The Power of Characters
Last night I watched One Tree Hill (a high school drama series on StarWorld) with my usual fervour - leaning forward and yelling encouragements, falling back and shouting in disgust, cheering in approval and gaping in disbelief. At the end of the show, Best Friend watched me catching my breath and remarked, "It's not real you know. Don't have to get so excited." To which I replied, "I know, but it's so hard not to get caught up in their lives!"
And with that, I once again realised the power of fully-fleshed characters. It's no great secret that it's the characters that make a story, which is why creating good ones is one of the most difficult parts of writing fiction. Well, to me at least! Throughout my Storywriters In Progress course at 95% The Writer's Academy, I struggled to make my protagonist Adam sound real. On pitching night Sharon, who was on the panel of critiques, told me point-blank, "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel for Adam. And the rest of your characters all sound alike."
I didn't get that at first. How could you not feel for Adam? He's an over-ambitious journalist who's struggling with his inner demon. Isn't that enough to warrant sympathy and support? Then I actually started writing the story and realised, so what? Everyone has an inner demon they're struggling with. What makes Adam and his so special? And the rest of my characters did sounded like clones. I thought about my favourite novels and movies, and realised the reason they are favourites is because I felt for at least one of the characters. I rooted for them, held my breath, shed a few tears, laughed aloud...slipped on their shoes and travelled with them on the pages or screen.
Now I'm teaching myself how to build more convincing and interesting characters through unapologetic observation and eavesdropping. Whenever I'm out these days, I pick someone to study and watch how they talk, move and express themselves. Invasion of privacy aside, it can be very educational. But if you're a stickler for ethics, then just observe youself. You may be surprised at what you notice.
And how will you know when you're on the right track? When you find yourself arguing with an inner or outer critic about your character saying, "but he would never do that." instead of "but I don't want him to do that". Or when a reader says, "that was so unexpected/out of character."
One Tree Hill's storyline may not be caviar for the mind but the characters are.
And with that, I once again realised the power of fully-fleshed characters. It's no great secret that it's the characters that make a story, which is why creating good ones is one of the most difficult parts of writing fiction. Well, to me at least! Throughout my Storywriters In Progress course at 95% The Writer's Academy, I struggled to make my protagonist Adam sound real. On pitching night Sharon, who was on the panel of critiques, told me point-blank, "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel for Adam. And the rest of your characters all sound alike."
I didn't get that at first. How could you not feel for Adam? He's an over-ambitious journalist who's struggling with his inner demon. Isn't that enough to warrant sympathy and support? Then I actually started writing the story and realised, so what? Everyone has an inner demon they're struggling with. What makes Adam and his so special? And the rest of my characters did sounded like clones. I thought about my favourite novels and movies, and realised the reason they are favourites is because I felt for at least one of the characters. I rooted for them, held my breath, shed a few tears, laughed aloud...slipped on their shoes and travelled with them on the pages or screen.
Now I'm teaching myself how to build more convincing and interesting characters through unapologetic observation and eavesdropping. Whenever I'm out these days, I pick someone to study and watch how they talk, move and express themselves. Invasion of privacy aside, it can be very educational. But if you're a stickler for ethics, then just observe youself. You may be surprised at what you notice.
And how will you know when you're on the right track? When you find yourself arguing with an inner or outer critic about your character saying, "but he would never do that." instead of "but I don't want him to do that". Or when a reader says, "that was so unexpected/out of character."
One Tree Hill's storyline may not be caviar for the mind but the characters are.
posted by starlight at 4:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home