Characterization
Ideas
In one of the “light bulb” moments during a lecture I was
giving this afternoon, it dawned on me that I have an entire Playbook of
character ideas I’ve been overlooking. (Yes, that is a “How I Met Your Mother”
reference.)
I’ve tried to grow characters organically. I don’t want to
force characterization. But still, I think these are some ideas that may help
writers develop characters deeper. My current book is “finished” (see next
section), but I may play with some of these scenarios during the next revision.
One of the courses I teach is Communication Theory, and
today I gave a special lecture, called “Academic Deep Dive” on comm theory
topics to our college transfer students. It dawned on me—why don’t I use some
of the situations when writing? Sure, we all use these to some extent, but
there’s some great stuff here, some opportunities to really see what our
characters will do when presented with the following challenges.
One such challenge, which comes from Social Exchange Theory,
would be to put a character in a relationship in which the costs outweigh the
benefits. Again, I think some of this is natural, but I think we can add to the
challenges to see what our characters do. I want fun, meaningful relationships
in my stories, but we also need conflict in order to create dynamic characters.
So one such way I’m going to play with that is really examine the relationships
in my stories and ask, “Ok, who is staying in a relationship in which the costs
outweigh the benefits? And why?”
Without giving too much of my current story away, my main
character puts up with a neglectful, alcoholic mother. He tries to reach her
and clearly puts in a lot of time or “cost” to this relationship. He gets back nothing.
Why does he stay? Well, she’s his mom of course, and probably the people with
whom we’d give the most “cost” to would be family, right? But what about
friends, love, infatuation? Can you add elements to characterization where one
character gives a lot and another gives nothing? What might happen then? I sure
can think of past friendships that ended because they cost too much (not in
money, but in a plethora of other sacrifices we make). Playing with that
concept may be a way to further develop our characters and their relationships.
A second approach, which comes from dialectical theory,
would allow us to play with contradictions in our characters. Without getting
into the academics behind the theory, it simply asks a few interesting
questions:
-- Why do we want to be intimate and close with
others yet still crave alone time?
-- Why do we enjoy routines but also have the urge
to be spontaneous?
-- Why do we want to publicly express ourselves yet
maintain privacy too?
So how do we balance these oppositions in our own lives? And
how can we use them to add to our stories?
First, it’s important to recognize
that both needs—the contradictions—are natural. We need routine and
spontaneity. It’s all about balance (isn’t life?). So here’s what I want to do:
I want a character who has always wanted love and affection and closeness to
wonder why he or she also feels the need for personal space. I want to see that
conflict. I want to play with a character that is all about routine and pair
him/her with someone completely spontaneous and see what happens. I want
someone who feels the urge to open up publicly (to the point of vulnerability)
but feel confused and challenged at the competing need for privacy (which could
be especially interesting using today’s social media too!).
I could list a hundred other theories and ideas (and I would
describe more if any other writers find the above situations interesting—just tell
me you want more, please). They may not be all that unique and some are pretty
common sense, but here’s the real beauty of it: We can ALL relate to these
situations, and that may make others relate to our characters more too. I hope
they are helpful and interesting. That’s the only reason I share them.
Novel Update
For those interested, I’ve “finished” my novel for a second time
on Sunday. I had been combing through the chapters, making notes, adding and deleting,
and generally making it a better book. I sent out just a few queries for now to
agents who I think would be interested in my particular story. Please wish me
luck. I’m hoping for an early Christmas present!
Regardless, my goal was to finish by December, so I met that
goal. Come December, I will be on winter break from the college. Between now
and then, I will again distract myself with other projects and try not to look at
or think about my book. But the first day I’m on break: I’m re-reading and
making notes all over again. Over winter break, if I don’t hear from an agent
(or even if I do, because we all know that a book is always a work in progress
until the moment it’s printed and hits the shelves), it will have a third major
revision, perhaps using some of the ideas I described above.
If I were my own critic (and of course we all are), I would
say this: I have the coolest plot imaginable to me. One of the first lessons a
writer learns is to write the story he or she always wanted to read. If you’ve
followed this blog, you know some about my geek interests, and this book plays
on that. It’s the horror adventure story I would always have loved to read.
During the second major revision, I added more depth to the
characters, fixed plot holes, and fine tuned some writing. My weakness was
characterization. I was focused on the COOLEST STORY EVER and needed to add
more depth to my characters. During this winter’s third revision, they’ll get
even deeper. And maybe if you’ve followed this blog and get to read the book
whenever it comes out, you’ll remember these little posts. “Hey- he talked
about that adding those conflicting behaviors on intimacy/privacy,
routine/spontaneity, and public/private—I see those here!” And for the few
closest readers I have, I hope you will get a kick out of it.
The book will be published. Someday. I don’t give up.
Other randomness
There are a few friends out there I don’t talk to as much as
I’d like. We are all so busy. So I thought I’d add some general randomness at
this point.
I am SO EXCITED about spring semester. For the first time at
the college, I get to teach a pure public speaking class as a face to face
elective (I’ve taught a hybrid online version where students have to meet to do
presentations but not an entire semester every class face to face). I sat down
today—another distraction from the book too—and wrote about two pages of ideas
for the class. The class is almost already full too, and registration has only
been open a couple of weeks. Most people signing up for it are taking it as an
elective. They’ve already had their COMM requirement. How cool is that? People volunteering
for public speaking!? No matter what, I take that as a huge teaching win, and I
can’t wait for spring. It will be the best class I’ve ever taught and the most
motivational, inspirational, and fun. That’s my goal.
There were about a half dozen other things I wanted to
include, but I’ll be honest: I have Modern
Family and the Goldbergs on the DVR.
And of course American Horror Story coming
up soon. :) So I think I need to wrap this up and say good night and save other
randomness for a future blog. As always, thanks for those of you who are
interested enough to read this much. Leave me a comment or send a message if
you wish, and I hope to talk more with all of you soon.
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