If you’ve got a James Bond story, feel free to use James Bond as he is. The same goes for Ferris Bueller, who doesn’t change, doesn’t face serious stakes, and doesn’t make us fret about his well-being. With the right action, humor, or mystery, flat characters (usually satisfying wish fulfillment or intellectual curiosity) are just fine.
However, generally people are carried along in a story because they care about the characters. (This is especially true for a TV series.) We want to worry about characters, particularly viewpoint characters. I’d argue that we even take more delight in villains we can care about.
The easiest way to do this is to make characters likable. We identify with protagonists who have special talents, are wronged, or are funny (according to Damon Knight). We want them to win. Even more, we get emotionally involved when they lose.
It’s best if readers/audiences actually see what they are supposed to appreciate. From the first story, Holmes shows how he uses keen observation to identify facts and figure out what other people miss. Harry Potter left as an unwelcome orphan who sleeps in a closet under the stairs. Chaplin’s Little Tramp debuts with dressed strangely, with a funny mustache, twirling a cane and shuffling along with an awkward gait.
While likable characters create empathy, they don’t need to be likable for us to care about them. If their cause is great and one we believe in, we may root for them even if we would never want to meet them. I have a hard time liking Patton, but I want the Nazis defeated. Or they can be relatively good. Michael Corleone may be inhuman at times, but he’s better than the other mobsters in The Godfather.
Mastery of Story Characters 1 - Know how to create empathy for characters.
Practice: In most cases, humor comes from clowns. They are nonthreatening, and, often, readers and audiences see them in an inferior position. Usually, they have an obsession. The first appearance of the Little Tramp has him driven to get attention. Journalists are filming a soap box derby, and he keeps photo-bombing them. (That’s pretty much the whole story, but it created a career.) He’s a little guy who keeps trying, despite being driven away by larger men and facing the hazard of zooming derby cars. So create a character who is believable and faces risks repeatedly for a disproportionately small reward.
Talent is easy: A beauty. An athlete. A great artist.
Try these to make your character stand out. Put the character in motion (and show the great achievement isn’t easy, if you want an internal trait). Add a quirk, like Rocky Balboa being a lefty. See if you can describe the character using a metaphor (which says more than mentioning physical features).
As for being wronged, begin with one of your own experiences of betrayal or abuse or being left out. Write that out. Then put it in terms that fit you story and the protagonist.
Above, I mentioned how the Little Tramp was introduced. He stood out. He looked on. He took a lot of camera time. There was no question about his being part of the race in any way.
The first line spoken can be powerful, too. James Bond literally introduces himself the first time the camera shows him, but it need not be so explicit. Much more revealing were Patton’s first words. "Be seated. Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." (Even before he speaks, the visuals tell you who he was and why you should pay attention to him.)
The first they they do or we see done to them matters. In Once Upon a Time in the West, Charles Bronson's character, Harmonica, plays a tune, drops his bag, and shoots three gunslingers before they get off a single shot. In Sunset Boulevard, our first view of Joe Gillis is him floating dead in a pool.
Of course, Hitchcock’s Vertigo uses setting, action, reaction, and horror to present the protagonist's titular weakness. Talk about a master.
The main thing to accomplish is to get the readers or audience to really notice a character (and this goes for more than the protagonists).
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an essay on introducing a character (Sundance). None of the lessons should be lost, but one choice William Goldman included had to do was all about introducing Paul Newman’s unknown co-star. Just putting him first and letting the camera linger on him (less obvious than the talk and action) was critical.
And other characters? Ocean’s Eleven introduced the bulk of the heist’s participants in just a few minutes. They are physically distinctive, tied to actions and mannerisms, and capable in different ways.
Mastery of Story Characters 2 - Introduce characters with pizzaz.
Practice: Looking through stories you’ve written, see if you can create great first lines for them. Or actions they take when they first appear that tell a lot about them or the story. Or begin with an unfair situation that sets things up. (Branded didn’t make it as a TV show, but it does this well.)
This skill is critical. People go on a journey with the protagonist, which is dedicated time. They can’t be allowed to confuse other characters. So the job becomes more than avoiding cliches. Having lots of options. Reworking and revising after the whole piece is finished. And getting the slightest pieces right. These matter.
Sergio Leone is so good at this the very beginning of Once Upon a Time in the West is profligate in its introductions. He shows us three compelling characters and, with two, even creates silent movies about them that are revealing and intriguing. But none of these characters makes it to minute ten of the film.
When you get people to pay attention and not forget, the characters are memorable. This can be done in big ways, where you create a classic protagonist like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Or in small ways, where a character gets attention in act one, is forgotten in act two, and plays a critical role (assassin, savior) in act three. Whole TV series have come from one bravado performance in a film or as a guest in an episode. And, with all the star talent of Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin steals the show with his (highly) profane and memorable speech about closing sales.
The classic way to get something (or someone) stuck in someone’s mind is repetition, and this works in stories, not just ads. Often authors achieve this through tics, tags, and attributes, including catch phrases. A more sophisticated and engaging form of repetition is an action or statement (often a brag) that escalates. This can really work well in humor.
Mastery of Story Characters 3 - Make your characters memorable.
Practice: Take two characters and make them as different at possible. Chances are, unless they become stock characters (like the whore with the heart of gold), they’ll become more distinctive. A more subtle exercise is to differentiate people who are all of the same class, age, and ethnicity. For these, flaws and idiosyncrasies that reveal the inner person are worth trying. If you have a story like this, try giving each character one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Think of a brag one your your characters might make that could not go unnoticed. Once you have that, come up with elaborations that go to absurdity. Then see if you can do something like that for an action that could be repeated. (In The Honeymooners, Art Carney, as Norton, could make making a list into an elaborate production.)
Once characters are on stage, people need to know more about them and fit them into the story. That’s what the next post will be about.
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