There are books and blogs out there that suggest adding a quirk to a character to enhance it and make it seem more real to the reader. This is good advice, but it shouldn’t stop there.
To me, this is my big important thought: BE CAREFUL WHAT QUIRK YOU CHOSE!
This might seem like someone being sensitive, but trust me when I say that psychological triggers are the peskiest of problems to find and explain. Just because something is in the news a lot or because it is the latest fad diagnosis from the celebs on TV, it DOES NOT mean that it becomes fair game in a book or story without extensive research.
Okay, so what set me off on this tangent, you might ask, because it doesn’t have the normal playful feel of my usual posts?
A writer I know emailed me about their latest work in progress and mentioned that the quirk for the support character and narrator is hoarding. They were treating it like a funny little thing. This hit one of my triggers. My friend didn’t realize I have a history of hoarding in my family going back at least two generations, possibly more, or that I’m dealing with clearing out one family member’s hoarded stash. Also, the writer treated hoarding as something cutesy or weird, not a mental health issue.
Yeah, it set me off.
Another writer friend started talking about her problems with being a little scattered. In an attempt to make a joke, she said dementia is not far off. Again, major trigger for me, dealing with a family member with such a mental illness. I don’t think I was as harsh with this writer, but they were taken aback by the vehemence in my voice when I suddenly snapped at them about what they said.
In both instances, the writer in question was not meaning to say anything wrong. They just chose a word from their lexicon without taking its full weight into effect. The same goes with character creation and research. Just opening the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5 for those that recognize it) and pointing to a page without follow up research is bound to create angry readers and angrier negative comments.
Let’s look at a different instance. The movie Rain Man has Dustin Hoffman playing an autistic savant. The role was wonderfully acted, with a realistic portrayal of the mental illness. Mr. Hoffman didn’t go into the role just thinking to play it off the cuff. He worked with the men who inspired the role for the writer and he did research to understand just what and how the mental illness affected people.
Be certain what you’re picking, research it, and talk to people who have experience with it. I’d never paid attention to the problems of the elderly, until I started dealing with them directly. Now they are a sensitive spot that can really turn me into a demon if someone treats it as just this funny or stupid quirk. NEVER treat a mental illness as just something funny or quirky. Otherwise, you might find your reader’s demons coming after you.
Showing posts with label character. Show all posts
Showing posts with label character. Show all posts
06 July 2013
The Character Quirk
23 June 2013
How Sketchy is Your Character?
There are some things to consider when dealing with characters. Much as we writers hate dealing with negative reviews, some of them will contain useful information. The character of course will dictate a lot of how someone feels about the story they read. So we need to understand our character as best we can.
To learn about the character, many books and blogs offer many techniques, many ideas for what to do.
A few examples I’ve found: The character interview, the character back story, and the character information sheet. All of these are examples of character sketches. They all give details to the writer about the character without actually putting it all into the story.
Each technique offers a different perspective to the character, just as each name implies.
The character interview is supposed to be exactly as it sounds. You’re seated with the character and asking them questions to learn about them. These can be as simple as “What’s your name?” to as complex as “A gun is pointed at you and your love interest, while a bomb ticks time away. Tell me how’d you react.”
The character back story is literally writing the story of the character up until you reach the story you’re going to write. It is an extensive writing project, sometimes spanning five to ten times the length of the final work. I actually knew a writer who wrote three 20-page back stories, one for each character, for characters of a simple 2000 word short story. It was how this writer worked, so I couldn’t fault them for the time invested in the work they created.
The character information sheet is something that comes from the realm of the gamer, though I’m sure it comes from a lot farther back than that. Modern sheets hold blocks on information, sorted by category. Basics like name, age, gender, and unchanging physical characteristics comprise one block. Information about clothing choice, political orientation, or other shifting details might go into the next block. Depending on the sheet chosen, these can be anywhere from one to fifteen pages of details.
Personally, I use the character sheet style, because I started my writing from the world of Dungeons and Dragons™. My sheet is a custom creation, to give me the access to the best details of what I feel need to exist in the story. And like my writing and my world view, it keeps being modified to better gather the details I want to present.
Nothing says you have to follow the same procedure for each story. What worked for story one might not work for story two. As I illustrated above, this sketching doesn’t necessarily have to appear in the final work either.
This comes to a point where I have to say – Do what works best for your technique.
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Today's post was inspired by the topic “Character Sketches” as part of the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour, http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com/. This ongoing tour allows you, the reader, travel around the world from author's blog to author's blog.
Don’t miss tomorrow’s posting over at: http://suesantore.com/
If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com
To learn about the character, many books and blogs offer many techniques, many ideas for what to do.
A few examples I’ve found: The character interview, the character back story, and the character information sheet. All of these are examples of character sketches. They all give details to the writer about the character without actually putting it all into the story.
Each technique offers a different perspective to the character, just as each name implies.
The character interview is supposed to be exactly as it sounds. You’re seated with the character and asking them questions to learn about them. These can be as simple as “What’s your name?” to as complex as “A gun is pointed at you and your love interest, while a bomb ticks time away. Tell me how’d you react.”
The character back story is literally writing the story of the character up until you reach the story you’re going to write. It is an extensive writing project, sometimes spanning five to ten times the length of the final work. I actually knew a writer who wrote three 20-page back stories, one for each character, for characters of a simple 2000 word short story. It was how this writer worked, so I couldn’t fault them for the time invested in the work they created.
The character information sheet is something that comes from the realm of the gamer, though I’m sure it comes from a lot farther back than that. Modern sheets hold blocks on information, sorted by category. Basics like name, age, gender, and unchanging physical characteristics comprise one block. Information about clothing choice, political orientation, or other shifting details might go into the next block. Depending on the sheet chosen, these can be anywhere from one to fifteen pages of details.
Personally, I use the character sheet style, because I started my writing from the world of Dungeons and Dragons™. My sheet is a custom creation, to give me the access to the best details of what I feel need to exist in the story. And like my writing and my world view, it keeps being modified to better gather the details I want to present.
Nothing says you have to follow the same procedure for each story. What worked for story one might not work for story two. As I illustrated above, this sketching doesn’t necessarily have to appear in the final work either.
This comes to a point where I have to say – Do what works best for your technique.
---------------------
Today's post was inspired by the topic “Character Sketches” as part of the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour, http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com/. This ongoing tour allows you, the reader, travel around the world from author's blog to author's blog.
Don’t miss tomorrow’s posting over at: http://suesantore.com/
If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com
15 June 2013
So not the Sea of Binary
The usual advice for many writers is Do Not Read Reviews of your work. In an effort to create a bit of research for the blog I decided to do the dirty work and read reviews for you. The common concept I picked up frequently: The character felt flat. Or Very two dimensional creation. For an author, this could potentially be bad.
Characters and plot are the two big things in stories. The thing to realize is that while there are a limited number of plots, there are an unlimited number of characters.
Modern American Politics has placed an emphasis on the thought of there being only two choices. Liberal or Conservative. For gun control or against. For abortion or against. What these politicians always forget is the middle man. They forget the person in the middle who couldn't care less or the one who says it depends on the circumstance. The person who dwells within the gray of the in between.
Other advice books and blog will speak of selecting traits for the characters. I am not arguing that your characters won’t have traits. Here is what I want to offer as a consideration.
A character represents a dot within a three dimensional selection grid. With each trait, characteristic, or concept we add to the character, we move the dot through the grid. This dot may move as the story travels through its paces, because of the changes the plot inflicts on the character and its psyche. This movement could be large or small, but it is still movement. The thing to realize is that the grid is not limited on the choices.
Consider the issue of gun control if you will with regard to your character. To me, this is not a black or white selection for my characters. I have a story where the planet is the far extreme of gun control: No Projectile Weapons. Mind you, I am a huge bow fan so eliminating them has made for a growth in myself as well as my writing. I have another story where my characters are military who have guns attached to them at all times. In a third story, I have a character who prefers to avoid a gun if at all possible, but find a situation where he needs to decide how deep his distaste for guns goes, if he’d willingly die than pick up the thing that could save him. I’ve not reached the end of the story, so I can’t tell you his decision. However, I hope this illustrates the fact that with just three different plots, you have three different viewpoints on guns. This is just a small portion of the character.
Because this isn’t a blog about politics, I’m not going to spout anything about my viewpoints on political issue here. Those looking for that dialogue with me need to understand it doesn’t have a place here.
Obviously, a character’s back-story will effect traits, opinions, and preferences. A woman who has suffered malicious attacks from members of the opposite sex has every right to be militant against them – however that isn’t the only possible response. Some will bow and scrape more because they felt they drew the attack to them.
PLEASE, as you create characters, think about all portions of your character. Don’t just pick a few choice tidbits and label it done. It will eliminate the review line of “two dimensional character.”
Characters and plot are the two big things in stories. The thing to realize is that while there are a limited number of plots, there are an unlimited number of characters.
Modern American Politics has placed an emphasis on the thought of there being only two choices. Liberal or Conservative. For gun control or against. For abortion or against. What these politicians always forget is the middle man. They forget the person in the middle who couldn't care less or the one who says it depends on the circumstance. The person who dwells within the gray of the in between.
Other advice books and blog will speak of selecting traits for the characters. I am not arguing that your characters won’t have traits. Here is what I want to offer as a consideration.
A character represents a dot within a three dimensional selection grid. With each trait, characteristic, or concept we add to the character, we move the dot through the grid. This dot may move as the story travels through its paces, because of the changes the plot inflicts on the character and its psyche. This movement could be large or small, but it is still movement. The thing to realize is that the grid is not limited on the choices.
Consider the issue of gun control if you will with regard to your character. To me, this is not a black or white selection for my characters. I have a story where the planet is the far extreme of gun control: No Projectile Weapons. Mind you, I am a huge bow fan so eliminating them has made for a growth in myself as well as my writing. I have another story where my characters are military who have guns attached to them at all times. In a third story, I have a character who prefers to avoid a gun if at all possible, but find a situation where he needs to decide how deep his distaste for guns goes, if he’d willingly die than pick up the thing that could save him. I’ve not reached the end of the story, so I can’t tell you his decision. However, I hope this illustrates the fact that with just three different plots, you have three different viewpoints on guns. This is just a small portion of the character.
Because this isn’t a blog about politics, I’m not going to spout anything about my viewpoints on political issue here. Those looking for that dialogue with me need to understand it doesn’t have a place here.
Obviously, a character’s back-story will effect traits, opinions, and preferences. A woman who has suffered malicious attacks from members of the opposite sex has every right to be militant against them – however that isn’t the only possible response. Some will bow and scrape more because they felt they drew the attack to them.
PLEASE, as you create characters, think about all portions of your character. Don’t just pick a few choice tidbits and label it done. It will eliminate the review line of “two dimensional character.”
03 November 2012
There are other senses?
How often do we write things and focus on things like what the character sees and hears? Do we ever check the room’s smells? Have you ever challenged a reader with the taste of something or the texture a character feels as they run their hand over something?
Because we live in a very visually oriented world, we frequently focus on the images the characters see. Since sounds are frequently associated with images, it becomes an easy link to describe the sights and sounds of an event.
But here’s the challenge. What happens when those aren’t available?
Let me offer this thought to bring it into prospective. Open up your imagination. (Can’t close your eyes and read, huh?)
Okay, consider standing on the battlefield at Gettysburg, July 1863. Gunshots are exploding around you and the air is filled with white smoke. Your ability to see is limited to the length of your gun. Hearing is lost. In fact, your sense of taste is probably coated with the ash of burned gun powder.
Where’s your scene?
Sure, you could dive into the character’s head, but if you're lost in that smoke cloud for a while, you’ll lose your reader because of all the introspection. Could the character leave the battle? Sure, but you’ve still lost the sense of hearing, because of the explosions so close to the character’s ear.
Another thought. What happens when a flash-bang grenade explodes near your character? Blind and deaf for several moments. Again, introspection might work for a couple sentences, but in text the blindness and deafness is an eternity if all you rely on is the auditory and visual cues.
I want to offer this challenge. Pick a room in your house. On a dark night, with no moon or stars, turn off all your lights and electronics. Make the room completely dark. Put in ear plugs so no one can help you. Then navigate the room. Let me know how you do in the comments.
Just remember as your writing your stories, we have five senses. (In some cases, your characters may have six.) Try to use them all to submerse the reader.
Because we live in a very visually oriented world, we frequently focus on the images the characters see. Since sounds are frequently associated with images, it becomes an easy link to describe the sights and sounds of an event.
But here’s the challenge. What happens when those aren’t available?
Let me offer this thought to bring it into prospective. Open up your imagination. (Can’t close your eyes and read, huh?)
Okay, consider standing on the battlefield at Gettysburg, July 1863. Gunshots are exploding around you and the air is filled with white smoke. Your ability to see is limited to the length of your gun. Hearing is lost. In fact, your sense of taste is probably coated with the ash of burned gun powder.
Where’s your scene?
Sure, you could dive into the character’s head, but if you're lost in that smoke cloud for a while, you’ll lose your reader because of all the introspection. Could the character leave the battle? Sure, but you’ve still lost the sense of hearing, because of the explosions so close to the character’s ear.
Another thought. What happens when a flash-bang grenade explodes near your character? Blind and deaf for several moments. Again, introspection might work for a couple sentences, but in text the blindness and deafness is an eternity if all you rely on is the auditory and visual cues.
I want to offer this challenge. Pick a room in your house. On a dark night, with no moon or stars, turn off all your lights and electronics. Make the room completely dark. Put in ear plugs so no one can help you. Then navigate the room. Let me know how you do in the comments.
Just remember as your writing your stories, we have five senses. (In some cases, your characters may have six.) Try to use them all to submerse the reader.
19 May 2012
The Pro-Hero-tag-viewpoint Dilemma
Wow. I see questioning faces as they try to understand my title this time out. Mayhaps this is a good thing. You’ll want to read further.
But today is not about titles. It’s about characters.
My title refers to the choices we as writers make when creating our stories. It comes from three important questions:
1) Who is our hero or protagonist?
2) Who is our story about?
3) Who is our viewpoint character?
Well, they’re all the same character. Are they? Should they be? Let’s think about that a minute.
I’m going to use Sherlock Holmes as my example for part of this discussion. For those who’ve not read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s writings, the viewpoint character is Doctor Watson, Holmes’ faithful assistant and chronicler. The stories follow Watson as he follows Holmes. This helps because it allows Doyle to stretch the story out. Holmes may know the culprit by the third page. Watson won’t know until he talks to Holmes more on page 10. As such, the reader will have guesses, but won’t have the answer until Watson has the answer.
Am I saying this is the best and only way to write a story? No, not in the least. I’m using it as an example of a different technique.
For many writers, the primary viewpoint comes from the hero, the main person of the story. Sometimes, this doesn’t offer the BEST story, however.
Some writers say follow the pain. Follow the character with the most to gain or lose.
I say follow the best story. Sometimes, the hero, the admiral, the politician, they just don’t offer that compelling story everyone wants to read. Look at some of the other stories out there. A popular science fiction work by Tanya Huff follows the First Sargent of the military, instead of the commander or general. Why? Because it offered a better story.
Look at your writing. What offers you the best story?
But today is not about titles. It’s about characters.
My title refers to the choices we as writers make when creating our stories. It comes from three important questions:
1) Who is our hero or protagonist?
2) Who is our story about?
3) Who is our viewpoint character?
Well, they’re all the same character. Are they? Should they be? Let’s think about that a minute.
I’m going to use Sherlock Holmes as my example for part of this discussion. For those who’ve not read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s writings, the viewpoint character is Doctor Watson, Holmes’ faithful assistant and chronicler. The stories follow Watson as he follows Holmes. This helps because it allows Doyle to stretch the story out. Holmes may know the culprit by the third page. Watson won’t know until he talks to Holmes more on page 10. As such, the reader will have guesses, but won’t have the answer until Watson has the answer.
Am I saying this is the best and only way to write a story? No, not in the least. I’m using it as an example of a different technique.
For many writers, the primary viewpoint comes from the hero, the main person of the story. Sometimes, this doesn’t offer the BEST story, however.
Some writers say follow the pain. Follow the character with the most to gain or lose.
I say follow the best story. Sometimes, the hero, the admiral, the politician, they just don’t offer that compelling story everyone wants to read. Look at some of the other stories out there. A popular science fiction work by Tanya Huff follows the First Sargent of the military, instead of the commander or general. Why? Because it offered a better story.
Look at your writing. What offers you the best story?
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