Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Developing Characters

Many thanks to Mike Owens for his presentation, "Developing Characters."  He has graciously shared his slides with us.


    Building Fictional Characters
Presented by
Mike Owens

     “Great characters are the key to great fiction.” (Donald Maass)

    Preliminary Work: Roughing It In

    Story Type

  Classical (standard)

  Minimalist

    Classical Story Format

    Fully described characters

    Proactive

    External conflict

    Causality (coincidence is deadly)

    Character arc

    Minimalist Version

    Hemingway’s iceberg theory: 7/8 underwater

    Internal conflict

    Character more reactive than active

    No real denouement, reader must figure it out

    No real character arc

    Assigning Roles

    Protagonist (whose story is it?)

    Object of desire (what the character wants)

  Choose carefully: “Tell me what a character wants, and I shall tell you who and what that character is.”

    Obstruction/villain/conflict

    Who’s Going to Tell Your Story?
(Point of View)

    First person

  More character:reader intimacy

    Third person

  More flexibility, shifting POV among characters

    Second person, nope

    Omniscience, nope.

  Neutral POV, won’t work

    General Notes about Characters

    Homo fictus vs. Homo sapiens (James Frey)

    Fictional characters are bigger than life, so don’t use real people in your story.

    Still must be believable (and interesting)

    Using unlikeable characters

  Ex: The Beans of Egypt, Maine, Carolyn Schute

  The most important thing  is having a likeable narrator (Ethan Canin)

    Round vs. Flat Characters

    Round characters

  Fully developed, appearance, habits, motivation, etc.

    Flat characters

  Less important, appear once, then gone

    “And Mrs. Miff, the wheezy little pew opener—a mighty dry old lady, sparely dressed with not an inch of  fullness anywhere about her—is also here.” Dickens, Dombey and Son

    Stakes, Goals…Gotta Have Them

    Major source of conflict, desire vs. obstruction

    Thrillers…big stakes, apocalyptic, zombie hordes, and such

    Always be thinking, how can I make things more difficult for my character?

    Fictional characters head toward conflict, not away from it, and they don’t quit

    Stuff We Should Know

    The Laundry List

  Physiological, sociological, psychological elements

    What does he keep in the box stashed under his bed?

    What does she keep hidden in her closet?

    What are his/her habits? (consistency)

    Details Should Be Specific

    “Ms. Stafford lived alone. She always did her shopping on Tuesday morning, two hours on the button. That’s when Jimmy decided to go exploring. He started in her kitchen.”

    What did he find in her cupboard?

    Where Stuff Comes From

    Observation (journaling…great practice)

    Your own autobiography, family

    “You are going to love some of your characters because they are you or some facet of you, and you are going to hate some of your characters for the same reason.” Anne Lamott

    Still stuck? Write down the 10 times you were most afraid, most worried

    More Sources of Stuff

    Imagination/creativity…right-brain stuff

  Mostly hard work, discipline

  1% inspiration, 99% perspiration

  The Muse, and how to get it.

    Walk on the beach

    Music

    Meditation, yoga, etc

    Even with all this “stuff” you won’t really know your characters until weeks, even months after you’ve started working with them.

    Methods of Characterization

Indirect (telling)

     Authorial interpretation (Omniscient POV)   

Ex: “The woman walked into the room, kicked off her shoes, then took the gun out of her purse.”

   By another character

“She watched as he stopped in front of the mirror, straightened his tie, then admired himself for a long moment. She thought him the vainest man she’d ever known. How could she possibly be so attracted to him?”

    Methods of Characterization   

    Direct Methods

  Appearance

  Action

  Thought

  Speech (dialogue)

    Appearance

    A lot or a little (sometimes less is more)

    Stopping to describe a character also stops the forward momentum of the plot.

    Action  

    Our characters must act, not be acted upon

    “Passive protagonist” is an oxymoron

    Physical movement (stage direction)

    Action involves choice, moves plot forward

    Crisis action

    Thought

    Unique ability of the writer

    We can present thoughts, plans, schemes

    What character really thinks vs. what he or she says or does.

    Two friends meet on the church steps. “Good morning, Mrs. Jones. So nice to see you, and such a lovely outfit you’re wearing.” God, she thought, that dress must be a hand-me-down from her grandmother.

    Dialogue

    “Dialogue isn’t just conversation. It’s conversation’s greatest hits.”

    RULE: Dialogue must do more than one thing at a time

  Move plot forward

  Characterize speaker

    “One line of dialogue that rings true reveals character in a way that pages of description can’t.” (A. Lamott)

    Writing Dialogue

    Short sentences, avoid long speeches

    Don’t use dialogue to inform reader

  “As you know, Bob…” (info dump)

    Dialogue tags: only function is to identify the speaker (use “said”)

    Telling tags

    Tom Swiftys

    “We must hurry,” said Tom swiftly

    “Pass me the shellfish,” said Tom crabbily

    “I might as well be dead,” Tom croaked

    “We just struck oil,” Tom gushed

    “I wonder if this radium is radioactive?” asked Marie curiously

    “Bingo,” Tom exclaimed winningly