Strength of Character
Most of us, at some point or another, will have come across the mutant-power approach to characterisation, as illustrated by this conversation between two writers:
Writer 1: "Dude, I have this awesome idea for a character!"
Writer 2: "Congrats dude, what is it?"
W1: "She can shoot switch blades out of her eyes!"
W2: "and?"
W:1 "She can shoot switchblades out of her eyes"
W2: "Um..."
W1: "SWITCHBLADE EYES! (runs off to design action figures)"
We all know this is a pretty prevalent, and pretty bad way of making up characters. It confuses *who* the character is with *what* they can do. I don't want to spend alot of time on it. Especially when, what I've been seeing a lot of recently is this:
W2: "By an ASTOUNDING COINCIDENCE I also have had an awesome idea for a character!"
W1: "Hit me with it!"
W2: "She's smart, and sassy and she-don't-take-no-shit-from-no-one, but she's a little bit vulnerable."
W1: "...and?"
W2: "Um... she's a demon hunter?"
W1: *Mumble "preferred switchblade eyes" mumble mumble.
Now, my problem with this kind of characterisation isn't the cliches, (although I am certain there is a some kind of fantasy writer Starbucks somewhere in Manhattan where you can order whatever kind of decaff-skinny-strong-female-protagonist-with-hazelnut-syrup that defines you as a person), it's the *adjectives*. Adjectives like "smart" and "sassy" are story-arsenic.
Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are adjectives. Adjectives are great (except when used so heavily that they throw you out of a story, then they become *ejectives* ha ha ha... don't mind me) but they aren't *specific*. There are a million and one ways to be sassy and a googolplex of ways to be smart. If you start off by deciding that you want your character to be smart and sassy, then basically, you've decided next to nothing at all. So then you reach into the store cupboard for the most tried and tested ways of *displaying* smarts and sass, and you wind up with a lead who looks like they were produced by a focus-group who only showed up because they were promised free chicken.
It feels churlish to rip into these things, without offering something constructive, so what do you do instead? (Well, there are a shit-ton of writers out there who do character better than me, and I do mean a shit-ton, my advice is start at the top with Le Carre, but if I knew how he did it, I'd be doing it as well as him. I don't, so my way is what you get.)
My way is pretty simple, don't start with the character, start with a story.
Not *the* story, this doesn't mean the plot of the book, but *a* story, a plausible concatenation of events that made your character who she is.
The thing is, characters make events happen, but events also shape characters, and events are specific in a way that adjectives can never be. Know the histories that shaped your character, and you know them ****way**** better than if you try to define them out of thin air.
W1: "So I've got this idea for a character, she runs away from a puritanical household to pursue a career in stand-up comedy, she travels the world, gets famous doing skits on religion. she loses touch with her folks, but then her mum comes to one of her shows. She sits patiently through our girl's most extreme set, and then visits her backstage. Mum tells her that her dad's died, mum is crucifyingly afraid of public speaking, and she wants our girl to give the eulogy...."
And that's where we come in at Chapter one. With a demon, natch.
DISCLAIMER: I am not saying I am any good at this stuff. This is just some ideas I chucked at a page. Discuss at your own leisure/risk (delete as appropriate)
Writer 1: "Dude, I have this awesome idea for a character!"
Writer 2: "Congrats dude, what is it?"
W1: "She can shoot switch blades out of her eyes!"
W2: "and?"
W:1 "She can shoot switchblades out of her eyes"
W2: "Um..."
W1: "SWITCHBLADE EYES! (runs off to design action figures)"
We all know this is a pretty prevalent, and pretty bad way of making up characters. It confuses *who* the character is with *what* they can do. I don't want to spend alot of time on it. Especially when, what I've been seeing a lot of recently is this:
W2: "By an ASTOUNDING COINCIDENCE I also have had an awesome idea for a character!"
W1: "Hit me with it!"
W2: "She's smart, and sassy and she-don't-take-no-shit-from-no-one, but she's a little bit vulnerable."
W1: "...and?"
W2: "Um... she's a demon hunter?"
W1: *Mumble "preferred switchblade eyes" mumble mumble.
Now, my problem with this kind of characterisation isn't the cliches, (although I am certain there is a some kind of fantasy writer Starbucks somewhere in Manhattan where you can order whatever kind of decaff-skinny-strong-female-protagonist-with-hazelnut-syrup that defines you as a person), it's the *adjectives*. Adjectives like "smart" and "sassy" are story-arsenic.
Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are adjectives. Adjectives are great (except when used so heavily that they throw you out of a story, then they become *ejectives* ha ha ha... don't mind me) but they aren't *specific*. There are a million and one ways to be sassy and a googolplex of ways to be smart. If you start off by deciding that you want your character to be smart and sassy, then basically, you've decided next to nothing at all. So then you reach into the store cupboard for the most tried and tested ways of *displaying* smarts and sass, and you wind up with a lead who looks like they were produced by a focus-group who only showed up because they were promised free chicken.
It feels churlish to rip into these things, without offering something constructive, so what do you do instead? (Well, there are a shit-ton of writers out there who do character better than me, and I do mean a shit-ton, my advice is start at the top with Le Carre, but if I knew how he did it, I'd be doing it as well as him. I don't, so my way is what you get.)
My way is pretty simple, don't start with the character, start with a story.
Not *the* story, this doesn't mean the plot of the book, but *a* story, a plausible concatenation of events that made your character who she is.
The thing is, characters make events happen, but events also shape characters, and events are specific in a way that adjectives can never be. Know the histories that shaped your character, and you know them ****way**** better than if you try to define them out of thin air.
W1: "So I've got this idea for a character, she runs away from a puritanical household to pursue a career in stand-up comedy, she travels the world, gets famous doing skits on religion. she loses touch with her folks, but then her mum comes to one of her shows. She sits patiently through our girl's most extreme set, and then visits her backstage. Mum tells her that her dad's died, mum is crucifyingly afraid of public speaking, and she wants our girl to give the eulogy...."
And that's where we come in at Chapter one. With a demon, natch.
DISCLAIMER: I am not saying I am any good at this stuff. This is just some ideas I chucked at a page. Discuss at your own leisure/risk (delete as appropriate)