MAKE-UP A CHARACTER
MAKE-UP A CHARACTER!
Before I ever start writing a book, I basically know what my characters are going to be like. I see them
in my head, like a movie. Perhaps you do too. So what makes for a good character?
First of all, in writing a romance, the hero must be heroic. Does this mean he is perfect? Heck no!
That's the biggest mistake a writer can make is making that character perfect. People are not perfect
and therefore making your character so would not make them seem like real people.
And you want your characters to realistic enough that the reader can identify with them. You want that
reader to laugh, cry, and get mad about your characters. You want her emotions just as keyed up as
yours are when you write the story.
Characters are not made from makeup. Rather it is their individual makeup that makes them. Perhaps
the best examples of characterization today are in Robert Newton Peck's "Fiction is Folks". In this easy
to read, easy to understand book you will learn more about drawing your character out than any other
book written. Newton is the Twain of the century. In fact he won the 1982 Mark Twain Award.
Chapter after chapter Newton gives you examples of how to draw your character into your reader's
mind. Think of it this way, it's not the perfection of humanity that makes a character perfect, it's the
imperfections. How would we perceive Ahab in Moby Dick had he not had that gosh-awful wooden
peg leg. A leg whose "thump" we could hear even after we close the book. Can you imagine Captain
Hook without that hook for a hand? Of course not.
However don't rely on physical attributes alone to draw your character. This alone won't make up your
character. Part of making a character is how your character is going to react in any given situation.
Everyone knows what a bully is, the big kid on the block who threatens to knock Johnny's head off if
he doesn't give over his lunch money. Okay we know the bully is probably bigger than Johnny. We
know he's mean. Why, because the word "bully" tells us that much. Think of the picture you conjure in
your head when one says the word "bully". But just being mean doesn't make him a very good bully.
No, what makes him a good bully is knowing why he is so mean. The bully never has lunch money of
his own, cause his dad lost his job last summer and his family is barely making it. The bully's name is
Marion, and to keep from having others laugh at him, he gets tougher than anyone in his class.
Everyone knows Marion is his name, but no one would dare call him that. So he's got a girlish name,
and he's poor, so to cover up those problems Marion becomes the "bully". Now we understand why
he's a bully. We still don't like him, but at least we understand him. Marion has become a character. So
we want to enlarge Marion. Perhaps Marion has a sister, and she has no lunch money either. Marion
isn't old enough to work for the money, so he must devise a way to get the money. He beats Johnny up,
takes away his money and gives it to his sister. Instantly what character comes to mind, robs from the
rich and gives to the poor--Robin Hood. Now Marion is looking more like the hero! You see how we
can draw upon images in our minds and transform what looks like one thing to be another.
Now we begin to see him as less a bully and more a protector.
So do we tell everyone all the details of Marion's life. No, we slowly leak it out through the story.
Through dialogue, through actions.
We don't know he has a sister, till we see him giving her the money he took.
Suppose Johnny is a little too small for his age, and his dad owns the factory where Marion's dad was
fired. Johnny has all kinds of money. Marion knows this and only picks on Johnny. And Johnny has no
sister.
No one actually knows Marion's dad lost his job until he says something to Johnny just before he beats
him up. Through dialogue and action you can explain without explaining. Characters are drawn by an
image in your mind.
Does anyone know what a fireman looks like that dashes into the fire a third time just to save a howling
puppy from a nearly destroyed building?
No, you don't see his transparent blue eyes, nor the shade of his mahogany hair. You don't know he's
barely twenty years old, when he risks his life. But you are with him in that fire and you root for him to
save the puppy. He is a character.
You see a man, who's principles and priorities are that of a hero. Therefore he has already, without
knowing his physical attributes been burned into your memory. This is what makes a character. When
you can burn a character into the reader's head, you know you have succeeded.
So one of the best ways to draw a character is to pick that character apart and find out what really
makes him tick. In Newton's book, "Fiction is Folks" you'll discover example after example of how to
draw upon a character. Listen how he describes Clunie, one of the most difficult characters he ever
wrote about. "Thus, I began to think of myself as Clunie Finn, an odd combo of physical might and
mental retardation, in a high school society where boys and girls are perhaps too rapidly straining to be
men and women. A healthy body now battles a childish mind that could be perhaps, too limited to
discipline desire."
Do you get the picture of Clunie now. In one paragraph Peck has created a character that neither you
nor I will soon forget.
Why did we love Scarlett O'Hara? She was mean, despicable, even dishonest, but we all loved and
rooted for her in the end. Because despite what she had done, we knew she did it for a purpose, we
knew she grew as a character throughout the book, she became real to us. And when she in the end
saw her own downfall, how could we not sympathize. Why, because she didn't give up, to the end she
was a strong character in her weakest moment. "After all, tomorrow is another day."
How could we not empathize with Rhett Butler when he finally saw he had lost her, "Frankly my dear,
I don't give a damn!"
Throughout Gone with the Wind, we hated Scarlett for her treachery, and yet we empathized too. Why,
because despite her bad qualities, she was human. Margaret Mitchell made Scarlett O'Hara very
human to us.
No matter how well plotted your story may be, if there is no emotional pull toward your characters,
then the reader just won't care how the book comes out.
Even when drawing your villain, you must give us at least one good attribute for us to believe he is who
you say he is. Where better to discover this than "Silence of the Lambs". In the end, what did you think
of the doctor? Did you have mixed emotions? Did you sense his intelligence, yet fear his deadly calm.
Character.
Secondary characters are just as important as your heroine and hero. They can enhance the entire
book with laughter, anger, or keeping the pace going. Don't cheat your readers by not giving them a
personality.
If we all wrote romances with Ken and Barbie's who would read them? Good looks are only an
attribute but they won't carry your story. You must give them flaws to overcome. Let them grow
through your story.
In Dream Lover my hero looked very much like a drifter on a Harley. Nothing heroic about that, but a
judge from a contest had this remark about my 'Cooper Johnson' in the last chapter. "He's too perfect."
Well he didn't start off that way. He grew through the story and became an icon. But had that judge
read the beginning of the book, instead of the end, she might have had an entirely different opinion of
him. So even though I didn't win anything in the contest, I had made my character grow.
If Rhett Butler had not come to the conclusion that Scarlett didn't love him, and kept doting on her,
would Gone With the Wind have satisfied you? No, of course not. So in order to establish a character,
that character must be allowed to grow.
In your hero and heroine, find a flaw or flaws that make them a human, a real person, and make them
grow from that point. In your villains find a good characteristic that makes them more human and you
will have your readers coming back time and time again.
How do we make them more human. Let's take Scarlett since she is already well established in most
people's mind. Scarlett would go to any length to get what she wanted. She was hateful, dishonest, and
coniving. But what made us watch stick with Scarlett despite all this? Okay, on the other hand, Scarlett
loved her parents, she loved her Mammy, she loved the land upon which she was born. And she
actually took care of all the people on that plantation with her strong will. This in itself is heroic. So the
thing that keeps people interested in a character is the complexities of that character.
Had she been mean as sin itself, and Rhett lilly white, we would have been borned in minutes. But
Margaret Mitchell did not allow this. She made us like Scarlett despite her bad qualities, she had us
rooting for her in the end. And wishing we could talk some sense into Rhett too.
Never look for the perfect to begin your story with. No one cares if Barbie meets Ken, they fall in love
and get married. Internal conflict comes from the characters own makeup. Internal conflict is your
character and why they react to certain situations the way they do. It is also the basis for
characterization.
In Dream Lover I made my Angela, my heroine jealous, and made her come to grips with this emotion.
In the end she was more real because she acted upon this emotion. Emotion and characters go
together. Give them plenty of emotions to play with.
In "Last of the Mohicans" what made you fall in love with Hawkeye? Was it when he talked to Cora
about his folks, or quoted the poetry of his Indian father to her. Did your heart warm when you saw an
ultra tough guy tell his Indian father he loved him and his brother? Or did you love him even more when
he told Cora, "They stay as they lay." In his eyes was the emotion he felt as he spoke the words. As
though it hurt him to say that to her. This is what makes the character, his or her emotions ruling
actions sometimes. Just like a movie, the reader has to see those emotions coming to life in that book.
Don't be afraid to use them to your advantage.
How do we see emotion? Think of all the movies you've seen that brought emotion into play. It wasn't
necessarily when someone broke down an cried, but maybe when they didn't. Remember Bogart in
Casablanca?
Mannerism plays a role. Robert Newton Peck called them tools. Give your character a tool. "Tools
make sounds." Peck said. Remember Captain Ahab and that confounded loud thudding of his peg leg.
"Let your reader hear it, feel it; rattle his skull and bones with the beat of its poetry. Pierce his ears."
Peck says. Ever seen a person run around with a toothpick in their mouth, not necessarily a noticeable
thing. But what if they had the habit of sucking air with that toothpick. What if a man carries too much
change in his pocket and is always jingling it. Do you remember these things about them? Yes!!
Because you hear that jangling on the nerves as you read and you don't forget this. There are obvious
tools, but it's more fun to invent your own. This is characterization.
Creating a character is as simple as remembering things about people that annoy you and making a
character with that kind of habit.
I once had a teacher in Houston that brought a whip to class. I kid you not, she brought it to class.
Everyone was scared of her. But I guess because I always wrote in my head,d I soon realized that this
was merely her tool. And I never forgot her, or the whip. She lingers in my mind. She's the only
teacher I ever had that I can remember almost down to the last detail. Try giving your characters a
tool, an unexpected, surprising kind of tool. Something oddly out of place, and the reader will remember
it forever.
Use it and you will color your pages. And your readers will remember your characters! Just remember
there is no greater gift for a writer than to have his characters remembered. It's those special
characters that are remembered long after the author is dead.
How many times can they make the movie, Scrooge? About a million, because he was a character.
How many times can they replay, "It's a Wonderful Life". A million because George Baily is an
unforgetable character. Wdhat about "I Love Lucy". Her reruns have run longer than any show on
earth. Why? Because Lucy was a character that everyone identified with. Create that kind of
character and no one will put down your book. Characters are what books are all about. Unforgettable
characters are what history is made of!
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