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Characterization


Stone Cold Steve Jobs

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If the plot is the thing you are writing for, your characters are some of your main driving forces to achieve your goal. It’s impossible to write a story without at least one character, as a first person or omnipotent narrator can be considered a character themselves. 

A plot-line often uses the characters in its universe to tell its story. We see the story unfold with them, for them, through them, and at their expense. Whatever must be done must be done to tell your story. There is very little middle ground.

A common error in characterization is the failure to admit fault or weaknesses. Nobody likes to acknowledge their flaws, and nobody really likes writing a flawed character. However, flaws are generally what makes your character “alive” to the reader. Nobody is perfect, therefore we often relate more to an imperfect character than a perfect one. We refer to characters without weakness who are seemingly perfect in every regard as “Mary Sues” or “Gary Stus.” These types of characters are rarely ever taken seriously and if you’re writing a story that demands to be taken seriously, you will fail. A Mary Sue can, however, be used well in certain circumstances. For instance, in a satire or a comedy, these characters can earn many a laugh because the reader does not take them seriously. They are parodies of themselves, and that makes them work in comedic storytelling.

A well rounded character is one with a back story, a personality, strengths and weaknesses. A character should generally not have a horrific depressing back story because it gets in the way of the narrative and defines it. Unless that is the intention, I would stay away from it. Characters designed to gain sympathy from other characters or the readers tend to be banal, and the opposite tends to happen. Instead of loving and feeling sympathy for these characters, we feel no connection whatsoever. We don’t feel connected to the character, and therefore do not have an investment in this storyline. I call overly negative characterization the “Bleeding Heart Effect”.

It is okay to have a few bad things happen in the backstory. It is okay to have some really bad things happen. Be sure to balance them out with some positives too. Hell, make the character a go lucky person, even in the face of negativity. You can earn a strong connection to the character that way.

 It’s a gamble to treat them like your friends or family. I generally recommend you do not. They are tools meant to be used and discarded when they are no longer useful. There are a few reasons why:

First of all, when you form an attachment to your character, you’re going to want them to be great. You won’t want them to have weaknesses and you will desire for your readers to see them in the same light. Ironically, getting the reader to see your character that way works better when you treat said characters as pawns. An undisciplined or new writer will tend to turn these characters into author’s pets. Nobody likes those.

Another issue is this: Your character is only important until the plot dictates otherwise. If the plot demands your character die, you’re going to have to take it behind the barn. This is where the gamble comes into play: When you are attached to the character and love it and you’re going to have to kill it, one of a few things will happen: 

If you’re well disciplined and will do what you have to do even with the attachment, then the character dies and you channel the emotions you’re going to feel into the narrative. This allows a greater impact on the reader, because they can feel what you are feeling. However, you’re probably going to feel like crap for a while.

If you are NOT willing to kill your character if the plot dictates it, you’re going to go to great lengths to find a loop hole. Sometimes you will succeed but at great cost to the plot; you may have to completely revamp the narrative so that this can happen, or you’ll find something that you think works, but it ruins the flow of the story. So you wind up with the character intact but the plot either changed or no longer possible to achieve. 

The best thing, therefore, is to consider a character nothing more than a tool meant to forward the story. It still might suck to kill someone off, but it’s not as bad and you avoid a lot of problems in the long run.

As always, take this with a grain of salt. Maybe it helps you, maybe not. Respect your character as much as is needed, but do not confuse respect with love.

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