Characterization

How to characterize your characters

In general, try to rely on action. Even descriptions should be fed through the action. Don't take readers out of the scene.

Direct and Indirect (Burroway)

Direct methods of character presentation: appearance, action, dialogue, thought

Note: Appearance doesn't have to be visual. It could be the timbre in the voice, the strength of a handshake. Appearance can give insight into values, politics, religion, society, intellect, essence.

Indirect methods of character presentation: interpretation by other characters, authorial interpretation, flat characters bring the main character forward, characters talk about main character to characterize him or her.

Note: Make sure not to restrict the knowledge of a point-of-view character to what others perceive about him. I made this mistake when I made my antagonist one of the point of view characters. I wanted his motives to stay a mystery for the first half of the book, but when I unveiled them, they came from a different point-of-view character uncovering details of the antagonist's past, not from the antagonist himself. Don't do that.

Setting (Burroway)

To show a character best, put them in a place they constructed (bedroom, car, etc.)

Character description

Although you might have a vivid picture in your head of what the characters look like, do not describe them in every detail. Describe only what will be unique and important. Please see the descriptions page to learn how to do that. The example is one of setting, but all three steps must also be applied to descriptions of people.

Remember that all descriptions of characters should be filtered through the perception of the point-of-view character's emotions and thoughts. Just like setting descriptions aren't neutral, character descriptions aren't neutral either. The point-of-view character's opinion of the appearance of the person should seep through as they are being described.

The David Bowie Fallacy
A common misconception is that if it's important enough to be on your driver's license, it's important enough to put in your story. Think of ten random people that you know. How many of them are you sure you know the exact eye color of? People just don't notice eye color unless the color or brightness is unusual. Therefore, leave it out unless it's unique or important to the plot.



Loathe-able characters

When studying unlikable characters, I made this list from Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground: sensitive, insecure, paranoid, imagines what others think, self-sabotaging, progress comes with chaos, inaction

Something to keep in mind when creating a disgusting character is to keep it close to home. The more readers can empathize with the character's bad traits, the most disgusted readers become. No one is one hundred percent bad (or good for that matter). Even the worst character in your novel has to have redeeming traits. I have a demon in my novel, but I try to get readers to empathize with him, too.

Flannery O'Connor is particularly good at showing the good traits in the antagonists because they tend to be the savior figures, despite their cruel deeds. They teach the characters something (or teach the reader something).



A few words from Anton Chekhov

Chekhov has a pretty distinctive style. When emulating his style, Chekhov insists on total objectivity. When describing the unfortunate, be cold. The more that the writer steps away from the scene, the more the reader can relate to what is being said rather than how it's said. The reader is more likely to sympathize with a boy starving in the streets than a narrator telling the reader to feel sorry for a boy starving in the streets.

Chekhov also suggests shunning description of characters' spiritual states. Their beliefs should be inferred from their actions.




Suggested resource

Edelstein, Dr. Linda N. Writers Guide to Character Traits. 2nd edition. Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati OH: 2006

This book is written by someone who knows a lot of about writing and psychology.

FEATURES (This is not an exhausted list):

• 14 adult character types--features of each, possible histories that made them that way, most likely futures, how they tend to react to certain situations
  
• describes physical and mental disorders and how they affect people.
  
• describes how different aged children react to things like divorce or death of parents.
  puberty in adolescents: during what ages are what things happening?
  chart of emotions and what the face looks like during those emotions (to help you with show don't tell)
  
• what personality types and what does it take for a person to become various types of criminals?
  
• how certain types of ppl act in marriage, relationships, sex lives, etc.
  
• what reactions go with what phobias
  
• writing prompts
  
• and much much more