(no subject)
So, over the last few weeks characterization has come up in all sorts of aspects of my life. Specifically, people asking me how to make a character/change a character/build a character. So I might as well post about my thoughts on creating a character.
There are as many ways to make a character interesting as there are people in the world. But I don't know all those ways. Over years of paying attention to characters that interest me, I've spotted two big keys to making a character interesting right off the bat. So these are them, with examples!
For the purposes of this... essay, really, I'm going to assume you're not writing a comedy. Lots of rules go out the window in certain types of comedy, and I'm going to figure you're writing anything else--including humor, as long as it's realistic.
I'm also going to make the assumption that you know how to create the base of a character. You know how to make up a history and personality and all that, and I'm gonna move right onto tips on how to make it INTERESTING. Again--there are lots of ways to do this. These are the two big ones I've seen. ;)
The hook
You need a hook. Something to make the reader take notice of your character. One of the easiest ways to do this is trauma, but you don't have to use trauma. A hook is just something unusual, or unexplained.
Take, for instance, House. His hook is that he's a brilliant asshole. People watch because they want to know what he might say next. (A note, here, on the difference between being interested in a story and in a character. People may also watch because they want to know how the problem is solved: that's a hook in the STORY. If you're interested in House himself, it's because the character has a hook. Assholiness, drug addiction, possible smut with Wilson--those are all hooks that create interest in the character.)
Other character hooks:
Dipomatic Relations by maldoror_gw is a story about Gaara and Lee from Naruto. Gaara has been through major trauma--from attempted murder by his mother-figure to being unable to sleep to being, well, slightly insane. Yet this isn't the character hook Mal uses; rather, she uses the hook of him trying to be normal. A hook that only works when a character isn't normal. ;) The question this creates: How will he do this, and why is he trying?
Special by minisinoo has Cyclops from the X-Men movie, set before the movies. In this he's a prostitute. There's a hook. ;) One of several questions it creates: How does he get over this to become the strong leader we know and love?
In The Kakashi Mission my hook for Kakashi was that he wasn't cool--he was socially inept. The question: Why is he like this, why do people think he's cool, and will he be able to get past it?
Over at Fallen Leaves, the hook for Ryouma (one of my favorite characters, played by kilerkki) is that he's a great guy, a real Hero, who seems terribly friendly and open, yet doesn't let people too close--for reasons Ki gives us hints to slowly. The question: why won't he let people too close? What happened in his past?
Mal's hook in the television show Firefly/the movie Serenity is that he's a rogue who's hurting. The question: Why's he hurting? Will he recover?
There are LOTS of hooks--an unpopular or uncommon political leaning, an unusual fear, some kind of past trauma, a strange family setting--anything where you can leave the reader going, "But... what?" As in, "What makes them feel that way? How can they believe that? What caused that fear? What was that trauma? Is that family always that crazy?" And so on. But they have to be left ASKING. If you answer everything at once, then your hook is gone.
Ki mentioned to me once that she tries to drop something about Ryouma's past in every story. This is a great technique: it gives people enough to think about, to wonder about, without spilling everything at once. By the time his story is told, people love the character and keep reading, even though that hook is answered. (Of course, you can always come up with another! This is called Character Growth, and I'll talk about that later.)
So as you can see, there are plenty of kinds of hooks. The big thing to remember is that you need one for people to be interested in your character. If there's nothing the reader is left asking/wondering/thinking about, then they aren't going to come back.
Hooks are not always easy to think of. When I was making up my character for Fallen Leaves, I created her whole history. I wanted a strong character with a clan that was wolf-pack based. But when I finished, I knew that the clan wouldn't be seen much, and she wouldn't have a chance to show off this oddity in the ANBU headquarters. It wasn't enough of a hook, and there wasn't anything else about her that left people going, "Hmmm. I wonder why...?" It took a lot of talking with darksideofstorm before I came up the history of her rape and child, and the reasons behind why she doesn't want people to know. And then, in the very first thread I did, I set the stage for that hook: she meets a man she's attracted to, and after giving it some thought she shies away. Since it's told from her point of view, this shy-from-fear is fairly obvious. But I don't explain WHY--that's my hook, is that I want people to keep reading and find out why she won't get close, bit by bit. And then hopefully they'll be hooked enough to find out if she'll get over it, and how it will affect things, and so on and so forth. ;)
My point, though, is that I didn't have a hook. I created an entire character and knew she wasn't going to be interesting: I needed something that would leave people asking, "But... why did she shy away? Why is she running from her family, when she obviously would rather be home and they'd rather have her there?" And so on. Had I not added that hook, she'd be a nice but uninteresting character. (I like to think I'd have changed that. But that's just conceit. ;-D)
Opposites
Another thing that makes a character interesting is opposites, or the opposite of what you expect. A hero who hates people, for instance. Using my character from Fallen Leaves again, I did that on accident--she's physically one of the weakest ANBU we write about, but has a VERY strong emotional core that gets her through just about everything.
In Metal Angel, a novel by Nancy Springer, I was hooked because it was an angel who hated God. There's an opposite. ;)
A cowardly ninja or superhero would be an opposite. It creates an instant question--if they're afraid, how will they continue?
Hancock was an opposite--a superhero who's homeless and hated.
Jayne from Firefly/Serenity is another opposite--a guy on the good guy side, who's definitely not a good guy.
The only fanfic character I can think of that has a great opposite is Kisame in Killing Time, written by messypeaches. Kisame is A Villain. He's not a bad hero, like Jayne shows signs of being, who will become a good guy. Kisame is a Bad Guy. He doesn't particularly like people. He's not interested in saving folks. He actively kills them when they annoy him--even knowing he shouldn't. He just doesn't care. No respect for human life and all that. And yet, he protects the people he likes--something we don't associate with 'villain,' and so it's a contradiction.
These are the two biggest ways I know of to create interest in a character you've just created. Once that character is created, character growth and development is necessary to keep them interesting. That's another essay, though. Hopefully tomorrow. ;)
J
There are as many ways to make a character interesting as there are people in the world. But I don't know all those ways. Over years of paying attention to characters that interest me, I've spotted two big keys to making a character interesting right off the bat. So these are them, with examples!
For the purposes of this... essay, really, I'm going to assume you're not writing a comedy. Lots of rules go out the window in certain types of comedy, and I'm going to figure you're writing anything else--including humor, as long as it's realistic.
I'm also going to make the assumption that you know how to create the base of a character. You know how to make up a history and personality and all that, and I'm gonna move right onto tips on how to make it INTERESTING. Again--there are lots of ways to do this. These are the two big ones I've seen. ;)
The hook
You need a hook. Something to make the reader take notice of your character. One of the easiest ways to do this is trauma, but you don't have to use trauma. A hook is just something unusual, or unexplained.
Take, for instance, House. His hook is that he's a brilliant asshole. People watch because they want to know what he might say next. (A note, here, on the difference between being interested in a story and in a character. People may also watch because they want to know how the problem is solved: that's a hook in the STORY. If you're interested in House himself, it's because the character has a hook. Assholiness, drug addiction, possible smut with Wilson--those are all hooks that create interest in the character.)
Other character hooks:
Dipomatic Relations by maldoror_gw is a story about Gaara and Lee from Naruto. Gaara has been through major trauma--from attempted murder by his mother-figure to being unable to sleep to being, well, slightly insane. Yet this isn't the character hook Mal uses; rather, she uses the hook of him trying to be normal. A hook that only works when a character isn't normal. ;) The question this creates: How will he do this, and why is he trying?
Special by minisinoo has Cyclops from the X-Men movie, set before the movies. In this he's a prostitute. There's a hook. ;) One of several questions it creates: How does he get over this to become the strong leader we know and love?
In The Kakashi Mission my hook for Kakashi was that he wasn't cool--he was socially inept. The question: Why is he like this, why do people think he's cool, and will he be able to get past it?
Over at Fallen Leaves, the hook for Ryouma (one of my favorite characters, played by kilerkki) is that he's a great guy, a real Hero, who seems terribly friendly and open, yet doesn't let people too close--for reasons Ki gives us hints to slowly. The question: why won't he let people too close? What happened in his past?
Mal's hook in the television show Firefly/the movie Serenity is that he's a rogue who's hurting. The question: Why's he hurting? Will he recover?
There are LOTS of hooks--an unpopular or uncommon political leaning, an unusual fear, some kind of past trauma, a strange family setting--anything where you can leave the reader going, "But... what?" As in, "What makes them feel that way? How can they believe that? What caused that fear? What was that trauma? Is that family always that crazy?" And so on. But they have to be left ASKING. If you answer everything at once, then your hook is gone.
Ki mentioned to me once that she tries to drop something about Ryouma's past in every story. This is a great technique: it gives people enough to think about, to wonder about, without spilling everything at once. By the time his story is told, people love the character and keep reading, even though that hook is answered. (Of course, you can always come up with another! This is called Character Growth, and I'll talk about that later.)
So as you can see, there are plenty of kinds of hooks. The big thing to remember is that you need one for people to be interested in your character. If there's nothing the reader is left asking/wondering/thinking about, then they aren't going to come back.
Hooks are not always easy to think of. When I was making up my character for Fallen Leaves, I created her whole history. I wanted a strong character with a clan that was wolf-pack based. But when I finished, I knew that the clan wouldn't be seen much, and she wouldn't have a chance to show off this oddity in the ANBU headquarters. It wasn't enough of a hook, and there wasn't anything else about her that left people going, "Hmmm. I wonder why...?" It took a lot of talking with darksideofstorm before I came up the history of her rape and child, and the reasons behind why she doesn't want people to know. And then, in the very first thread I did, I set the stage for that hook: she meets a man she's attracted to, and after giving it some thought she shies away. Since it's told from her point of view, this shy-from-fear is fairly obvious. But I don't explain WHY--that's my hook, is that I want people to keep reading and find out why she won't get close, bit by bit. And then hopefully they'll be hooked enough to find out if she'll get over it, and how it will affect things, and so on and so forth. ;)
My point, though, is that I didn't have a hook. I created an entire character and knew she wasn't going to be interesting: I needed something that would leave people asking, "But... why did she shy away? Why is she running from her family, when she obviously would rather be home and they'd rather have her there?" And so on. Had I not added that hook, she'd be a nice but uninteresting character. (I like to think I'd have changed that. But that's just conceit. ;-D)
Opposites
Another thing that makes a character interesting is opposites, or the opposite of what you expect. A hero who hates people, for instance. Using my character from Fallen Leaves again, I did that on accident--she's physically one of the weakest ANBU we write about, but has a VERY strong emotional core that gets her through just about everything.
In Metal Angel, a novel by Nancy Springer, I was hooked because it was an angel who hated God. There's an opposite. ;)
A cowardly ninja or superhero would be an opposite. It creates an instant question--if they're afraid, how will they continue?
Hancock was an opposite--a superhero who's homeless and hated.
Jayne from Firefly/Serenity is another opposite--a guy on the good guy side, who's definitely not a good guy.
The only fanfic character I can think of that has a great opposite is Kisame in Killing Time, written by messypeaches. Kisame is A Villain. He's not a bad hero, like Jayne shows signs of being, who will become a good guy. Kisame is a Bad Guy. He doesn't particularly like people. He's not interested in saving folks. He actively kills them when they annoy him--even knowing he shouldn't. He just doesn't care. No respect for human life and all that. And yet, he protects the people he likes--something we don't associate with 'villain,' and so it's a contradiction.
These are the two biggest ways I know of to create interest in a character you've just created. Once that character is created, character growth and development is necessary to keep them interesting. That's another essay, though. Hopefully tomorrow. ;)
J