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Module 3 Q&A – 19th Dec 7pm UK Time
Craig and I will be here to answer all your questions about character. If you can’t make it live then do post your questions in advance.
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60 Replies
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Hi Amanda & Craig,
Not sure if I’ll be back in time so am posting my question now. I have to admit I have been writing consistently but have fallen behind on the exercises; although I have read them and hope I have written some of the ideas in with my actual writing! I plan to catch up over Christmas break.
Now my question is this: I have two main characters and one of them I am finding more difficult to write but I feel his is the story that needs writing. Sometimes after writing just a couple hundred words I fell drained, and often quite emotional. Is this normal or okay?
I assume doing the character exercises in detail will help. The other thing: I may write something for him, which feels real, at the time, and then afterwards, or a day or two later, I realise I’ve got it wrong and know I’ll have to go back and rewrite. He is the character that lied to me before; in an earlier exercise. Again is this okay?
Is it just a question of doing the character exercise or is there something else I can do that will help?
Thanks – much appreciated 🙂
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Hello Jaqs, interesting that the character that lied to you is giving you so much trouble! Which character is it?
It’s common to feel emotional when writing but if he is making you feel overly drained it feels like you need to do some more investigative work into who he is and what could be causing so many problems for him that he’s passing them on to you, and no doubt everyone he is encountering in the story.
Getting to know him properly is going to mean that what you write is more in keeping with his character. So yes, do take time to do the exercises. But often characters do things in first draft that later are revealed not to be right for them. So don’t worry about it. Just write on!
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Thanks Amanda,
It is Tommy, but I cut the bit that I felt was wrong and have managed to write something that now feels right for him. I think he is quite a complex character in that he has lots of deep hidden guilt and it is making him, and me, depressed! I will have more free time after today/tomorrow and will definitely do the exercises then – I think they will help.
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I think any character that inspires a strong emotional response is a character that deserves to be explored, though I know those emotions can be hard to process. Sounds like you have a good one there Jaqs
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Thanks Billy Wittenberg it’s weird really these characters that live inside your head and become so real!
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Hi Amanda and Craig
My novel is written in the third person and Amanda has suggested that I write one of my chapters in the first person – to get closer to my protagonist. I plan to do this after Christmas but I would like your input – I don’t want to rely on my own opinion about the chapter I am about to write in the first person. The final decision for me will be whether I should change my novel from third person to first person, and as it will be quite a task, I need some advice sooner rather than later.
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Hello Celine, rather than writing a new chapter in first person try rewriting an existing one first and see how that changes things. Or just try doing some writing exercises where you write in Maeve’s first person voice just to try and get her thoughts and feelings coming in more. You can write third person just as close as first but it’s more about how you use narrative distance to get the reader closer to your narrator, and this applies in first and third.
But if you do want to write a brand new chapter then I’d pick a key moment from your 10-point plan when emotions are going to be heightened. That will be very good practice at weaving in more of her thoughts and feelings.
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Hello everyone, I hope to be here later but we are having a storm in Exmoor and often when the weather is bad our wifi doesn’t work as it gets beamed in. Fingers crossed it’ll stay online for later!
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Greetings everyone,
I am writing from within a shaken snow globe called Toronto today! Seems Exmoor has also been overturned:)
When thinking about character for today’s Q&A I did some research, and came across 256 scholarly quotes. Here is a small share to help stimulate our thoughts:
240. Purely intellectual development without commensurate internal character development makes as much sense as putting a high-powered sports car in the hands of a teenager who is high on drugs. Yet all too often in the academic world, that’s exactly what we do by not focusing on the character development of young people. —Steven Covey
114. The way we treat people we think can’t help or hurt us — like housekeepers, waiters, and secretaries — tells more about our character than how we treat people we think are important. How we behave when we think no one is looking or when we don’t think we will get caught more accurately portrays our character than what we say or do in service of our reputations. – Michael Josephson
196. Neither heredity nor environment determine character. But whether we give in to or overcome the negative messages we are exposed to as we wend our way through life is often determined by whether our parents, teachers, mentors and friends exposed us to good examples and morally inspiring ideas, or the opposite. – Michael Josephson
To stimulate ideas surrounding characteristics of my protagonists I’ve been listening to podcast interviews with method acting actors such as Edward Norton, Joaquin Phoenix etc It’s been useful to hear them talk about delving into becoming their characters, shadow sides and all.
Thought to share as these things have helped me to think through rounding out the personality and behaviours of my crew!
Judy
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Thanks for sharing this, Judy. It’s great to find as many different ways as possible to think about your characters and find ways of delving into their psyche.
Interestingly, I am writing a novella-in-flash at the moment exploring themes of nature/nature through two sisters who turn out very differently yet exposed to the exact same parenting, schooling, etc. Where are you finding these Michael Josephson quotes? I would like to read more of him!
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Hi Judy,
Wow must be something- is only raining here! Thanks for the quotes – really useful.
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I am here! The wind hasn’t blown the wifi away 😁
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How have you all found the character tutorials in this module?
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Taxing because I haven’t had time yet to do the exercises. But reading through each module made a lot of sense and I hope I’ve assimilated some of it 🙂
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You will have. Your brain will be soaking it all up to apply when you write 😀
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I’m in the same boat as Jaqs. Because of my day job, I haven’t been able to do much of the exercises the last few weeks. I’m hoping to catch up this Christmas break.
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Very helpful Judy. Particularly the one about intellectual development outstripping emotional – I know many people like that – who think it is enough to be clever and neglect kindness.
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I also like the idea of learning from actors’ approach to character work. I had never thought before of doing that as a writer, but I shall happily steal that from you Judy
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Hellooooo. Has anyone got any questions?!
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I have a few of my own favs about character Judy:
“Let’s face it, characters are the bedrock of your fiction. Plot is just a series of actions that happen in a sequence, and without someone to either perpetrate or suffer the consequences of those actions, you have no one for your reader to root for, or wish bad things on.”
— Icy Sedgwick
“The one common thread in all of the books that are falling apart on my shelf? Characters—flawed ones with desires and needs who spend most of the story tripping over their weaknesses in an effort to get what they want.”
— Becca Puglisi
“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.”
― Joss Whedon“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
― Ray Bradbury
“The characters in my novels are my own unrealised possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.”
― Milan Kundera“In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations!”
― Anton Chekhov
“Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
“When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away. ”
― Kurt Vonnegut
“Action, reaction, motivation, emotion, all have to come from the characters. Writing a love scene requires the same elements from the writer as any other. ”
― Nora Roberts)
“The real story is not the plot, but how the characters unfold by it. ”
― Vanna Bonta
“My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don’t have interesting characters and a good story to tell. ”
― Harold Ramis
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Yes Craig, I work with many people who are literally geniuses in predictive analytics, statistical mathematics and engineering, yet demonstrate zero empathetic abilities. It’s a peculiar phenomenon!
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Are any of the characters you’re writing in your novel like this? Could be a good arc to have someone go from zero empathy to a smidgen…
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Or I suppose character trait!
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Or neurological frequency. which I think can change over time with experience and self-development.
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Hey Amanda, I liked the tutorial exercises. Yet I find many of the lectures themselves could perhaps be more satisfying if we were fed examples of characterization from classics and contemporary best sellers in literature, film, Netflix etc
I watched an Elvis film from 1956 and thought wow the intricacies of characterization, plot dev, relationships etc has evolved tremendously since. (Okay not that Elvis films were nail biters, but you get the idea) Has me thinking… What will narrative art be in 20 years from now, 50 years from now? How can we as newly forming writers become thought leaders in this space?
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There will also be collaborations between writers and AIs trained to produce the particular proclivities of genre and tone etc that a certain writer favours.
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I loved this question, and to piggyback on it a bit – anyone know any places where questions like this are routinely discussed? Blogs, journals, forums…
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Hi John. I’ll have a think and dig some stuff out and place it here maybe tomorrow.
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Awesome. Thanks!
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I’ll link you and Judy to a lecture I did at the British Library, and one I did for some MA publishing students soon as I dig it out.
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Thanks for the feedback, Judy. The character module does reference work and characters by Charles Dickens, Patricia Highsmith, Gillian Flynn, Wally Lamb, Victor Hugo and the lead characters in the Breaking Bad TV series. The essential nature of character development has not changed in story-telling as it forms the basis of the character arc and story arc that humans have been telling for millennia. Although the medium of stories changes as new technologies come along, the crux of the stories that we tell ourselves doesn’t as it’s all about a person going through something that fundamentally changes them for the better or worse. This is how readers connect with the novels we write and that has been at the heart of storytelling for a long time and will, I believe, remain so even though how we consume stories develops.
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I love the variety of quotes there Craig! Thank you for putting those forward for all of us to consider👌
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Well, one form of narrative art in the decades to come will probably be bespoke, voice-driven narratives generated between humans and digital devives – many poets have been hired by silicon valley of late.
