All good, round, deep characters have a flaw. Sometimes it's a tragic flaw; sometimes, it's a fatal flaw. Other times, it's the shattered facet that keeps a character human.
So what's a flaw?
Often, it's a lack of something.
If a character feels a lack of something, it motivates him. Often, nearly always, this character has a goal that symbolizes, to him/her, the satisfaction of this inner, private need.
It could be love (too many to mention), success, money (all the Nero Wolfes), affection for his family (It's a Wonderful Life,) , a family, safety from a criminal (Silence of the Lambs), a certain level of society (The Great Gatsby,) etc.
In short, it is anything that threatens your character's sense that s/he controls his/her own destiny.
When a person is aware of such a lack, they are ill at ease. They try to compensate. More on compensation tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Your Main Character and Books
What kind of fiction does your main character read?
Do they not read fiction because "it isn't real"?
Do they read only horror novels with lots of slippery blood and torture of young women? Even if your MC is a young woman?
Do they read only bestsellers that the NYT picks out for them?
Do they not read fiction but have an extensive library in the living room so it looks like they do?
Only DWMs? Only living LBGT writers of color?
Only highbrow lit that Oprah thinks is too tough for her viewers?
Only sword and sorcery fantasy? Even if they're a brain surgeon? Or a Wiccan palm reader, to get ideas?
Only 99c ebooks, to spite the major publishers? Or because they're chinsy? Or because they like new writers? Or because they won't read a publisher that published Snookie?
Only $15.99 ebooks because those self-published writers can't be any good since they haven't jumped through the appropriate hoops and paid their dues?
Do they not read fiction because "it isn't real"?
Do they read only horror novels with lots of slippery blood and torture of young women? Even if your MC is a young woman?
Do they read only bestsellers that the NYT picks out for them?
Do they not read fiction but have an extensive library in the living room so it looks like they do?
Only DWMs? Only living LBGT writers of color?
Only highbrow lit that Oprah thinks is too tough for her viewers?
Only sword and sorcery fantasy? Even if they're a brain surgeon? Or a Wiccan palm reader, to get ideas?
Only 99c ebooks, to spite the major publishers? Or because they're chinsy? Or because they like new writers? Or because they won't read a publisher that published Snookie?
Only $15.99 ebooks because those self-published writers can't be any good since they haven't jumped through the appropriate hoops and paid their dues?
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Ways to Tag a Character: Attitude
There are four major ways to tag a character:
2) Speech
3) Mannerisms
4) Attitude -- also called traits: the habitually apologetic, the fearful, the easy-breezy laugh, the careful vanity, an obsequiousness ingrained from surviving rounds of layoffs, an ex-general accustomed to snapping orders and immediate obedience, preoccupation with a single subject (golf, babies, one's own health, a religion or political stance, a perfect lawn, fishing, retribution for a minute perceived wrong or for the murder of one's child, etc.) quick to take fey offence at any perceived insult to his status in the peerage, an innate bravery when the most powerful wizard in the world keeps trying to kill you.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s two interesting 99c short stories for you to read: (More fiction coming soon.)
Nag Is Hindi for Cobra (All Formats) Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Ways to Tag a Character:
There are four major ways to tag a character:
1) Appearance
2) Speech
3) Mannerisms -- clutching a sheaf of sliding papers, spinning a e-reader like a basketball, a toddler who scowls, a servile but furious house-elf, a girl who flutters, an eye-dodger, an earlobe-tugger, a tic, a twitch, a hand-washer, a doodler, a nose-picker, an ex-smoker who can't let go of a phantom cigarette, a seat-squirmer.
1) Appearance
2) Speech
3) Mannerisms -- clutching a sheaf of sliding papers, spinning a e-reader like a basketball, a toddler who scowls, a servile but furious house-elf, a girl who flutters, an eye-dodger, an earlobe-tugger, a tic, a twitch, a hand-washer, a doodler, a nose-picker, an ex-smoker who can't let go of a phantom cigarette, a seat-squirmer.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s two interesting 99c short stories for you to read: (More fiction coming soon.)
Nag Is Hindi for Cobra (All Formats)
Monday, July 18, 2011
Ways to Tag a Character: Speech
There are four ways to characterize.
1) Appearance.
2) Speech -- New Yawker or Southern drawl; an affected 19th-century manner, the vocabulary of a wharf whore or a Georgia preacher's wife; an autodidact or a lazy bum; a manager of a factory farm with a master's in ag science and a minor in botany/genetics or a dirt farmer; do-diddy rappin' or the King's English; and stutter, stammer, or clenched throat. One's profession, hobbies, religion, family, background, and education change speech.
1) Appearance.
2) Speech -- New Yawker or Southern drawl; an affected 19th-century manner, the vocabulary of a wharf whore or a Georgia preacher's wife; an autodidact or a lazy bum; a manager of a factory farm with a master's in ag science and a minor in botany/genetics or a dirt farmer; do-diddy rappin' or the King's English; and stutter, stammer, or clenched throat. One's profession, hobbies, religion, family, background, and education change speech.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s two interesting 99c short stories for you to read: (More fiction coming soon.)
Nag Is Hindi for Cobra (All Formats)
Friday, July 15, 2011
Ways to Tag a Character: Appearance
There are four major ways to tag a character:
1) Appearance -- cobalt blue eyes, burnt sugar skin, emaciated physique with umbrella-ribs torso, grimy fingernails, mango orange hair, mourning black hoop-skirted dress, sunburn on one side of the face, only wears designer business suits, dark roots under platinum Marilyn Monroe blonde hair, mom ponytail, a fat toddler grown six feet tall, a lightening bolt-shaped scar on his forehead, an Adonis but for his crooked teeth, a wretch but for her kind and clean smile, chest hair like a tiny bear skin rug glued to his skin, bald and lumpy like a golf ball, one eye higher than the other, a brass prosthetic nose, huge herpes lesion on his upper lip, etc.
More to come.
1) Appearance -- cobalt blue eyes, burnt sugar skin, emaciated physique with umbrella-ribs torso, grimy fingernails, mango orange hair, mourning black hoop-skirted dress, sunburn on one side of the face, only wears designer business suits, dark roots under platinum Marilyn Monroe blonde hair, mom ponytail, a fat toddler grown six feet tall, a lightening bolt-shaped scar on his forehead, an Adonis but for his crooked teeth, a wretch but for her kind and clean smile, chest hair like a tiny bear skin rug glued to his skin, bald and lumpy like a golf ball, one eye higher than the other, a brass prosthetic nose, huge herpes lesion on his upper lip, etc.
More to come.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s two interesting 99c short stories for you to read: (More fiction coming soon.)
Nag Is Hindi for Cobra (All Formats)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
What's your character's reaction to the sun?
Not only vampires have problems with too much sunlight.
If your character is running around Paris, outside, for four hours or more, unless they are very melanin-blessed, they're going to get sunburned.
Ditto if they're outside, running away from the bad guys, on a sunny day (or even a cloudy one) for more than a few hours. What does that do to them? Are they sore? Do they blister and peel the next day? Are they worried about getting more little cancers that the dermatologist is going to have to burn off? Does the sun start to hurt?
Describe all that. Accumulated damage to your character, physical and psychological, is an important part of your plot and story.
If your character is running around Paris, outside, for four hours or more, unless they are very melanin-blessed, they're going to get sunburned.
Ditto if they're outside, running away from the bad guys, on a sunny day (or even a cloudy one) for more than a few hours. What does that do to them? Are they sore? Do they blister and peel the next day? Are they worried about getting more little cancers that the dermatologist is going to have to burn off? Does the sun start to hurt?
Describe all that. Accumulated damage to your character, physical and psychological, is an important part of your plot and story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
