How Writers Can Shape Characters’ Reputations (and Enhance Their Stories)

I was ready to push send on this post, a followup promised in the last one) when I realized reputation is a critical part of the movie Catch Me If You Can. It's filled with great examples. If you haven't seen it, you might want to take a look before reading further.

The main character, Frank, is already an expert in using appearance, charm, and gifts to get people to like and trust him. He got all this from his father, who was honored by the local Rotary, even as he was involved in tax evasion. Frank's first triumph is pretending to be a substitute teacher at his new school. He uses confidence, presence, and knowledge (of French) to pull it off.

He also uses it to humiliate a student who has bullied him, making him do a horrible recitation in French. In a sense, it's a moment of justice, but it also is a projection of power, which is another important element of reputation. Frank's ability to embarrass people, especially those who could challenge him, continues in the story (e.g., when he hides his ignorance of medical procedures from interns who could detect his con).

When he's caught at school, he reveals a knowledge of the use of documents for credibility, advising a student skipping class to fold the fake note from her mother. This foreshadows the use of documents as proofs throughout. He passes checks that are doomed to bounce. But passing them is more of a challenge. He needs more knowledge about who can pass checks easily (airline pilots).

For documents to have more success against challenges they need to overcome all the obstacles savvy people, like banks, put in the way. One of his actions is to obtain equipment to make checks that authenticate themselves.

So, so far we have reputation in its easiest form based on charm, likability, and confidence. Combined with reasonable documents, these can fool many people. Adding in knowledge can expand the range of people who believe. And the lack of knowledge or correct documents will engender disbelief and harm a person's reputation.

One piece of knowledge is jargon. Frank purposely learns how pilots talk, which becomes a short step toward another proof – the uniform. Often, people don't look past the uniform and in doubt people with credentials because they assume the appearance is validating. Showing a badge can gain cooperation. There is a funny take on this in the movie, where Hanratty accidentally shows a maid the back of his genuine FBI identification, and she accepts it.

Expertise — real knowledge and capability — also can bolster reputation. Another key element in the film is Frank's deep knowledge of stationary (which was his dad's business). He's obsessed with documents, and learns everything there is to learn about ink, paper, texture, and more. In fact, this genuine expertise gets him released early from prison to help the FBI. Ironically, he also shows expertise in law by passing a bar exam without cheating, but he loses all credibility with the judge because, though he has a lot of knowledge, he knows nothing about presenting a case.

Association is another means to harm reputation (as referenced regarding Stand by Me in the last post) or for building it (as with Frank claiming degrees from Harvard and Berkeley). Frank also claims to be working for the Secret Service (which handles crimes involving currency) to evade the FBI, and it's simply accepted, bolstered by handing over a wallet that he claims has his identification (and doesn't). Association is used in a negative way for Hanratty. The only people who will work with him are FBI screw ups. In fact, one of them is assigned to him as a punishment. This undermines his reputation, even though his knowledge is extensive.

One of the most intriguing elements of reputation in the movie is when The New York Times pegs Frank as a glamorous James Bond of the skies because of his ability to fool the airlines. Nicknames and public approbation can enhance reputation, but also can change a person inside. Frank deliberately accepts the Bond characterization, using the name Fleming (as in Ian) when he buys a suit that matches the one in the movie. He sees himself differently.

That brings up the impact of reputation and who is effected. Any piece of evidence that changes trust can work in different ways with different witnesses. In addition, the power and memorability of such evidence can be manipulated by writers to enhance a story. These will be the subject of my next post.

Your Story Can Turn on the Reputations (Good and Bad) of Your Characters

One of my favorite stories as a child was "Seven at One Blow" (also known as "The Brave Little Tailor"). The catalyst for the action is the tailor's claim that he killed seven. He actually killed seven flies, not, as people assumed, seven men. His reputation was overblown, but it opened up opportunities for him, eventually, to marry the princess and rule half the kingdom.

The Scarlet Letter is all about reputation in the community. Westerns are full of people challenged because they have the reputation of being the fastest gun. And it's very common in stories for characters to have their reputations threatened, which could destroy their hopes or even make them pariahs.

I love how in the movie Stand by Me, Gordy, the protagonist is overshadowed by his late brother's reputation as an athlete. In fact, it's interesting to see how, with all the action in that movie, reputation is vital to the story. For instance, Chris is trapped and abused because of the reputation created by his family. No one expects anything good from a Chambers boy. He's so oppressed, he's willing to surrender his future, but the story changes him so that he embraces his talents despite the community's opposition.

With all the great examples in fiction, I think, because visual storytelling is so powerful, the idea of reputation is neglected by today's storytellers. It still shows up, but often is its fully exploited because the focus is on goals and desires that you could photograph. Now, I'm a big advocate of having tangible goals and desires in stories. But sometimes deeply understanding the power of reputation can create story choices that resonate with audiences and readers.

As with the little tailor, can create opportunities (or threaten them, as with Chris). This can lead to more interesting and substantive challenges for the protagonist, putting him or her into a larger world where more is at stake.

A lot of new opportunities are founded on trust. If your reputation says you are both competent and someone who can be relied upon, people will want to include you in projects, to provide resources so you can do more, and possibly even seek you out as a friend, companion, or lover.

Of course, doors close if you are seen as someone who is untrustworthy. People will take precautions, at the very least, monitoring and testing your behaviors.

One of the most powerful things you can do in the story is have a trusted character betray others. It creates a visceral reaction tied to our own experiences of being disappointed in or damaged by people whom we trust.

In addition to opportunities and trust, those with remarkable reputations gain influence. Their advice, suggestions, and commands are listened to. They may even be seen as role models and their behavior may be imitated.

Note: While influence is often earned, reputation can be tied to expectations based on rank or association. Most people will obey a police officer. The influence of a General in the military may have nothing to do with known accomplishments, and everything to do with status. When I was in business, many executives were more likely to pay attention to someone with an Ivy League diploma (no matter how foolish they were) than to others. Cachet matters.

Reputation can be more granular. Think of a sports team. Someone who plays his or her position at an All-Star level, even though they may be disasters as human beings or as one coach described an athlete "dead from the neck up," they are welcomed as role players.

Likewise, people can make mistakes in specific areas and others will be warned not to give them another chance. In practice, it's often even worse than that, with people being defined by one horrible moment in their lives where they didn't meet the challenge.

The story possibilities of these consequences of reputation gained or lost aren’t exhausted with this list. Every single story could be looked at in terms of the value of reputation, both in terms of the people who matter to the protagonist and the impact on the character's confidence and self-esteem. How do you as a writer deliberately make use of reputation in stories? It begins with having a sense of how character reputations might be created, twisted, or destroyed as the story progresses. That will be the subject of next week's post.

50 Gentle Questions to Ask Your Characters

Do you know people who have a difficult time accepting a compliment? Who may even be more comfortable with constructive criticism? There are story characters that are like that, too. They have no problem exploring their faults and flaws, often seeing past bad behavior as learning experiences. Or they see current cravings not as “just who they are,” but as targets for improvement.

This is not to say that the characters (or real people) are saints. They can be as human as the rest of us, but they are comfortable recognizing and (often) admitting their shortcomings. With them, getting answers to my 50 Rude Questions is easy. Maybe too easy.

One of my most important writing practices is interviewing my follow-up questions. How they evade the truth tells me as much about who they are as their actual answers. Now, a straight arrow can be a hypocrite (or worse), but someone who is less egocentric and more self aware may welcome rude questions and answer them as best as he/she can. Think of most characters Tom Hanks has played.

I ran into such a goodhearted character while working on a recent story, and I came out of the interview with useful questions, but less of a sense of who he was. So I tried something new. I went after him with some gentler questions, and he got (wonderfully) uncomfortable. He had a lot of trouble talking about and owning some good traits and behaviors. That led to the kind of hesitations, equivocations, and telling responses that mean so much to my style of storytelling.

I’m eager to do more of this sort of questions, so I’ve used the experience to create this list of 50:

    1.    What kindness did you do for someone with no expectation of a return?
    2.    What lesson do you hope someone learned from you example?
    3.    What’s the most embarrassing compliment you’ve ever received?
    4.    What achievement are you most proud of?
    5.    When did you not get credit you expected?
    6.    Can you tell me about any friends or family who helped you get through adolescence?
    7.    How has a teacher inspired you?
    8.    Tell me about a time when it was awkward or difficult to do the right thing.
    9.    When someone suffered a loss, how were you able to comfort them?
    10.    What break or advice or example made you understand what your vocation was?
    11.    What challenging day of hard work ended best?
    12.    If you had a slogan on how to live your life well, what would it be?
    13.    What example or experience deepened your understanding of a value you treasure?
    14.    If you received a million dollars to make life better for others, how would you spend it?
    15.    What advice or story have you come to appreciate more with each passing year?
    16.    If you could spend an hour with one person from history, who would it be?
    17.    What’s the most important gift you’ve given or received?
    18.    What’s the greatest act of friendship you have personal knowledge of?
    19.    Which obstacle that you’ve faced taught you the most about life?
    20.    What moment would you like to relive?
    21.    On a regular basis, what’s the best use of time for you?
    22.    Which relative would you be most proud of being “just like”?
    23.    Tell me about someone you only came to respect and appreciate over time.
    24.    What advice led wisdom when you learned to ignore or reverse it?
    25.    What’s the biggest blind spot you moved past?
    26.    What’s the most important thing you learned accidentally?
    27.    What act of kindness (by you or to benefit you) led to the biggest payoff in terms of understanding?
    28.    What advice continues to challenge you to be better?
    29.    What incident caused you to seek out help that changed your life?
    30.    Tell me about a relationship that taught you the most about yourself.
    31.    Has someone ever rescued you?
    32.    What strength of yours is most needed by your family or community?
    33.    How did you respond successfully to a setback or blow that seemed impossible to overcome?
    34.    What’s the greatest gift your family or community ever gave you?
    35.    At this point it your life, who do you depend on most?
    36.    What was the most difficult choice for you between two apparent goods? Two apparent bads?
    37.    If you were drafted to provide a year of service to your community, what would you hope that service would be?
    38.    What for you are the values that are most difficult to put live out?
    39.    How do you express loyalty, affection, and commitment to others?
    40.    Is there anything that gets in the way of your doing the right thing?
    41.    Tell me about a time when you were surprised you had the strength to do something that mattered.
    42.    Tell me about a time when you were surprised by the positive impact of a choice you made.
    43.    What historical event would you have been delighted to witness firsthand?
    44.    What question would you have liked to have asked a contemporary who is dead now?
    45.    If you had one person you could partner with to get an important job done, who would that be?
    46.    Name a work of genius you admire that was created by a horribly flawed person.
    47.    Is there a chronic injustice in this world that you believe could be remedied in your lifetime?
    48.    Is there anything others see as nonsense that you see as wise?
    49.    If you could pass on just one fable, parable, or experience to the next generation, what would it be?
    50.    What do you hope your personal legacy will be?

For many of these, the follow-up questions are invaluable. While I often conceive of some questions in the moment and make them specific to the character, “Why?” almost always pays off.