Ideas in Creative Writing – Characterization
Building and Presenting Believable and Organic Characters
Sep 3, 2008
Character development is a cornerstone of writing good fiction – the characters are the players on the stage of the imagination and are the representatives of beliefs, notions, movements, and ideals. On a more technical level, characters are the driving force behind nearly all of the action and plot development within a particular work – abstract ideas and relations between cultures or civilizations on a macro level are best suited to other fields, such as history or philosophy. In the realm of fiction writing, characters are the avatars of causes, pursuits, and quests – a driving force that propels your work forward and captures the imagination and the attention of your reader.
Empathy and Association
Of primary importance to you as a writer of quality fiction is to ensure that the reader can empathize or at the very least associate or relate to a particular character. The character may be a dashing hero, a romantic yet unattainable idol, or a malicious and unrepentant villain – but the character must have depth and range in order to truly resonate with a canny readership.
Flat characters, or single dimensional characters, are often tired archetypes that behave along one set of principles that is fairly rigid and unimaginative – the blood-thirsty barbarian, the lonely and longing protagonist in an romance novel, the smart-aleck whiz kid. While cliche has a certain place in penning unique fiction, it certainly does not contribute much originality to your piece, and should be considered as a launchpad only, if at all.
Creating characters with depth means that characters, if human, make human mistakes and struggle to achieve their goals, both protagonists and antagonists alike. Challenge creates tension when it is foisted upon the protagonist, and it awakens relief or lingering suspicion when visited upon a nefarious antagonist.
Static versus Organic
Characters should be, and successful ones most always are, organic. This means that a character is shaped by the experiences of his or her companions and adversaries, and may be influenced by politics, love, tragedy, pain, or simply through reflection and contemplation.
An organic character, by the turn of the final page, is remarkably different from the character he or she was during the opening of the narrative – they have grown, or perhaps in a darker tale, diminished – due to a variety of plot contrivances introduced throughout.
Static characters, much like the cliched archetypes mentioned earlier, do not change or grow. These types of characters hold little appeal to the sophisticated reader and are a glaring sign of poor construction and a poor quality story – disposable and forgettable, the last things an author wants their work to be. While archetypes may, as we have said, hold a particular niche within a well-crafted story – an entire cast of these cutouts will render any appeal to emotion or to any level of gravitas completely useless.
Adventures in Creative Writing : Casting Call
Starting on any given week, pay more direct attention to your interaction with your friends, family, co-workers, and even brief discussions with total strangers. When something strikes you as particularly noteworthy as far as impressions or emotions are concerned – make a note of it and provide a brief context whenever it becomes convenient and appropriate. You will be observing human interaction and dialogue, considering how persons that possess distinct personality traits may react to situations in a variety of ways.
Draw up a chart of your closest associates and chart their strongest characteristics (both negative and positive, but don't let them find it or there may be trouble!) and picture them as placed in differing situations. The hypothetical responses you might conjure will illustrate to you the diversity of personality, dialogue, and values that are present in unique characters – in this case real persons rather than imaginary.
Hopefully this exercise and explanation have brought you closer to being able to portray more lively and memorable characters within your own work, and if not – at least you learned a little something from the experience!
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