Thursday, January 9, 2020

Casting Your Stories 8: A test of characters

I’ve been told that the best way to remember what someone looks like is to think of them in action, doing something. This may be completely unnecessary for others, but, as someone who is very bad at names and faces, this advice has been invaluable to me.

Similarly, while writers I admire do fine with what might be termed characterization by resume, those kinds of questions (eye color, family place, economic background, education, religion, etc.), even answered well, can’t lock a character in my head. That’s explains a lot of what I’ve been doing in this series.

This entry is designed to make the process more accessible for you by taking the 6,000 words that came before and reducing the lessons to a short list you can use over and over again. (Of course, you may need to reread some of the earlier posts from time to time to get full value, but this will be a quick prompt even for those who master the rest.)

In planning
  • Find the right character for your premise.
  • Include a character who knows things or experiences life in ways you don’t. (Write what you don’t want to know.)
  • Base your character on someone real, with an emphasis on the contrary. Hitler painted roses.
  • Put a character in context (including community) - conflict, contrast, cooperation, perspective.
  • Interview characters.
  • Give each character a secret… and someone who knows it.
  • Write to “I am” statements from each key character. Make sure one of them is painfully true and the other one is a lie (possibly a lie the character tells him/herself).
  • Give each key character traits that can’t be missed or forgotten. (Will be repeated. May be changed to show growth or changed in rewrite to highlight theme.)
  • Have each character answer an important (probably rude) question. Attach a question to each you can’t answer and hope to answer by the end of the story.
  • Create at least one character who is inspired by a real person.
  • Create at least one reach character. Someone who feels strange to you or makes you uncomfortable or is outside your experience.
  • Do a quick check for contrasts between characters.
  • For key characters, write down a 70% component that rules behavior and an unexpected 30% component that points to hidden skills or needs.
As you write
  • Honor each character with how they are introduced to the reader (through action, reputation, statements, choices, traits, and/or descriptions).
  • Withhold something about each character until the right moment comes. Don’t fully expose them right away.
  • Keep track of who is in the scene and what they want. Include scenes where characters contrast. See if the identity of one can be challenged.
  • Play with variations on the traits you’ve created for the characters.
  • Be open to “aha” moments that answer questions suggested by your planning or invite probing or further scrutiny.
  • Include scenes where the 30% component is displayed.
  • Reveal the secrets you assigned to characters early for irony, late for plot turns, and/or at the worst possible moment for the character.
  • Motivate characters to form alliances or betray allies.
  • Make pursuit of goals so obsessive they invite parody.
  • Allow the characters to surprise you (even if it screws up your plans).
  • Explore something (difficult) that’s revealing (family, relationships, secrets).
  • Allow characters to hesitate. Don’t make them respond immediately to provocations and challenges.
  • Keep all your characters in view (perhaps by collecting pictures or making sketches of them). Make full use of them.
  • Never make things easy for your characters (unless you’re making it easy for them to make a blunder).
  • For tomorrow’s first scene, review the planning notes and write down what they might suggest.
When you rewrite
  • See if you can answer unanswered questions about your characters.
  • List out, character by character, the questions they ask. Note who they go to for answers.
  • Note, character by character, any identity statements (I am… ) or other expressions of who they are (or think they are).
  • Note moments when characters surprised you.
  • See if you can map your characters against archetypes and/or pantheons. Explore how do your characters fit in with relationships found in genres and myths.
  • Note your pivot scenes and see if the right characters are included. Also, determine how vulnerabilities, growth, and flaws are illuminated.
  • Make sure you have included at least one character who still makes you uneasy.
  • Describe the relationships between characters. Who are their allies? Who are their antagonists? How do they depend on each other? Do any of these relationships change?
  • Brainstorm how you might test your characters in different ways? In more extreme ways?
  • Review tags and traits and think about better alternatives.
  • Make sure tests — of the characters, of the relationships of the team — are included during or around scenes of major plot points.
That’s it. Most of what’s in the previous entries in this series is included, and I hope this provides you with a practical (and slightly different) approach to characters and their relationships.

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