[Writerpreneur] Compelling Characters 05

CHARACTER AND CONFLICT PART 2: Character formula is but story formula in another aspect, and vice versa – that they roll into one, into the all-inclusive, subjective “Me”...

Do you see how character formula is but story formula in another aspect, and vice versa – that they roll into one, into the all-inclusive, subjective “Me”? And here we are confronted by the time and space problem again, also in this new aspect.

Consider opposing forces: right/left, forward/backward, good/evil, etc. How shall you, as author, deal with these?

You must learn, in creating, or “plotting,” your story world, at least, to stand beyond good and evil. Regard them as impartially as a scientist looks at nitric acid and glycerin when he prepares to compound nitroglycerin. Or be fair as an honest referee considering the two contending football teams in a game he’s assigned. This, to be sure, is difficult.

It is worse than that. It is impossible for the average individual, trained as he is to follow precept and precedent and give instant lip service to the cause of righteousness, to realize that even sin may have its uses and place. However, the last point is a valid writing perspective, unrelated to the private moral principles most professional writers follow. A fight requires two; this holds true for sports and storytelling.

Not only that, but we must write about a fight, or better yet, several fights. And these fights must be good ones.

The world’s champion against the leading challenger, or the nation’s top football team against the one in second position – these are the fights that fill the stadiums, bowls, and balls, and likewise the pages of the best paying fiction magazines. Real-life choices stem from feeling, not logic—this is immaterial.

Whose side you choose determines which antagonist is the enemy. But writing requires something more.

As the creator and judge of your fiction world, you must try to see both sides. You must be fair, even to the devil. Never show partisanship, however virtuous the cause. A different approach weakens the dramatic intensity of the struggle you portray, perhaps fatally.

We must remember that the dark but enduring foundations of hell support the shining spires of heaven. We measure the angels’ height from the depth of the demons below. Neither of these places or beings is real without the other. Permit your hero or heroine to champion good, if you wish, but never permit him or her to fight against nothing.

However you wish to perceive it, the eternal wheel represents the conflict of life with its contrasts of forward and back, positive and negative, good and evil. Always remember both sides are forces. The negative is also a force, in the opposite direction. Make it so, and give it its full innings. The more successfully you create these opposites and contracts, the better your story.

A flawless hero, untouched by temptation, provides poor story material. Such a person isn’t a character at all. You cannot have a force, save in relation to an opposing force, a resistance. You cannot have a wheel that turns forward only, on the upper, “spiritual” side and ignores all necessity for simultaneous backward motion on the bottom, against the material road. No one will believe you if you claim impossible qualities for your hero, even though you may have devised means to “test” the paragon.

But, proceeding from impossibilities to improbabilities, sometimes you can palm off a story using the next worst kind of hero. He is that distressing flat wheel, the one-sided character, a force indeed, but with his opposing force furnished almost altogether by external agencies.

This flat wheel is the dummy one finds puppeting for the hero in the very cheapest of the cheap pulp magazines. Brother Badfellow, another flat wheel, of course, terribly mistreats Mister Goodman, but on the other side. When these two wheels get together, the necessary opposing forces then clash. So you have a species of story. But it is primitive, coarse-weave stuff that ordinarily will satisfy only the simplest of reader minds.

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Let us go a step higher and make our hero character very definitely real and human, both good and bad, as he enters the story. He is still extraordinarily good, let us presume, and his genuine temptations are few. We still must supply most of the villainous opposition externally. We must, have a villain three-quarters or more bad and only part good, and to that extent human. We still shall require very loud and violent physical action to resolve the story. But we do not have to make it as violent as we must when Mr. All-Good meets and destroys Brother Plumbad. And definitely we have a better, more real, and more appealing story. We are moving up out of the very cheapest markets, I mean, and beginning to learn our business. Suppose we now move still another step upward and make our hero character a man almost exactly balanced between the storming forces of good and evil. Now What?

Now we know he must be a casuist. He’s a man who is not only trying to do the right thing, but who also wonders what is right. Occasionally he tries to reason himself into believing that — just maybe — part of what appears to be bad really is good, or vice versa. He remains quite human. I mean, more real. And we have in him a character whom we do not have to attack with roaring six-guns, whooping road agents, hell-for-leather outlaws, and similar pulp accessories to make him explode or pass the test. Here is a character whose in tense and dramatic inner conflict we can test and resolve with only a minimum of outside aid and motion.

Just a little something – a matter of dropping the bottle of nitroglycerin two inches to see whether it goes off – turns the trick. And the result is “slick” character and “slick” story, as distinguished from “pulp” character and “pulp” story. It is the tale the top-paying “slick” magazines want but seldom get. It is also very difficult to write. It’s not because of any shortage of writers who can write excellent characters. It’s uncommon for an individual to excel in portraying a character as both incredibly good and bad.

Presenting Your Character.

Few real men match the representative quality of the best fictional characters. Fiction needs this quality to maintain its illusion.

The most necessary quality in effective characterization is vitality. The creator imbues the imaginary figure with life. Authors who take a keen delight in their fictional figures create characters brimming with vitality. They love their characters as they might their own children, and are delighted to let them live their own lives, to watch them be themselves. Without realistic behavior from characters, they lack vitality.

And so, characters in the stories of propagandists and moralists often lack vitality.

A writer, including a rattlesnake, must appreciate its inherent snake-like nature—the striking rattle, potent venom, sinuous coils, and patterned scales. In short, he will love that rattlesnake, and love to see it behave like one. He desires his characters to be true to themselves.

If he can do this, his characters will be representative, and will come alive, and seem real.

So presented, almost any character will be attractive, so winning is essential human nature.

Methods of Presentation.

A character may reveal itself—

• by action;

• by speech;

• by effect upon other characters;

• by the character’s own reaction to persons, things and circumstances about it.

Action speaks louder than words, but action must be prepared for lest it be misconceived. While the number of actions possible in any set of circumstances is small, the motives may be countless. Present the motive before the action.

Speech lends corroboration to action and is good to cap it. Characters’ interactions are often dramatic and very effective.

Modern American fiction emphasizes character self-discovery through previous-mentioned techniques. However, there are other methods the author can use that delineate his characters with directness.

He may

• explain the traits and motives of his hero;

• describe him;

• analyze his psychological processes;

• quote what other characters say about him.

By a study of current fiction in the magazines, you may determine which method is most commonly used and most effective for your purpose.

Point Of View.

The point of view in fiction is a matter where there has always been a good deal of argument. Some believe a unified effect causes a singular perspective; shifting perspectives destroys artistic impact. For all that, we find some of the greatest fictional artists changing the point of view several times within a novelette, serial or novel; sometimes, though more rarely, in a short story.

There is one general rule which applies here: Choose such a point of view as will permit you to display your material to best advantage.

Or, the story might be told from the victim’s viewpoint or someone understanding their plight. So, you may show a criminal in prison from his own point of view or from that of his heartbroken mother or sweetheart. Focus emotional content by selecting a sensitive perspective when material is sparse.

The second rule as to point of view is a caution: Do not shift your point of view unless you derive some genuine advantage from the shift.

Readers tire of shifting viewpoints; each change demands a new adjustment and a shift in empathy. In shorter works of fiction, a single point of view is far more effective.

New fiction writers often err, focusing on personal convenience rather than audience satisfaction. Remember that success in writing for the magazines means giving the reader his money’s worth. Give them entertainment as good as you can make it.

Successful fiction authors will feature one main character—Tarzan, for instance. Top actors often embody a single persona—such as Charlie Chaplin. Each story with this hero must maintain that singular point of view. The reader has no difficulty in identifying himself with or understanding Tarzan. He knows at once what to expect and can give himself up to enjoyment.

Serious fiction readers often unknowingly meet similar characters, only with different names. Even serious fiction authors find more success with established characters across multiple books.

To Recap.

Remember that the test of fiction is double:

(a) how quickly the reader gets transported into the imaginary world;

(b) how much he enjoys himself after he arrives.

You may use classifying traits, tags, functions and tools in imagining your characters beforehand, or you may prefer to create your characters first and then check back to make sure that each one has all the standard equipment; that he has the tool or weapon, the capacity or ability to perform his function in the story; that he has the requisite supply of traits and tags. Also that you have chosen well in deciding whether to make him flat, in relief, or rounded.

You may make sure that you have used your repertory of devices of presentation and that your point of view is the best possible. By applying this yardstick, you may rehabilitate a character who is mentally or physically deficient, who lacks interest or plausibility. You may determine what ails the poor creature, diagnose and prescribe for him.

Whatever method you prefer, it is first essential that you learn to think in terms of traits, tags, functions, tools, to know a flat character from a round character, and to select a wise point of view.

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We now have the tools to create compelling characters for your story.

The trick is in getting this across to the reader. We have to show our character, not just talk about him...

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(This text was based on works by William Foster Harris, an early OU Professional Writing course instructor.)

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