Reposted in its entirety from the now defunct Foul Papers Blog. Pronouns have been edited to render them gender neutral. Originally posted March 30, 2010.
This one’s for the fiction writers.
We all want to create characters that live and breathe and jump off the page. Those are the characters people care about, and I’m talking series-finale-of-Six-Feet-Under-level CARE. While I was gearing up to write this post, I rewatched the last six minutes of that series on YouTube. Then I sobbed for ten minutes and had to go wash my face before I could come back and actually write. It’s been years since that show went off the air, but I still miss the Fisher family.
Fortunately, you don’t have to stick solely to the solemn and heart-wrenching to make people care about your characters. Look at Jim and Pam on The Office or Chuck on, er, Chuck. Funny or silly works just as well as deep, if the character has depth.
Here are a couple of writing exercises to give your characters dimension.
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- Write a description of your character from their own point of view. It might be their hypothetical profile for an online dating site or their work bio. If you’re writing sword and sorcery, it might be one of the Wax-On-Wax-Off training exercises that their enigmatic swordmaster/senior sorcerer forces them to do for no seeming reason. If you’re writing science fiction, it might be their ship’s log. The purpose matters only in so far as it gives you an audience and sets the tone. The key is to get at how they see themself.
- Now write a description of your character from the point of view of their worst enemy. I’m not talking about the person who hates them for their shiny shiny hair or the serial killer out to get them because they’ve interfered with his Diabolical Plot, I’m talking about the person in their life who they’ve hurt the most.
- Lastly, write what I call the “Karen By Night” description (yup, it’s a song, press play below if you haven’t ever heard it. It’s hysterical.). This one is a glimpse of your character through the eyes of someone who’s just figured out they don’t know your character at all. Why did they hold their former impression? What has changed that impression?
In a very superficial sense, these three descriptions should seem like they’re all of different people. When you look closer, though, and consider the relationships each of the speakers has to the subject, the descriptions should overlap enough to paint a portrait of a complex and interesting person. If they don’t, try again. Still having trouble? Write a description of one of your friends and then ask that friend to write a description of themself. Compare the two. Look at the contradictions, the fissures that come from approaching something from two different points of view — these are what you’re going for with your characters.
Remember, have FUN doing these! They don’t have to be perfect. No one else need ever see them. The point is just to get a handle on the Karen-By-Night inside every one of us. 😉
And if you, like me, are missing the Fishers and are sitting there getting nostalgic about the best series finale of all time, go ahead and watch the video below. Just make sure you have Kleenex handy. If you haven’t ever seen the show and have no idea what I’m talking about, go get the DVDs and start at the beginning. Trust me.
PS I know I have a tendency to speak in pop-culture references, and not all of my readers are hip to the Lorelai Gilmore of it all, so if you need a reference explained, just ask in the comments.
PPS Lorelai Gilmore (played by Lauren Graham) was the main character on the show Gilmore Girls. She spoke in pop culture references. She also wore cool clothes and had shiny hair. She’s my TV BFF.
