Creative writing advice from Roy York

Characterisation

The third in a series of articles by Roy York.

Interesting characters

Apart from competent writing and aiming your work at the right target, three other essential ingredients for creating successful fiction are:

• Characterisation
• Dialogue
• Plot

For this short article we will concentrate on characterisation.

Provided you have created believable characters, your reader will be interested in what they are doing and why they are doing it. The first requirement for fiction, whatever the form may be, is to create interesting characters, characters that give the illusion of being real people.

A writers' task is to bring characters to life on the page. You can take certain characteristics of real people, but just as autobiographies and true-life stories require crafting to make interesting reading, so people have to be shaped to turn them into good fictional characters. They do not usually transfer directly from everyday life to page without some drastic changes.

The length of your story and the market you are aiming at will dictate how far you will be able to develop the person or persons you are writing about. Take for instance, the 800 to 1000 word, Twist ending stories published by some of the popular magazines’ for women, many of these stories are plot driven, so therefore, you are only able to give a thumbnail sketch of the persons involved.

Some other magazines and many stories for competitions require a larger word count, therefore, you have a much bigger canvas to work with. This will allow the competent writer to develop their characters whose actions and emotions the reader can believe in. Make the reader feel their anxiety, their pain, their passion and their need to attain a certain goal in their life. This goal does not necessarily have to be earth shattering, it could be something as simple as being determined not to be late for her boyfriend or an important job interview. It could be someone desperate to win back the respect of her family or children. Your story does not necessarily have to be a tale full of action or disaster. It can be a fairly gentle piece of good writing - but there must be some form of conflict or character's aim involved, otherwise you may find it difficult to get the work accepted for publication.

Remember, your character had a life before he or she was put on your page, they were not born at the age of 54. You should know something about the previous life of the character you have created. You do not necessarily have to put it into your story, - unless back-story is an essential part of your plot. If you don’t believe in your character nor will your reader.

Something you need to consider when developing your character is the difference between characterisation and individualisation. You may wish to individualise a character by saying he has a scar on his left cheek or the little finger on his right hand is missing. These details give no hint of the character trait this person may possess. This person may be cruel, kind, patient or irritable, cold or warm-hearted. The reader has no idea, but he does know each one is an individual and not a type. The reader is interested in individuals far more than he is interested in types.

Write the Short Short

The section below is taken from: Maren Elwood. Write the Short Short. Pub. The Writer, Inc. 1947

"For example, if you say a man is a private detective, he is a type; but if you say a man is a private detective who only has one leg, a stunningly beautiful wife and six children, one being a genius with a yo-yo, you still know nothing about the detective's character, but he has become an individual, and therefore interesting. If your purpose is to characterise this private detective and at the same time individualise him, you may say something like this:

Mike Blanchard pushed the filing cabinet drawer shut, turned and limped slowly across the office. He eased his 250 pound bulk into the sturdy chair in front of his battered desk and winced as a stab of pain shot through his stump.

Slowly he drew a piece of paper towards him then read through it carefully. He hesitated for a moment making no comment to the shifty eyed foppishly dressed man standing impatiently at his elbow. Mike folded the paper once, tore it in two and dropped the pieces in the waste paper bin.

"Go and take your filth to someone else,” Mike said as he stood up."

Mike is individualised by his weight, his missing leg, his sturdy office chair and his scratched and scarred desk. He is characterised by his deliberate physical movements and thoughts, his firmness of decision and the way he defies and dismisses the obviously dishonest man to whom he is speaking. This unnamed man has also been characterised by the word 'shifty-eyed', and individualised by the words 'foppishly dressed'. If we had included 'chipped paint' or 'worn carpet', to the office description it would have added to the knowledge that although Mike's business wasn't doing too well, he still retained some scruples and there were some things he wouldn't stoop to.

The most respected and successful writers do not create their characters for the reader - they create them for themselves. As a writer the implications of this statement are far-reaching and important. The conscientious writer makes sure he knows his characters. This will make it possible for the reader, on his part, to create the characters for himself. Fictional characters, whether in short stories, novels, sitcoms, films or any other form of creative writing, need to be developed beyond one dimension. If you make your characters seem like real people your reader will care. If you don't care about your creation nor will your reader.

Next

4. Plot

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