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Thank you for subscribing to "Write Through It," the monthly newsletter brought to you by Manuscript Rx. You can change your subscription at any time by following the link at the end of this message.
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Greetings, fellow writers!
Welcome to your May newsletter. I hope this finds you well and happily productive. As always, I encourage you to contact me with topics you'd like to see covered in future newsletters. Since my goal is to make "Write Through It" helpful and inspiring to you, your ideas are paramount.
Also, writing is a lonely process. I'm hoping that this newsletter reminds you that you are part of a community (no matter how geographically spread out we may be) and, while we might write very different things, we all face similar struggles along the way.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend who might enjoy it. And feel free to write me with any questions or comments.
www.ManuscriptRx.com
lucia@manuscriptrx.com
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And now, on to this month's topic: your characters.
Create Vivid, Memorable Characters: Breathe Life into Your Fictional People
Literary heavyweights from Flaubert to Faulkner have warned that if you have no characters worth your readers' time, you have no story.
You might have invented an edge-of-your-seat plot, but readers cannot live on plot alone. If your audience doesn't care about your characters, you're sunk. Readers don't necessarily have to like all of your characters, but they have to care about what happens to your main character, or there's no reason for them to keep reading. The shiniest plot dulls without believable, memorable characters.
Which means you have to care about your characters, and you have to know them, maybe even better than you know yourself. To create characters that live and breathe on the page, you must first create characters that live and breathe in your psyche. This is why you need to know much more about them than you'll ever have to include in your completed work.
The best way to achieve this authentic character history is to put your main character(s) in as many real-life situations as possible. And because thinking is only the first stage and can only get you so far, write these situations out, considering all sorts of details.
When you can imagine your character in different places and with different people, beyond people and places your story requires, you make your fictional people exponentially more realistic within the confines of your own story.
Start by deciding on the basics: your main character's date of birth and favorite things (such as food, color, activity, place, song, movie, book, friend, family member, possession, game, animal/pet, amusement park ride, season). Remember: these are details you'll want to work out, even though they may never need to be discussed in your manuscript.
Once you have the basics under your brainstorming belt, stretch your imagination and go beyond raw data to create the most vivid, memorable characters you can.
The following exercises will get you started in developing rich, believable, interesting characters. (And they're great for busting out of writer's block, too!) Choose the exercises you're most drawn to, and really let yourself go--don't worry about polished sentences or grammar or mechanics. (You can't plumb the depths of your imagination when you're worried about comma placement.)
STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES: List emotional, intellectual, and physical strengths and weaknesses for your character. Include any special talents or aptitudes. Get your hands on an IQ test and take it from your character's perspective, not yours. (Tricky, but fun and worthwhile.)
DINNER AT OUR HOUSE: Imagine a family meal at your main character's dinner table. Write a short descriptive scene revealing the average evening meal at your main character's house.
Now revisit that meal scene and add tension. (After all, tension makes fiction go 'round.) Perhaps the school principal called Mom that afternoon and therefore Mom has some serious lecturing to do (or some serious disappointment to relate). Or maybe Dad lost his job that day and -- over dry meatloaf and soggy green beans -- tells the family that they'll have to be uprooted (again). Perhaps the teen daughter brings home a mysterious dinner date, and only Mom (an undercover detective) recognizes him as a convicted felon with a string of outstanding warrants.
Or invent your own emotionally-charged piece of information that will make the second dinner markedly different from the first. Write the scene, paying attention to physical and emotional specifics.
WHAT WOULD S/HE DO? Imagine an ethical dilemma that your character finds himself/herself in. Maybe she was offered a job promotion or a large bonus based on a task she didn't carry out alone. Does she tell the truth and share the credit with the colleague or keep quiet about it and bask in the glory solo? Or maybe he realizes his professor scored his test incorrectly, giving him too many points. Does he point out his instructor's error, even though his grade will be lowered?
Decide on a moral quandary, plunk your character it in, and write a short, thorough, descriptive scene. Be sure to tap into your character's thoughts, fears, conflicts, and ultimately how s/he arrived at the final decision.
DEAR DIARY: Write at least three diary/journal entries from your main character's point of view, fully in his/her voice and in his/her head. Make the entries occur on different days and have them deal with different events and emotions. Try to include a whole range of feelings -- joy, sorrow, rage, uncertainty, anxiety, to name a few.
DOCTOR, DOCTOR: Write up your character's last physical exam report, as it would be written by the family physician. Include all relevant details, along with any physical complaints the character might mention. Dry, itchy skin? Chronic insomnia? Indigestion only when the in-laws are in town? The possibilities are endless, and you can learn a great deal about your character by eavesdropping on that doctor-patient discussion.
Then write up some clinical notes from a psychologist who has been seeing your character in therapy. Perhaps your character has discussed his/her worst fear with the doctor. Reveal as much background to that fear as you can: when and why it began, how it's manifested, how your character struggles to cope with it.
DEAR AUTHOR: Your character writes you (the author) a letter, instructing you quite specifically in how s/he wants to be portrayed in the book. Make your character's personality come shining through in this letter. It should sound like your character, not you. Really try to set yourself aside as you write it.
JOB APPLICATION: Obtain a job application (or create one of your own), and fill it out from your character's point of view. Include work history, schooling, references, as well as the character's statement explaining why s/he would be perfect for the job. Write a scene exploring how your character actually fares after landing the job, or how s/he copes if the job is given to someone else.
BIRTHDAY: So you've already chosen a specific date of birth for your character. Go beyond that flat fact to create something multi-dimensional and rich. After all, birthdays are a big deal to many people. How does s/he feel about having a birthday that time of year? How does the family celebrate it? What does that particular astrological symbol say about the character? What does the horoscope predict?
PLACE: Have the character choose his/her favorite place in the entire world. This choice should reflect your character's personality and preferences. Now write a paragraph of sheer description of the place, but from your character's eyes, as your character experiences the location. Try to show (rather than tell) why this place resonates for your character. Why is s/he drawn to it so strongly? What is the character's history with this place? How does the area differ from the usual daily surroundings? How is your character different when s/he is at this special place?
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THAT WITH THE CLASS? Your character has just been caught passing a note in class. What exactly would it say? Who was s/he passing it to and what did s/he hope to receive in return? What kind of punishment does the teacher hand down for this "classroom transgression?" How does your character react?
FRIENDS (a.k.a. BFF): Decide on your character's best friend. Stick them in the same place together (at a school lunch table, or riding the school bus, or at the town pool on a hot day [or during a thunderstorm!], or at the same table at the prom...or any other dually-experienced event of your choosing). Write a brief scene describing the setting and your character's interactions with the best friend. Do the friends remain close into adulthood, or do they lose touch after high school or college? Fast-forward twenty years and write a brief scene where they reconnect, either accidentally (in line at the bank? ordering popcorn at the movies?) or deliberately (Classmates.com? class reunion?).
NOT WORKING TO POTENTIAL: Visualize your character's last report card. Write it out. Include teacher comments. If this exercise motivates you further, write a scene where the character's parents approach him/her about the report card. Capture the dialogue as well as the body language and mood of the room. If your character is no longer in school, flashback to his/her childhood and decide what type of student s/he was. Create the report card from that vantage point.
YOUR PAL, THE PRINCIPAL: Your character has just been called to the principal's office, but s/he has not yet been told what the offense is. While the character waits for the principal to end what feels like an interminably long telephone call, his/her mind is busy in that chair. Using as much detail as possible, write down all the thoughts that are zig-zagging around his/her mind in those moments.
TIME TRAVEL: If your character could transport himself/herself to any point in time, which year would s/he choose (and where would s/he go) and why? Justify these choices based on what you know about your character. Write a brief scene in which your character must cope in a time period completely foreign to him/her. Which tasks would feel most comfortable/familiar? Which would feel the strangest? How do the locals react to this obvious transplant in their midst?
You might notice that many of these exercises find their roots in childhood. Whether or not your story actually showcases your character as a child, youth can be a productive place to begin your focused thinking about your characters. After all, none of us have been unaffected by our formative years (understatement, I know). Therefore, when your goal is authenticity in characters, you must consider the early-life events that shaped the people you put on the page.
Most writers carry out these exercises for the major characters in their stories, but you can even do them for minor ones. Besides, you never know when the fruit of one of these exercises might spin off on its own, asking to be fully fleshed out into an entirely new story.
The most important thing to remember is to have fun when you're answering these questions. The minute you're not having fun, stop. The looser and more relaxed you are when you try these exercises, the more you'll get from them. You'll discover things about your character you never thought you knew, which translates to a more fully realized, believable person alive in your story.
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Read Through It...Book of the Month:
Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction. The practical guide from New York's acclaimed creative writings school. 2003. You don't have to take one of the courses to learn from the Gotham workshop. This book offers meaty highlights of the most critical aspects of writing, including revision, characters, pacing, dialogue and voice. There are different writers for each topic, and the varying styles and approaches keep the book as a whole fresh and enjoyable to read. Much of the information is the priceless, must-have sort. Enthusiastically recommended.
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Quote of the Month:
"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."
~Albert Camus
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Don't forget about my manuscript evaluation: For those of you who haven't yet taken advantage of it, I offer a complimentary coaching session or review of the first ten pages of your manuscript, which includes my written notes as well as a 30-minute phone consultation. Visit the website or e-mail me for details.
Till next time, keep at it and those words on the page will keep adding up.
All best,
Lucia Zimmitti
Manuscript Rx
www.ManuscriptRx.com
lucia@manuscriptrx.com