Characters

[jimbutcher]

So your story is all about conflict, right? And you can't have conflict without, well, people. Maybe your people look like sentient renaissance mice, or maybe they look like talking cats, but there are going to be beings running around your story with a bunch of conflicting desires. Those are your characters

Comments

[neadods]

Question - are you talking about genre writing only, or all fiction? Because while reading I was simultaneously thinking about what you are actually saying and applying it to my holy grail of lit perfection, Pride & Prejudice. Which is admittedly a book about boring people leading relatively boring lives - and is yet so entertaining that it has survived not just a publishing cycle, but a few centuries. (It works if you invert the emphasis on exaggeration and empathy above.)

By the way, hi. You don't know me from Eve (unless you remember that drive-by comment at Worldcon about owing Laura Anne a drink), but I've friended you because I've been very impressed by your lectures on writing.

[jimbutcher]

How did Twain put it? Something like: Literature is a book everyone wants to *have* read, but no one wants to *read

[neadods]

my opinion of the vast majority of English literature is that it has little or no actual value to society outside of the university-level English Lit community

And in many cases (Dickens!) I'd agree, but not in all cases, particularly the sonic boom part. Helen Fielding didn't get a rejection from the publisher or the audiences, and she didn't even bother filing all the serial numbers off. And who was it who just got a fair amount of buzz with The Jane Austen Book Club?

I guess my point may be less about literature than gender; there is a large and lucrative female audience for books that do not depend on necessarily the same character trait mix that SF/F does.

This is a personal windmill that I occasionally tilt at, and it isn't supposed to be a personal assaultNot offended in the least - my first degree was in History, and I developed a taste for an intelligent debate about interpretation. If I didn't want to talk about it (which implies being challenged as well as challenging) I wouldn't have bothered commenting

[icewolf010]

if Pride and Prejudice landed on an editor's desk today, it would be on the floor and propping open a door about ten minutes after the editor started looking at it and the rejection letter to its author would probably create a sonic boom on its way out.

Eh, I'd argue that. I think today it'd be marketed to the "chick-lit" and Romance crowds, but the prose is just too elegant and well written. At least to me. And, trust me, if you've ever been a woman with a pushy, embarassing mother and sisters, you can totally buy into Elizabeth Bennet's situation, even over a 200 year gulf.

[dianora2]

Yay, you're posting! ::waves::

[jimbutcher]

Hey, how you doing! :)

[peskyaura]

I'm studying your journal and I think that your advice will really help with my short stories. I've found that with the "write what you know" theory, you find out that a lot of people you know are kind of, um, Pride and Prejudice-y. :)

I try to start with someone I saw that made me do a double take- either visually or with a story.

BTW- my buddy Ken won a signed copy of one of your books at ArCon- and gave it to a friend. I nearly killed him over that slight. :) I really enjoy your writing- so thanks for that, too.

Just wondering ...

[ravensghost]

Where would dialogue fit into this plan? It could fall under verisimilitude, I suppose, or it could be important enough to warrant its own bullet point.

Re: Just wondering ...

[jimbutcher]

It's own article, actually. :)

But everything I know about characters and how you'd use dialogue to help build them has its roots in basic use of tags and traits. The tricky part is getting them to mesh with dialogue in a smooth and credible fashion. Otherwise, the characteristic dialogue comes out like "yoosa thinka you-a all bombahd."

[xheartrockx]

Wow, first hand author tips. This rocks. I'm sorry if it sounds dorky but this is the first time that I had the time to read your entry. And I must say that I have this weird thing with famous people so... never mind the dorkyness there.
I'd just wanted to you thank you for giving those advices and share your first hand experiences. It's far easier to understand when you actually know the authors work and not just read in one of those how-to books and such. So yeah for that.
I simply adore your work, your style and such. Just keep it coming, the fan community is growing.

[jimbutcher]

Blame it on my most recent martial arts teacher. He told me that at some point in anything you practice, you stop learning new things--until you start teaching what you already know to others. That it's essential for continued growth.

I think he's right. So, this. It's professionally good for me to go over the fundamentals for others, so this is essentially just a mercenary effort to further my career. :)

[martinabalint]

Well, it's not like it's the first time you've done it. You've made it a habit from the very beginning and it certainly looks like it's working for you! ;-)

[liss07]

Don't be so daft, you don't need to further your career really - you're a god to your readers! The way you combine excitement with humour is amazing!

[jimbutcher]

That's a fairly complex area of writing, and one in which I don't feel all that knowledgeable myself. The articles here are just basic writing craft. They aren't meant to be a comprehensive guide to written fiction. They're just an introduction to a structured approach to story craft.

First learn walk, then learn fly Daniel-san. Nature rule, not mine. :) I'm still in that "flop around in the air until you hit a window" stage.

Jim