Revealing Comments About Character Development

As I contemplate some new projects, I've thought about how to develop characters. I've thought about this before, but it never hurts to revisit my approach.

Character Tags

I've found Lester Dent's formula helped me a lot with my writing. I added his article to one of my earlier posts: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-lester-dent-master-fiction-plot-test-drive/

In his article, Lester Dent talks about giving characters tags so people can recognize them when they show up. Tags can be based on appearance, disposition, mannerisms and so on. I thought this would create superficial characters, although I also thought they would create the impression of more depth to the character than there actually is. I've found it much easier to write dialogue for more fully developed characters. At times it almost feels like they dictate their own lines.

My thoughts on this has evolved somewhat though. While the tags can be superficial, as you develop them, you look for tags that will define the characters. The exercise of developing the tags, causes you to get into the mind of the character.

Verbal Catch Phrases

To be more specific, I feel that a character's unique verbal catch phases give clues to who the character is. For example, it is common to say “hello” when you meet someone, but people use a wide variety of variations. Some examples include: hi, hey, howdy, top o' the morning, give a silent nod, or say the person's name. Which word a person chooses to use tells you something about their personality and mood at the time.

In my own case, I usually just smile and nod, but say nothing when I meet someone. The reason I do that is that I don't have a lot of confidence in my memory for names and I worry I'll get their name wrong. That would embarrass myself and might insult the other person. I wouldn't want to do either. The word, phrase, or action a character adopts would reflect a similar thought process.

People tend to associate certain expressions with types of people, and you need to be aware of that when you choose. An example of this is the word “howdy”. This is usually associated with a “folksy” or rustic person. Or, someone who wants to appear that way. Of course some people make their choice based on what people around them use. Of course that tells you something about the people they associate with, which tells you something about them.

The verbal catch phases people use can include how they say “yes”, “no”, “goodbye”, “but”, “thank you”, “I think”, and of course, the expletives they use when surprised or angry. Some catch phrases have no meaning and are used just to make a noise; an alternative throat clearing.

At the end of a conversation, I usually said, “I should let you go”. Recently, I realized that it was way for me to end the conversation and make it seem it was the other person's idea. Now I try to say something where I accept that I want to end the conversation. I haven't a standard phase yet, but I would use something like, “I have some things I should do.”

Expletives can very often reflect a person's character very explicitly. Some examples of words and phrases can include: damn, drat, golly, holy characterization batman, and the wide variety of four letter words that are available. For myself, I usually don't say anything out loud. When I do, it is usually something like darn, or damn, depending on the intensity of my feeling. I don't verbalize anything stronger than that. These choices reflect my desire to remain calm, or at least appear to be calm.

What comes first, the catch phase or the character?

In my, limited, experience, it can happen both ways. When I used Xtranormal to make “The Barrier”, I had to choose the voices and appearances of the characters before I began to write. I also had some preliminary ideas for dialogue. As I wrote and rewrote the scenes, the voices, the appearance and the words they said began to define their character. As the characters developed, they generated ideas for dialogue, which further developed the characters.

Character Traits and Tags List

Some writers have developed lists of words that can be used to describe emotions. I'd like to have a similar list that linked character traits to verbal catch phrases and other types of character tags. While I have found that I can sometimes get a sense of the links without a formal process, I think a list and a process would make it go faster. I haven't come across that kind of list, but maybe there is one out there I don't know about.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

4 Things I Learned From "The 89th Key"

I feel that "The 89th Key" was a good learning experience for me. I've organized some of  my thoughts about what I learned.

The Outline

I have used outlines for most of my stories and all of my movie scripts. With "The 89th Key" I put more effort into the outline. I think I put as much effort into it as I did into the first draft and the rewrite.

This extra effort paid off for me. It made the first draft go much smoother. I feel that it is at the outline stage that the hard work of writing happens. One way to look at it is that the outline is the real first draft of the story, and the first draft is a rewrite.

If you can work out the structure and action at the outline stage, then you can focus on the actual wording when you come to write the story. Many of the problems I ran into were because I hadn't done enough work on the outline.

I want to work on how I create an outline. I have in the past developed a grid in a Excel spreadsheet to help me develop my outline. With "The 89th Key" what I wrote was more like a treatment or short story version of the tale.

Character Definition

One thing that helped me a lot was that the characters in Doc Savage are well defined. They are not necessarily complicated characters, or even very realistic. But, they have distinctive characters and I found it easy to imagine how they would behave in different situations.

This definition of character made it much easier to write the story. At times the characters seemed to come to life and all I had to do was type out what they did.

I realize that most of the characters I create are not as well defined. I can feel it when I have to force generic characters to do something. There are exceptions; the characters in "The Barrier" are all quite distinct.

I want to develop a check list of the types of things I need to define for each character. In the past I've focussed on general descriptions and didn't go into depth. What I think may be a better approach is to consider how they would behave in different situations. For example, if some one attacked them, would they fight back, surrender, run away or try to reason with them.

Relationships between Characters

This is something I've never given much thought to. A good example in the Doc Savage books is the relationship between Monk and Ham. Their rivalry is a bit cartoonish, but it adds something to the stories.

When I develop characters I need to consider how they relate to one another. Do they like each other? Do they trust each other? Do they hang out together after work? What do they talk about when they aren't talking about work? What do they have in common?

These relationships can add colour to a story, but can also help drive the story forward.

Like with the characters themselves, I want to come up with a check list of the types of relationships that characters can have. As I develop each character I can work how they relate to the others.

Number of Characters

The Doc Savage books have six on-going characters. Seven if you include Doc's cousin Pat. There is usually one main bad guy with a bunch of nameless subordinate bad guys. In contrast I usually have just the hero and his sidekick, plus an equal number of bad guys. "The Barrier" was an exception to this.

What I noticed was that when I had more good guys to work with, it was easier to come up with things to happen in the story. On the other hand, I found it hard to give some characters anything to do.

I think that while you can have too few characters, you can also have too many. What the best number of characters is, I am not really sure. If I planned to do a series of stories, I would want to have a few extra around that could play a bigger role in later stories. For a stand alone story, they would just be in the way.

I'm sure that there is more for me to learn, but I really feel that this little project has been one of my more fruitful projects.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

A rewrite for “The Gladstone Barrier”

I started to rethink my short story The Gladstone Barrier this week. I came up with several ideas that I think I can use to develop it into a longer and, hopefully, better story.

Description

In some of my stories, I do have a lot of description of the people and the locations, but have very little in The Gladstone Barrier. It is very much a plot driven story. I think there a couple of good reasons to add more.

First, I can use it to develop the characters more. How they dress, how they move and how they present themselves all tell you something more about them. I think that my characters need that additional depth.

Second, I can use description to create a mood for each scene. A cramped room and a cosy room are physically the same thing, but the description creates a different feeling for the location that will affect readers in how they interpret what happens.

Bits of Business

I feel I need to add some little “bits of business” for my characters. I mean little things that he does that reveal something of his personality. A neat person will pick up loose papers on a desk and arrange them. A sloppy person won’t. I can use these to make the main character, Arthur Macdonald, easier to identify with. I would want to do the same for the minor characters, but not to same extent, since I want the focus on Arthur.

Along those lines, I want to rewrite the opening scene so that Arthur avoids the collision through his own actions. As it is now I don’t think that is clear. That would make him a stronger character and not just some one who is blowing in the wind.

Ling the Mentor

I intended the character Ling to be Arthur’s mentor. I thought that was clear in the story, but some people commented that I should make her his mentor, so I guess it isn’t that obvious. I would need to expand her role quite a bit.

Some people might think it is odd to have a woman as the mentor. The term mentor refers to a story from Greek mythology. The goddess Athena wanted to help Telemachus find his father Odysseus. She disguised herself as a man named Mentor and encouraged Telemachus to seek out his father. In her guise as Mentor, she travelled with him to provide guidance and advice. So, I think it makes perfect sense. Maybe I can use that parallel in the story.

Technical Details

Some of the comments I had about the story focussed on some technical details that they didn’t think I had right. I want to fix those, which will change the plot somewhat. Currently the boss assigns Arthur to do the priority project on short notice. That doesn’t leave him time to do all the consulting and hoop jumping that the project would normally involve.

For the rewrite, I think it would be better for him to take over the project at the last minute because the person who had done the work can’t complete it for some reason. This would put him in a position where he has to defend decisions that he was never involved with and doesn’t always agree with.

Subplots

I also would like to add a subplot about Arthur and a girlfriend or maybe a wife. This would serve to round out his character. It also occurs to me that it would ensure that readers would realize that his relationship with Ling is not romantic. Maybe I can add other subplots, like a conflict between the priority project and the project he had been doing.

The Danger of Delay

I got quite enthusiastic about the rewrite, but I have so much else on my plate now that I have to put it off until later. I wish I could dive into it while my mind is still churning out ideas. I worry that if I leave it to later, that I will lose the inspiration. That happens some times, but usually I can pick it up.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog