I always feel like there's something to love in everyone, and if you find that, you'll be able to show it to other people. Sometimes it's a strong moral code they will stick up for, other times, they have no moral code, but maybe they will do anything for a friend. Sometimes they're just pretty and we're very shallow. Sometimes they're sharp and sarcastic and funny, and sometimes they're broken but have a good heart. It helps that a lot of people do the things they do for a reason they think is right (even if it very obviously was the worst thing ever).
Congrats on finishing up your exams - it must be a huge relief!
It is a relief, although it seems odd to not have any studying to do...
What about if you're trying to create a genuinely unlovable character, or someone who you believe should *not* be understood? With some characters, saying "Hitler was an artist" just doesn't cut the butter...
(I'm just trying to trigger a conversation here, sorry if I seem rude! Your post is really helpful :) )
Not really troubling... I've recently finished watching the HBO series "Rome" all the way through, and even though some of the characters in it are absolutely horrible, they all have their lovable points. You end up hating them even more, because you can see where they've come from.
I'd agree with everything mentioned above. Further to that, what I like, and what I try to do, is to show little details about characters - fears, physical characteristics, mannerisms - so the reader can begin to develop some empathy. A character that's too shiny and perfect is firstly unrealistic, because we all have flaws, and secondly unlikeable.
Yes--I think the specific details are very important. It can say a lot about a character whether they wear sneakers or stilettos, especially if they're wearing the sneakers to a dance or the stilettos to a swamp.
I do have a pet peeve about characterizing through physical characteristic--not physical description per se, but when a character has bad skin or squinty little eyes and this is used as an illustration of their moral torpitude.
Also when authors do the opposite and make their villain awesomely beautiful and then the narrative hammers it into the reader: "See! See! Beauty and goodness are not the same!" No, but beauty and being worthy of notice clearly are, because no one worth anything in the narrative is anything less than stunning.
(Um. I don't think I'm disagreeing with anything you said, it's just that the juxtaposition of the words "characterization" and "physical characteristics" sends me into full rant mode.)
My preference is for realism in characters. In fanfic, it's fairly straightforward to take a canon character that you know more or less well, and either fill in some missing pieces or give them your own spin. It's trickier if you're writing your own characters, because you start from scratch. I usually end up drawing on bits and pieces of people I've met in real life to make an original character seem like a real person and a unique individual. We write from our imagination, and that is always going to be based on the sum of our experiences and memories. Also, since we did that Hogwarts character thing at the_swoop, I've been looking at characters in terms of their houses. That probably sounds really silly, but it's useful to me, because it makes me decide what values the character holds foremost in their life. That helps me decide how they view the world, and how they will react in their own unique way to situations and to other people
( ... )
You don't necessarily have an accent, but you do have a style in your writing (it's a good one, I just can't explain it). Gavin Gunhold and lyrdenfers have a similar style in some ways -it made me wonder, when I was exploring the realms of fanfiction, if you were related or you were just close friends and so bits of you washed off on the other. Yes, I am weird like that. But style through diction is one of the first things I notice.
(Mix this with a dose of Roald Dahl, Lucy Maud Montgomery, YA Fantasy, Cynthia Voigt neurotic coming of age stories, Gordon Korman and you might get something that resembles how one of us writes.)
That's a great insight Imo has given above. I'm not nearly so organised. What I do tend to do is run the scenes and dialogue through my mind, like watching a film, and try and write what's passing through my mind's eye. This is really useful with dialogue, to try and hear your characters voice. Same for action sequences - I find them really hard to nail, otherwise.
However, I do get kidnapped by the plot bunnies, so I try to have a basic plot thread before I start, otherwise I head off on random tangents, and flip POV far too much.
One other thing I find helpful is to leave a piece for a day or two, then re-read and edit. What needs changed is far more obvious then.
Don't know if that helps or not, hope it does. I'm still refining and changing the way I write, too.
I tend to do a similar thing to Imo- I try and find the character voice in my head. Once I can imagine it just right, I can just launch off from there and not really have to worry much about the character, because once I've figured out the voice, I've figured out what the character is like. Err.. I guess that wasn't much help. One of the things I pay a lot of attention to when writing is diction, and how the author's/narrator's voice is portrayed with the diction- so how one man might describe school as a 'deathtrap', and someone else might say it was a 'release'- that says a lot about their characters. So, that's what I try to do... I'm interested to hear what you do.
Once I can imagine it just right, I can just launch off from there and not really have to worry much about the character, because once I've figured out the voice, I've figured out what the character is like.
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Congrats on finishing up your exams - it must be a huge relief!
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What about if you're trying to create a genuinely unlovable character, or someone who you believe should *not* be understood? With some characters, saying "Hitler was an artist" just doesn't cut the butter...
(I'm just trying to trigger a conversation here, sorry if I seem rude! Your post is really helpful :) )
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I personally don't really write characters I don't love. Troubling...
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(It must be difficult though! :o )
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Also well done on finishing all those exams!
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I do have a pet peeve about characterizing through physical characteristic--not physical description per se, but when a character has bad skin or squinty little eyes and this is used as an illustration of their moral torpitude.
Also when authors do the opposite and make their villain awesomely beautiful and then the narrative hammers it into the reader: "See! See! Beauty and goodness are not the same!" No, but beauty and being worthy of notice clearly are, because no one worth anything in the narrative is anything less than stunning.
(Um. I don't think I'm disagreeing with anything you said, it's just that the juxtaposition of the words "characterization" and "physical characteristics" sends me into full rant mode.)
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Yes, I am weird like that. But style through diction is one of the first things I notice.
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you do have a style in your writing (it's a good one, I just can't explain it).
Woot! I has a style.
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(Mix this with a dose of Roald Dahl, Lucy Maud Montgomery, YA Fantasy, Cynthia Voigt neurotic coming of age stories, Gordon Korman and you might get something that resembles how one of us writes.)
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That's a great insight Imo has given above. I'm not nearly so organised. What I do tend to do is run the scenes and dialogue through my mind, like watching a film, and try and write what's passing through my mind's eye. This is really useful with dialogue, to try and hear your characters voice. Same for action sequences - I find them really hard to nail, otherwise.
However, I do get kidnapped by the plot bunnies, so I try to have a basic plot thread before I start, otherwise I head off on random tangents, and flip POV far too much.
One other thing I find helpful is to leave a piece for a day or two, then re-read and edit. What needs changed is far more obvious then.
Don't know if that helps or not, hope it does. I'm still refining and changing the way I write, too.
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Err.. I guess that wasn't much help. One of the things I pay a lot of attention to when writing is diction, and how the author's/narrator's voice is portrayed with the diction- so how one man might describe school as a 'deathtrap', and someone else might say it was a 'release'- that says a lot about their characters.
So, that's what I try to do... I'm interested to hear what you do.
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Yes, exactly. :)
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