[Writerpreneur] Compelling Characters 06

CREATING COMPELLING CHARACTERS PART 1: The most important element in any story is Character - this is what the reader identifies with. But how do you craft your description? Traits, first...

THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT IN ANY STORY IS CHARACTER. Being human ourselves, we are all interested in human nature and have some comprehension of it. Human nature knowledge is vital for life. We gain everything we achieve or get with the consent or help of others, and without understanding our fellows, we cannot survive or succeed.

Character offers more variety than incident and setting. Few plots, few settings; millions of unique individuals exist. Humanity’s diversity is boundless. Thus we find that character in fiction is infinitely interesting, endlessly surprising. But it is more than that. It is also far more plausible than any other element of fiction, since we, being human, understand character better than anything else.

We have already discovered the fiction writer is there to arouse interest and maintain plausibility. The human character in all its surprising variety provides a maximum of interest. Its familiarity provides a maximum of plausibility. And so character is the ideal material for fictional art. It provides greater opportunities for the writer than anything else.

It is, therefore, not surprising that creating fictional characters is considered the ultimate test of literary skill and genius. The ability to create character is the most valuable ability an author can possess, whether he aspires to be immortal or just popular. Let’s examine how to conceive and portray character.

Certain fundamentals constitute character, and certain methods display it.

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CHARACTERIZATION:

traits;

identification tags;

functions, abilities or capacities;

tools or weapons.

You can classify characters as

flat characters,

characters in relief, and

round characters.

We have defined a good story as a tall tale made plausible. In fiction, writers must simplify both character and incident, thus falsifying them. Human beings, being complex and varied, distort life more through fictional simplification than through plot simplification. The “tall” characters are taller than the “tall’’ tales. Conversely, our deep engagement with character material contradicts this impression.

Character admits of an intensification of interest not possible in mere incident. We often see that great fictional characters are more vivid and vital than the living people we meet.

The vividness of fictional characters is because of several elements. These include both the skillful devices of the writer and the reader’s deep understanding of the charcter’s material.

The vividness of fictional characters stems from the reader’s ability to enter their hearts and minds, unlike the hidden thoughts and motives of real people. Hamlet is more vivid to us than our next-door neighbor, because we may pluck out the heart of Hamlet’s mystery. We know him better because we know his inner life, his traits, his motives.

Character Traits.

Characterization is, first, a matter of traits. By a trait in fiction we mean a distinguishing quality of mind or character.

CHARACTER TRAITS are most important if we are to understand and present imaginary persons convincingly. We can classify traits under four serviceable headings.

Human Traits. These are the natural traits of the natural man:

• appetites;

• animal spirits;

• instincts;

• physical sensations;

• universal emotions such as fear, hope, despair;

• natural affections such as the love of a mother for her child;

• the basic, common feelings of the species, which are neither moral nor immoral, but familiar and appealing to us all.

These characteristic qualities of humanity may be animal and selfish, if you choose, but justifiably so—traits vital to our existence, and therefore admirable and necessary. It is not enough that a man be a good man. He must also be a decent animal, a competent creature.

Sometimes this human trait is a natural weakness for comfort, food or drink, a natural laziness or petty selfishness, which we understand at once. Since a weak character cannot be dangerous, readers are sympathetic towards characters exhibiting such human traits. Because the natural man in us is selfish, we respond at once. Thus, when Abraham Lincoln wished to prevent the mob from lynching his client, he did not try to appeal to the crowd’s love of law and order; instead, he reasoned to them that he was a poor young lawyer just getting started, who could not afford to have his first client lynched. That touch of human nature made the mob respond to his appeal at once.

Giving a character some native human weakness, such as overeating, sleeping late, or excessive drinking, can make them appealing. This is seen in Rip Van Winkle and countless other stories and plays. If a character takes off his shoes when his feet hurt, that’s enough to engage our sympathy.

Such a warm, natural trait is very winning if it expresses itself harmlessly by violating of social custom.

Such a trait is almost allegorical. It is the trait of Everyman.

However, the appealing human trait is not one of weakness. Perhaps it embodies powerful energy, reminding us of stories about courageous eaters and flamboyant revelers. Subtracting this vitality would diminish the appeal of Homeric heroes, and the heroes of Dumas or Kipling.

In short, when you wish to create sympathy and make your characters live and breathe, you will do well to stress their human or universal traits. The vital, natural man will do you yeoman’s service here. For the human trait is an essential part of all convincing characters, whether they act or only suffer.

The human or universal traits are of the greatest service in making fictional characters plausible. They are also of the utmost value in creating drama, since they are often in conflict with moral or social traits.

Typical Traits.

These traits suit the character, often relating to social behavior. They are traits which enable us to recognize a character by his race, color, profession, sex, age and similar representative classifications. To present a character as typical of a group, the writer must give that character the group’s characteristics; these characteristics are considered typical traits. We expect a certain type of behavior and motivation in a policeman, a bandit, a soldier, a mother, an adolescent boy. We expect a Japanese to be concerned about his ‘face,’ and we have learned to identify youth, age, males and females by certain habits of thought and action. All these things are typical traits.

Typical traits are useful for recognition and therefore for plausibility. Their value for interest is not great. However, familiarity and simplicity compensate for this; types are easily understood.

Farce and melodrama employ typical traits more than more lifelike fiction does. They appeal to the child and the lazy reader who wants things made easy for him and who wishes to enter a world of black and white and bright colors, where everything is quick to recognize and nothing puzzles him.

Typical traits also save an author much space and much labor in presenting minor characters. Sometimes, tags convey such traits, concentrating the character into a phrase; the reader then supplies the details.

The writer uses typical traits for minor characters who appear only for short periods. Conversely, some comic characters consistently elicit laughter through unchanging traits. And wherever recognition is more important than fresh interest.

Some critics have sneered at literature featuring stereotypical characters, but it remains unproven that the complex is inherently more valuable than the simple. Obvious elements hold significance; Greek tragedies, for instance, feature characters defined only by common traits.

Social and Individual Traits.

Social Traits. By social traits we mean those distinguishing qualities of character approved or disapproved by society or by the group in which a man lives. By social traits we mean the virtues and vices: on the one hand, selfish desires; on the other, social demands. A social trait wins our respect and approval if the trait favors the group, favors society. Most readers learned to believe unselfishness is the highest human virtue and selfishness the lowest vice. This conviction is widespread. I recall it was shown by a poll of the American Expeditionary Force during the World War in France.

We regard the man who puts our interests ahead of his own as a hero.

It was earlier highlighted that people primarily read fiction to reconcile their natural impulses with societal expectations. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find social or moral traits lying at the heart of almost every story.

Social traits are quite useful in characterization, since all important characters exhibit such traits. Without social traits the popular story formula breaks down and the reader feels himself defrauded. The story seems to him like Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left out.

There is an excellent technical reason social traits must occur in fiction. Authors failing to reveal character morality leave readers judging characters only via their actions. Actions speak louder than words — but not so far as motives are concerned. In any situation only a few actions are possible. These actions could stem from various motivations.

If an author omits social traits from his characterization, this handicaps his attempt to produce a clear-cut effect, since the reader will misconceive the significance of the story.

You can collect social or moral traits from any list of virtues and vices. We can conveniently classify these traits under two headings: selfish and unselfish. In such a classification they appear in pairs. For example: courage, cowardice; honesty, dishonesty; loyalty, treachery; and so on.

For more subtle and sophisticated characterization, in which absolute moral principles are qualified by good sense and expediency, we may use a triple classification of moral or, rather, social traits—an admirable mean and two less admirable extremes. For example: stinginess, liberality, extravagance; cowardice, courage, recklessness. The writer will decide which method best suits his material and whether his characters are to be only wicked and virtuous or merely strong or weak or foolish.

Of course, your classification of virtues and vices will depend upon the standards maintained by the society to which your readers belong. Group traits reflect group interest. Readers will show more tolerance for the selfish man in prosperous times, as he can’t destroy others’ prosperity.

Hard times breed a hatred of selfishness. Thus in the Middle Ages, when food supplies were insufficient, gluttony was one of the seven deadly sins. In modern times, people rate gluttony only as a personal folly, or at worst a disgusting habit.

A character may be so simplified as to be wholly selfish or wholly unselfish. Such a character is a flat character.

A more rounded character would be partly selfish and partly unselfish. Social traits are, therefore, somewhat variable in their application. The writer must adjust these matters according to his public and his purpose.

Individual Traits. An individual trait distinguishes the mind or behavior peculiar to an individual character. The individual trait, arising from the diversity of human nature, makes a strong bid for the reader’s interest, and may carry a considerable element of surprise. Creating characters in relief or rounded characters may find this technique most useful; it often connects with character tags (discussed later), the tag serving as the outward and visible sign of the individual quality. This is quite true of tags of speech — such as that of Mr. Micawber: ‘‘Waiting for something to turn up.”

Recap.

It is unnecessary that every character in your story should have traits of all four classifications. A short detective story might feature several suspects who are only lay figures, barely more than tagged. Rounded characters appearing in longer fiction tend to exhibit traits from all four classes.

The human trait evokes sympathy because it is universal, quickly understood and so engaging. It makes the character easy to understand, makes for recognition. Without some human trait, if only the capacity to suffer pain, a character is unable to touch our hearts.

A social trait is indispensable for the popular plot story or any form of fiction in which “villains” and “heroes’’ appear. In the more sophisticated fiction the social conflict appears to adjust personal desire to social demands, with little stress on right or wrong. Thus a story may be told in which a small boy goes to live with his grandmother—whom he has never met. The author, in a series of sympathetic bits of experience, shows the child’s gradual acceptance of the new relationship. Thus the lad becomes a member of the old lady’s family.

Sometimes, such a story baffles beginners because, they say, it lacks a plot. Those claiming “no plot” when significant change occurs fundamentally misunderstand plot.

The typical trait is neutral, but essential for recognition. It may arouse interest and create glamor, but is often superficial.

Soldiers, for example, appear to be alike—but only to those who see them pass in review. To their comrades in the barracks they seem strongly individual.

The individual trait makes for interest and surprise in the story. The reader will only accept what they’re prepared for.

A well-rounded character will have all four kinds of traits.

Showing a character’s reasons for behaving badly undermines their flawed portrayal. A criminal becomes a psychopathic if you reveal his motives. Since there is a cause for every effect in nature, the less you reveal to your readers the mind of your villain, the more terrible he will seem. The unknown is always dreadful, while the known seems commonplace and natural. To know all is to forgive all, as the saying goes. In fiction, where the characters cannot injure the reader, to know all is to excuse all. The most terrible villain in English literature is Shakespeare’s Iago. That is because there is no apparent reason for Iago’s malice.

For readers identifying with the main character, showing the story from the villain’s viewpoint is disastrous in fiction. The reader, having little imagination, is always a hero in his own eyes, and therefore anybody with whom he identifies himself becomes a hero, too.

This book more often than not uses “hero” to designate the character with whom the reader identifies and sympathizes. That character suffers most; they face a painful choice, a difficult decision. The varieties of character are infinite, yet they fall under a few recognizable types; originality in characterization arises from making a fresh combination of these elements. Whatever the combination, action and emotion provide the best means of presenting it.

A good presentation masterfully outlines the character, leaving room for reader interpretation.

In characterization, as in plotting, scene, setting—in everything pertaining to the art of fiction, we must always remember the proverb: ‘‘Seeing is believing, but feeling hath no fellow!” To make a weak character sympathetic, show his weakness as human and natural.

To make a strong character sympathetic, give him gusto or reveal in him some trifling weakness in strong contrast to his general character. People regarded dictator Benito Mussolini with some awe until his weakness for trying on new types of headgear and spending considerable time before his mirror became public. After that, few could take him seriously as a bogeyman.

Newspaper accounts of people’s struggles offer valuable insights into fictional characterization. Thus, one can regard an agitator with approval as long as he appears a genuine champion fighting for human rights. The moment he goes too far and appears in the light of a troublemaker, he loses our sympathy.

The reader is likely to make his hero in his own image. Now conventional readers admire social traits; snobs enjoy typical traits, since these classify people. Ordinary folks adore human traits and human weaknesses. Individual traits amuse and interest everyone.

Note that all these traits are traits of character; physical qualities fall under the category of character tags.

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We need to be able to use short hand to move our characters in and out of the story as they play their parts. Lets pick up this new category of Tags...(This text was based on works by Walter S. Campbell, founder of the OU Professional Writing course.)

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