Characters: Flat or Multi-Dimensional

-
Courtesy of Pixabay
I'm disappointed in one of the authors I enjoy reading.

Why?

I started reading one of her books this week, and I can't keep the characters straight. I've read Game of Thrones and The Wheel of Time and managed to keep most of those series' characters straight. This is one book, not a series. Characters should be recognizable.

Yet, one-third of the way through the book, I'm scratching my head over:

  • Who is Terrence and where did he come from? Why does he have a point of view chapter here?
  • Does this character (pick any of them for this one) sound like they did in the previous chapter?
  • Who is Justine, again?
  • Why can't I tell the three sisters apart?


The questions go on and on. The story intrigues me, and I usually love this author's storytelling, so I'm sticking with it. But seriously? What's happened to her writing?

I've run into this problem before...more times than I care to admit. Writers need to develop individual characters, even the small, short-blip-in-the story characters need to be distinguishable from the rest. Granted the smaller parts don't need as much work, but please give them something to distinguish them from each other.

How Can You Develop Individual Characters?

There are a variety of techniques you can use for developing a multi-dimensional character. Below are some of the areas you might want to consider as you seek to create something other than a cardboard cutout.

Make sure they talk differently than the others:


  • Do they have favorite words or slang terms?
  • Do they speak like a college professor, a cop, or a redneck?
  • Do they speak in short, clipped sentences or are they long-winded?
  • How do people react to them when they speak?
  • How does their voice sound?


Give them specific mannerisms:


  • Do they open doors for everyone when entering or exiting a building?
  • Do they stroke their beard or chew their nails?
  • Do they fidget or sit up straight or ...?


Develop how they respond to others:


  • Do they wait for others to finish speaking or interrupt them?
  • Do they crowd a person or keep a respectful distance?
  • Are they touchy-feel-y or hands-off?
  • Do certain people annoy them?


Don't forget the internal thoughts for your point of view characters:


  • What do they notice about people?
  • Do they see their surroundings or blaze through a room unaware of what's around them?
  • How do they interpret what they see?
  • What do they notice?
  • What do they think about while listening to others?

These questions provide a starting point, but you can find other ways to create multi-dimensional characters.  What are some of the techniques you use?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Skin Tone: Describing Your Characters

-
Image
When you write about character's of different races, how do you describe their skin tone? If you've never thought about this, then consider this question: How do the authors you read described persons of color? A few months ago, I attended a webinar about writing diverse characters. The guest was Eliana West of Writers for Diversity . The information she shared felt fresh and valuable, especially related to describing a character's skin tone. I get really tired of seeing African-descended characters described in terms of the goods that drove, and still drive the slave trade--coffee, chocolate, brown sugar. There's some weird psychosocial baggage attached to that.    -- N. K. Jemisin As this quote from author, N. K . Jemisin , indicates, historically, writers have described people of color using food-related descriptors. Many people of color find this offensive. This surprised me, at first, but she has a point, especially when you view it through the quote above. My fir...
Read more

Character Development: Using the Johari Window

-
Image
In my last post, Character Development: the Johari Window , I introduced the Johari Window as a tool for developing your characters. It's important that your character not know everything about their situation. These unknowns can lead to an intriguing story and create possibilities for conflict within the story. How do you use the Johari Window? In this post, I thought I'd provide a simple example of the Johari Window with a character most people know:  Harry Potter. Below, I have filled out the Johari Window as it might appear within the first few pages of book 1, Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone . The Johari Window based on Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone Three of the quadrants in this window reveal what Harry doesn't know about who he truly is and what happened to his parents. I could add a lot to the quadrants representing what he doesn't know, but I hope this gives you an idea on how a Johari Window might be used. What do you d...
Read more

He Said, She Said, Who Said? Punctuating Dialogue

-
Image
Courtesy of Morguefile.com I've been focusing my posts on workshops and panels I taught or participated on at the Imaginarium Convention. Although this serves as a poor substitute for the real thing, I can share some highlights. This week, we're going to explore dialogue punctuation. The first thing writers need to learn is how to properly punctuate dialogue. I've discovered, over the years, that many don't know how. Notice in the first example below, the dialogue starts at the beginning of the sentence, and the speaking tag (he said, she said, Paul said, etc.) follows it.  A few points to notice: The first letter of the quotation is capitalized. What the person says is a sentence, so it must be capitalized. A comma comes directly after the quote and INSIDE the quotation marks. You can, also, have a question mark or exclamation point here. There is a space AFTER the closing quotation mark followed by the speaking tag and a period at the end of the sentence. In the next ...
Read more