A tired old series by Michael Carroll
Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
What has gone before... Regular readers will recall that we first learned how to choose the correct worfs, then we were learning which tenses to have used, and after that I learned you all about grammar.
By now, you should be ready to begin developing stories, so it's time to move on to...
Lesson 4 – Characters
Forget everything you've ever read about creating characters – most of it was completely wrong. To create good characters you must first choose a good name...
Names
Male Names:
Heroes should have a good, solid name, preferably one with a strong "K" sound in it. The "K" sound
gives the impression of your character being dependable, tough and down-to-earth, unless the name
you choose is "Dick", which will just make everyone giggle (no offence intended to all the Dicks
reading this). Instead, try another variation of the same root - "Rick."
Female Names:
By law, if your story or novel is aimed at the Fantasy or Science Fiction market, your lead female
character's name must end in "A", and preferably there should be an "L" in there too.
Further Notes on Names:
Naming American characters is a piece of doddle: for female characters, take a posh-sounding name
and spell it incorrectly ("Britney", "Typhanee", etc.). Be sure to use the same incorrect spelling
throughout the story.
For male Americans, their name depends on their age: older American males can have proper, ordinary names like "Steve" or "John" (though it's a good idea to throw in the occasional "Gene"). For younger American males, pick any last name you like, then pick another last name – this one will be used as their first name. I.e., "Tyler", "Bradley", "O'Flaherty" and so on. You might want to vary the spelling just for the heck of it.
Once you've chosen the names for your characters, you need to decide what they're like:
Characterisation
It's not enough to simply say "Dave was a cop." To get your readers really hooked, you need to give them something out of the ordinary: "Dave was a cop and in his spare time he made kites out of old pairs of Wranglers."
But even that's not enough: A character isn't just what he does. Motivation comes into it in a big way. So, let's continue with Dave, the kite-building cop. What's his motivation?
Well, you don't know yet, because you haven't learned the "Plotting" bit (coming up in a future instalment). In the meantime, let's say that Dave enjoys being a cop, but his mind is always on his kites. So, is it inconceivable that one day, during a routine drug bust at the local crack house, Dave is distracted by a junkie wearing a particularly fascinating pair of jeans? Of course it's not.
Because of the distraction, Dave's been wounded, a bunch of junkies have got away, and now Dave's boss is giving him grief because the bust went wrong. So Dave's faced with a dilemma: he has to give up either police work, or making kites.
Now, Dave has a bit more depth... The reader, while perhaps not being as interested in denim kites as Dave is, can surely empathise with him. We've all found ourselves faced with the choice of doing what we must instead of doing what we want. A good example would be leaving the last few After Eight Mints for someone else.
If you want to create really realistic characters, you also need to give them intention. That is, your character's plans might never work out, but as long as his intentions are true, the reader will be interested.
Unless, of course, he's just a boring character. That's where this next section comes in handy...
De-boring Your Characters
A boring character is the worst thing a writer can create. "But Mikey," you ask, "how do I make my characters interesting?"
And to that, I answer, "Stop interrupting. I'm getting there. Give me a chance for crying out loud!"
Let's take a person from real life and consider what makes her interesting: Yes, you've guessed it, I'm talking about Cilla Black. Apart from her strong accent and her uncanny resemblance to Ronald McDonald, what is it that makes Our Cilla so fascinating?
For a start, she's been around the block a few times. She had a very successful singing career a few decades ago, during which she captured the hearts of the nation and refused to return them unless she was made into a television personality. No, I'm kidding about that bit. Cilla's success is of course partly due to her adaptability: She's done singing, comedy, game show hosting, supermarket opening, and so forth.
Another reason for Cilla's success is her strength of character: When Cilla speaks, you know that she wasn't raised with a silver spoon anywhere in the vicinity. Some "personalities" try to conceal their backgrounds, but Cilla has always embraced hers. She never "sold out" (well, actually her shows sell out all the time – I was talking about the other kind of selling out). Thus, her audience can easily identify with her.
This audience identification is crucial: when the reader identifies with your character, it's so much easier for you to get away with a lousy plot and bad writing.
(Just for the record, I'm not picking on Cilla here – I really have a tremendous respect for her, and... No, hang on... Maybe I'm thinking about Lulu.)
So, to grab your readers' interest, you need to make them think that – if circumstances were slightly different – they could actually be the character. Of course, they couldn't, but let's face it, if your readers had any sort of decent grasp on reality they'd be off having fun and not reading stories.
Unique Voices
You need to give each character a unique voice. That is, the manner in which they speak and their reactions to events. You can do this the easy way by having only one character, but that tends not to make for interesting reading.
A better way to do this is to design your characters carefully before you start writing. Carry them with you – mentally – everywhere you go. With a good bunch of characters rattling around in your head for a few weeks, it won't be long before each one develops his or her own voice. You might even find that they all have different reactions to the things that happen in real life.
However, it's important not to let it go too far... You don't want your characters arguing with you, or sitting up in the middle of the night chatting when you're trying to get some sleep. Nor do you want to get to the stage where you can't make any decisions because you want to ask Dave the Cop's opinion first.
Summing up
So, that's characterisation for you. It's not hard, but it does take a lot of work. In the development stage of your story, you need to constantly "poke" your characters. I call this the "Cooking Spaghetti Stage": Throw stuff at your characters, and if it sticks, it's probably a good thing.
Exercises:
- Create a character who is exactly like you, only evil (if you are evil, then create a good character).
- Create a second character who will be the first character's arch-enemy.
- Write a piece of dialogue between these two characters: they are fighting over the last After Eight Mint.
- Advanced Students Only: Write a short story featuring Dave the Cop as described above. In this scenario, Dave has taken a couple of weeks off work to indulge his kite-making hobby, but has somehow developed an irrational fear of string.