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Okay, so I have this character in one of my earlier works who is most aptly described as invincible. Perfect. Untouchable. Totally and completely noble. Perfectly inhuman.
So when I came to work on him, and started trying to figure out how I could fix this (since it’s obviously a bad thing 😛 ), I realized something. A noble character is not a machine with excess of nobility and complete lack of all other human traits. A noble character is a flawed human being with the strength to rise above it.
See, it’s like this. With this particular character, I realized my perception of him was a caricature of calmness— of dignity, of strength. I couldn’t visualize him falling in the mud. I couldn’t even imagine giving him a cold— or a toothache, or a blister, or *horrors!* having him blow his nose. He was not human to me— he was noble.
So my point is, don’t assign your characters personality traits from the outside and expect those traits to work inward. You have to take the human core, and build on it from the inside out. Not that he doesn’t have flaws— but that he has integrity, and wisdom to see them. Not that he cannot fall in the mud— but that he will pick himself up again and keep going. Not that he won’t ever catch a cold— but that he will be bigger than it and not let it make him miserable.
I just wanted to share. 🙂 The more authors I can save from having to rewrite a character like this as I will have to do, the better. 😛 😉 😀
Wait … *blows nose*
Ok, much better.
Actually, I have to say, you’re wrong. He’s not perfectly inhuman. He isn’t what he could be, but you very much overstate things. The fact is, faultiness is not the thing that most makes a character come alive. The thing that most makes a character come alive is feeling. The character must feel – must feel the peace in the air, must feel the burden of responsibility, must feel the sorrow of tragedy, the light airiness and excitement of victory.
You are right that your character’s invincibility largely shadowed these feelings, but don’t think they weren’t there. A faultless character who feels – ah, we pick on him and maybe put him down, but when it comes down to it, we really do like him. Now take a character who is faulty, defenseless, and who doesn’t feel. Just blah. Like soggy pancakes.
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@kate-flournoy: As a relatively new writer, I really appreciate that you’re willing to share mistakes that you made early on. If you hadn’t said something about this topic, I probably would have made the same mistake. Not that I’m not going to make my own mistakes… 😉
Soggy pancakes.
I think… I just lost my appetite.
And indeed, @Daeus, that is the logical progression of the argument I’m making— with him, (you and I apparently both know who him is 😉 😛 ) because I couldn’t see him as anything other than noble, I couldn’t sense him feeling anything other than noble. I mean, it was there a little bit, but it was exceedingly difficult to break past my perception of him as noble and untouchable and actually portray his feelings well— without that annoying fog of invincibility coming between us. Yeah, absolutely make ’em feel— but you as the writer have to be able to feel it as well. Get me?
And @gretald, hey, no problem! 😀 We’re all here to learn from each other, aren’t we? And as I see it, it’s better to know about these things beforehand than have to go back and rewrite a bunch of stuff later after you learn by experience. If I can go through the whole learning process once, and help beginners get through it with much less hassle, then so much the better! 🙂 Besides, it’s fun to discuss these things, ya know? 😉
Oh yeah, I get you. Writing is like a solution in an equation. The variables are what your are thinking in your brain. Change your mindset and you have changed your writing whether you like it or not.
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Actually, Kate, it’s using quite a bit of the method we decided was the best for writing christian themes. Write from a solid moral base and the outcome just naturally is something solidly moral and good. 😛
EXACTLY. Both of you. 😀 Both very astute observations.
Normally I wouldn’t use that word… (astute)… but I think I can on a forum of writers who will actually know what it means. 😉
@kate-flournoy: Yes! *rubs hands together* I love discussing things. 😉 😛
So my point is, don’t assign your characters personality traits from the outside and expect those traits to work inward. You have to take the human core, and build on it from the inside out.
@Kate-Flournoy – This is a little off topic, but would you please tell me how exactly you do that? Right now I’m revisiting my first tangled attempt at a novel, and the main characters need some major renovation. Today I tried making character sketches of them, and I realized that they are defined mostly by their surroundings, plus a few character traits. And they have zero character arc. I know I’m missing something major, but I’m not sure how to fix it.That’s a very good question, @sarah-h! And unfortunately, I don’t think I have a concrete answer to lay out in so many rules and statistics.
You can tell you’re missing something— that’s very good, that’s an enormous start. Now to figure out what that something is. 😉 😛I think one of the things that makes this conversation so difficult to have is that people’s minds are different. Your character is only alive in your mind, so it’s hard for someone else to tell you what’s the problem.
But I have a list of things you can ask yourself about your character to get you started.
How would the character react if:
1. Someone tied their shoelaces together.
2. Their baby sister spit up all over their shoulder.
3. They found their little brother rummaging in their stuff.
4. Their dog left muddy footprints all over their bed.
5. They had to give a speech or recital with a sore throat.
6. Their toddler sibling spilled a bowl of hot soup in their lap.
7. They couldn’t find anything worth eating in the pantry.
8. They were given three hours in which to write a 7,000 word essay on the meaning of life.
9. The escalator was broken, so they had to use the stairs.I guess the main thing is to get to know the person BEHIND the character— get them fixed irrevocably in your mind as human beings. Once you have that fixed, you can start adding all the fancy stuff— fears, flaws, dreams, idiosyncrasies.
There are two basic parts to a character— 1: their personality, and 2: their quirks. Their personality may affect their quirks in some ways, but really, having a personality (which you have the moment you are born) does not make it so you have quirks. Those develop as your personality grows more distinct— but they’re not really one and the same. So get to know the person. The quirks that make them so distinct in the eyes of a reader will follow.*stares at long jumbled ramble for a minute* I um… I hope… eh… maybe I shouldn’t post that? Maybe it won’t help… ah well, who cares, I tried, hopefully it’ll do some good. Here goes! *begins moving mouse down to dreaded ‘submit’ button…
Thank you so much, Kate! That is very helpful. I never thought about quirks being different from personality, but you’re right. I’m realizing that all my main characters are basically me, plus some embellishments. Which means they are just about identical on the inside. 🙁 I’ll have to fix that somehow.
Does a character have to have a major flaw to be relatable and realistic?
Also, what can I do to make a character interesting as a person? One of my MCs has a very interesting role to play, but as a person she is rather blah.
Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.No problem @sarah-h! 😀 The list I gave you is just to help ‘humanize’ your characters in your mind— if you can think about them as living, breathing, complex… er… problems, that’s half the battle. 😉
Does a character have to have a major flaw to be relatable and realistic? No. In fact if you think about it, there’s not a majority or minority either way of people who have major flaws. I personally have a lot of minor flaws and one or two slightly less minor— but I don’t think I’ve noticed any that would be considered major— depression, anger, resentment, anything like that. I mean, I can have problems with those, but just because they bother me sometimes doesn’t mean they are major flaws. Get me? Someone doesn’t have to be more wrecked than whole to be relatable and realistic. I would know— the favorite character in my WIP has a large collection of very minor faults (bossiness probably being the worst) and no major problems at all. 😉 🙂
Now if you’re like me and enjoy going to extremes, you can have characters with major problems and then redeem them, but it’s not one hundred percent necessary.Oh yikes… there are so many different ways to make characters interesting as people I don’t even know where to start. Since it would take a hundred years to list all the different personality types, I’ll give you another list that’ll help you start out on your own.
I would say the first thing is to find out what… er… tone, if you will, defines your characters’ existence. Are they quiet? Morose? Cheerful? Careless? Heartless? Burned out? Everyone has a ‘personality screen’ through which they see life. Finding out their perspective will go a long way to making them interesting and distinct, and sticking to that perspective (unless of course you are doing an arc on their outlook) will make for consistent characters, which is always good.
Once you figure this out, there are a few tricks you can use to enhance that. Number one: tie their perspective in with the message of the book. To use a very simple example, if the message is about overcoming fear by the grace of God, start with a very timid, nervous, stressed-out character who’s afraid of everything, and take it from there.
Number two: parallels. Taking two separate characters and giving them the exact opposite perspectives, then putting them through the exact same circumstances and showing how differently they react.Make sense? Any more questions? I could talk about this forever. 🙂
Another thing I find helpful is to visualize your character in your mind. I mean an actual picture. The face is the most important part. Sometimes you will have only a vague idea of what your character is like, but when you look at their face, you see so much more than you knew was there.
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Yes, definitely @Daeus. 🙂
Thanks, Kate and Daeus! I do need to spend more time visualizing my characters.
I think I see what my problem is. I’ve been thinking of my character as a bunch of puzzle pieces (flaws, traits, worldview etc.) to be fitted together, instead of as a person. No wonder they are such a mess! Thank you for helping me see that.I was wondering how to make three of my characters, girls of about the same age, distinct enough from each other. But if they each have a unique “personality screen”, then of course they will be different. Problem solved!
More questions? Hmm… First I should admit that when I started this novel, I had never heard of plot structure, character arcs, or thematic arcs so I randomly strung together exciting action scenes until I (not surprisingly) hit a brick wall and couldn’t get past it. I had (static) characters, setting, and a historical frame to work my story around, but no plot. Now I know what my problem was, but before I try to figure out a plot I think I should tackle character arcs. I know how to identify character arcs in literature, but how do I create my own? What defines a really good character arc?
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