learning how to strike that balance of keeping secrets about my characters without feeling like I left some loose ends. I have a question though: If you have a character who has mental baggage making up a big part of the plot, do you ever really need to tell the backstory on that baggage? Would alluding to it be enough or would that make the reader feel like they missed something?
@Michelle: Thanks for the kind words about the post. The situation you describe requires a balance, I think. If the character’s past/damage takes center stage in your plot (as you describe), you’ll absolutely need to deliver on the “why” at some point in your tale.
That doesn’t mean you have to deliver every nuanced picosecond of how the character came to that “why,” but by making the character’s personal baggage take up so much narrative real estate, you’re actively creating reader expectations that, as a responsible storyteller, you must eventually address. Hope this helps!
This is a great post! When I’m planning my novel and writing character sketches, I know so much more about them than I need to put in my novel. It’s kind of like research; you always have more research than is necessary to include in the novel. But I still have to be careful I’m not leaving any loose ends because that’s no good!
I think this dovetails nicely with the previous article this week on pace killers.
Your characters should always have more reasons or rationales as to why they’re doing a certain action than you say, if only because it would drag your novel to a stop.
I think a good way to make a compelling character is to make sure those hidden traits, or carefully concealed preferences are actually quite apparent when you know to look for them. The things a character hides can be the most powerful drives for them.
Randy Ingermason mentions on his blog that every character has a value that needs no explanation for them. This value is something they believe because it is *true*, and they’ve never needed any other reason to believe it. It is probably something simple, like Children Should Never Be Harmed, or my Friend’s Life Is More Important Than Mine. Very trite things that, inevitably, shape many of the things of who they are.
These values are never stated, but they are not obscured. They create compelling characters because people can understand them without thinking about them. You can play this motivation close to the chest and still have people know about them. The best of both worlds.
Characters ARE the novel for me. “Don’t put it all on the page.” Excellent advice. You can get across so much with showing how the character behaves in the situations you dump him in. Readers are smart. But so true–unless YOU know the character, it won’t come through.
What’s scary for me is when my crit partners have told me, “XX would NEVER say/do that.” They understand the characters better than I do sometimes.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
This advice isn’t Good… it’s Great! ;P
I think this is also why so many sites/resources recommend you do character sheets, or freewrite from the POV of your characters, etc. Personally I find that just thinking about my characters as much as I can (while walking the dog, while driving home, while showering, etc.) leads me to naturally develop their nuances — BUT if worksheets and freewriting work for other people, rock on!
Figuring out the characters is only Step 1, of course. Step 2, as you said, it getting that to transmit to the page believably. Making them come to life. And leaving a little bit to mystery, giving the reader something to notice and wonder about, even after they’ve already bought it.
Oh this writing is a tricky business!
Now excuse me while I go read a master… Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins!!
I am taken with T.N.Tobias’ post about using epistolary as character refinement technique. Brilliant! As an old school letter writer, I intend to adopt his method. Thanks, T.N.
Agreed. Withholding information until you must reveal it makes for more suspenseful storytelling, whether you’re revealing plot or something critical about a character.
Awesome post, per usual, J.C. Thanks!
It takes me awhile to really know my characters, usually halfway through my first draft, but then they become so real, they speak to me. I ask them about the scenes I am about to write and if there is anything they want to add or change. There always is and their suggestions always make it better.
I guess the corollary to “never underestimate your readers” is “never underestimate your characters”!
I’ve also learned to give my characters secrets and not reveal them until later. Nice trick. Sometimes they even surprise me!
Thanks for the post and all the thoughtful comments.
I strongly agree with close to the vest. I think you’ve also got to wound them — badly, then keep the wound in their head (and yours), but allow them to be driven by it.
While I don’t figure out what my characters are doing too far in advance, I often find myself writing whole scenes about what they’re doing and why, all sorts of exposition, which I then delete in its entirety and replace with the conclusion. The reader has no need to know why the character does what he does, but I do. If my readers want to know so much that they start thinking about it and trying to figure it out, so much the better. This way I know there’s something for them to figure out. Whatever happens doesn’t just fall out of the sky. Unmotivated events are just as bad as over-motivated ones.
Marc Vun Kannon
https://authorguy.wordpress.com
Great advice! I always have to watch that I am not explaining too much.
T.N. Tobias, Interesting! I have been doing just that with my WIP! I just decided to do it a couple weeks ago. It’s so much fun. The letters will not be in the book, but they help me navigate motivations and actions. These motivations will be hidden in the story at first and only hinted at or slowly revealed.
TempestDash, it’s also interesting that you bring up characters’ values. As another exercise awhile back, I listed my MCs’ deepest values. It was very helpful.
Good stuff, J.C., and some great responses. I have to admit that my character development usually happens on the fly. I put them in a situation and watch them react. As the story develops, I become more and more confident about just who this person is. It’s certainly not the most efficient means, and often requires some thorough character revision, but the end result is usually pretty good.
Love this. :)
This post kind of confirms what I’ve been thinking. I’m starting a new story and I decided to stop working on it for a period of time because I realize I don’t know one of my main characters as much as I should. I’m not clear who he is or what his motivations are.I need to chew on him for a while.
I thought I may be wasting precious writing time doing this, but maybe not.
Thanks for the validation.
Mr. Hutchins, You are one smart cookie! Thanks for sharing your wise words.
Whew….Thank God I’m a non-fiction writer. ;)
– Jeff Emmerson (Author of a gritty, reflective and inspiring memoir)
J.C., I really look forward to your posts here–they never fail to make me think (even if it’s just a reminder of something I already ‘know’). Here’s a question for you: Why do all of my minor characters seem to be more fleshed-out with these brilliant side-stories, but my MC is not as realized? I feel like I need to make her ‘generic’ so that the reader can fill her in for themselves a bit, but this seems to have been a mistake. She’s an ordinary girl who stumbles upon extraordinary things, but she’s not as interesting as the other characters. doh! I’ll keep working, keep your advice in mind, etc. Thanks so much!
@Sarah: I’m thrilled you enjoy my posts here. Thank you!
I’ve experienced situations you described — it’s always fun to give supporting characters quirks, adventurous characteristics and interesting skills or interests. I suspect you might be feeling a deliberate or unwitting need to create these memorable characters to compensate for your bland “everygirl” protagonist.
Having an everyman-like character is a double-edged sword. The creative intent, of course, is to make that character vanilla or anonymous-ish (at least in the beginning), because writers believe readers identify with that. And that’s true to a point. Here’s the rub: Those characters are often one-dimensional, and spend a lot of time merely reacting (instead of contributing) to the unfolding drama. That’ll only get a writer — and reader — so far.
There’s not a damned thing wrong with giving your character a specific world view, personal baggage or fear, etc. That specificity lurks within all of us in countless ways. Capturing that complexity — even if your character lives a so-called average life — provides ongoing kindling for your readers’ imaginations … and perhaps yours as well, as you write the story.
Try giving your protag a highly-specified hobby, fear, or skill/expertise. I don’t see much harm coming from that, from a creative investment/effort perspective. Audiences *crave* interesting, skilled characters … especially when those characters find creative ways to apply those seemingly-useless interests/skills later in the story.
Just remember that when it comes to real people, none of us is “average.” Everyone has a remarkable life story (though they may choose not to see it as such), and everyone has interests, hobbies, fears, passions, etc. Our job as writers is to imbue our characters with that same multifaceted richness.
If you’re looking for creative inspiration re: compelling “everyman” characters, check out some Hitchcock films. Hitch did a great job of putting so-called ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances … and revealing that those everymen were anything but all along. :)
Well, you more than answered my question! Thanks very much. I’ve literally pasted and copied into my “notes” for my w.i.p. so I can get to work on it. Already, more things are emerging as I pay attention to them. Your advice is much appreciated.
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