Episode 5: Creating compelling characters.

Hi writers, this is Jim Thayer. Let's talk today about developing characters for our novels. I have recently added a Patreon button to the description of the episodes below. This podcast about writing is and will remain free to listeners and I'm glad about that. But if you are finding them useful and would like to support the podcast, please consider hitting the Patreon link below and making a donation. And it'd be much appreciated. Don't we just love to be along with Elizabeth Bennett and Pride and Prejudice or Scout Finch and DeKillamockingbird or Hermione Granger and the Harry Potter novels and Owen Meanie in a prayer for Owen Meanie and Kaye Clark in where Crod Dads sing one of the reasons we love these novels is because we love the main character. Let's talk about how we as writers can develop a character that our readers want to be with for the course of the 300 pages of the novel. Some years ago I called my brother Joe to tell him I was going to quit reading a police procedural he had highly recommended. The first deadly sin by Lawrence Sanders. I'd given it a few pages but I didn't like the main character whose name was Daniel Blank who quote "when climbing or swimming or simply alone in his apartment he preferred the shaven paint. He had developed a habit, a nervous tick of caressing it with his fingers, probing the frail cranium and that perilous stuff that lay beneath." That's what Sanders wrote about Daniel Blank. "My brother Joe Lath and said Daniel Blank isn't the hero. Keep reading." So it was with great relief. I soon came upon the wonderful Francis X Delaney. He's the detective. In the first scene he builds a huge, "dagwood sandwich" and eats it over the kitchen sink so he won't have to clean up whatever parts of the sandwich fall off. I like Daniel. I like Delaney from that moment and read the novel laid into the night and then I read all the other deadly sin novels. Here's a critical aspect about creating a character in fiction. There needs to be a balance between believability and interest. For the vast majority of us, a good rule for writing and one of the first rules of writing is don't write a biography. As fulfilling and as exciting as our own lives may seem to us, few things are as boring as listening to or reading someone else's life story. And that's because a believable life involves carpools and homework and paying bills and grocery shopping. Few people want to read about these daily chores. We read fiction to get away from this. The character we develop for our novels needs to offer more than the ordinary. Better than that, they should be fascinating. But on the other hand, a hero in a novel can't be entirely separated from the mundane details of everyday life or the character isn't believable. Even the king brushes his teeth. A character with no commonplace concerns is a little more interesting than a macy's parade balloon with an outer surface, but little inside. Readers quickly tire of such a character. Orson's got card puts it this way. "What concerns us is that our main character must be at once believable and interesting simultaneously." He says it's the difference between realistic and romantic. And then he says each of us, however, finds a different balance between the two. This balance can't be set out in a formula that works for everybody. It depends on the writer's personality and the kind of novel being written. A literary novel often features characters with more layers than the characters in a thriller, but not always. A few characters in fiction are as multifaceted as John LeCarrie's hero George Smiley. Westerns often don't have deep characters, but not always. Charles Portis, his hero in true grit, named Rooster Cogburn, is as complicated as he is a taciturn. But often a genre's convention suggests the depth of a character and that the writer might try to achieve. So how do we go about creating a character, a main character, a protagonist in our novel that readers will want to spend time with? I want to offer something of a formula here. Character traits that almost all fictional heroes have. Two angles will make our protagonist compelling and likable, ones the inside and the others the outside. Let's talk about the inside first. I think that there are five necessary character traits for a successful protagonist. Now heroes in our novels have personalities that are as diverse as the writer's imaginations. Almost anything goes. Sherlock Holmes is a drug addict, as is perhaps Stephen Matron in the Mastering Commander series. Ignatius J. Riley in a Confederacy of Dances has a personality that is a combination paranoia and mono, mania, Charlotte Simmons in Tom Wolf's book is foolishly naive, Richard Sharp in the Bernard Cornwell novels carries a grudge against his betters. Irrespective of their personality quirks, memorable protagonists almost always have these traits in common. And I'll list them now, but we'll talk about them in a little more depth in depth in a minute. First, they are kind when it counts. Second, they are brave when they need to be. Third, they are active, not passive. Four, they are not fools. And five, they have the ability to grow. Almost every hero of classic and contemporary fiction has these five traits. Here's the first of these. To be kind is a decision the protagonist makes that endears him to the reader. Often it's a counterpoint to the hero's otherwise brith-brithly personalities. An act of kindness can redeem a character who is unlikable due to her history or circumstances or choices. In our real life daily evaluations of people kindness counts more than almost any other trait. Kindness in a fictional character makes a direct connection to the reader. It's what we want in anyone and what we want in our heroes. Successful characters typically are are not Margaret Mitchell's Melanie Hamilton, who's too good to be true day in day out. Readers don't want a polyanna, but they do want a glimpse of kindness even in the toughest customers. Kindness even in a meager measure can make the reader root for the most irredeemable of characters in Gene Wolf's science fantasy novel. The shadow of the torture, the protagonist named Severian, is a member of a guild of torturers and executioners and he spends a goodly amount of the novel doing just those things. But Wolf nicely adds an injured dog, Triskelli, who Severian nurses back to health for no other reason than it should be done. We like Severian despite his career choice. Adopting a dog is an old trick used by novelists in AB Guthrie's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Big Sky, protagonist Boone Coddle, who has just killed his lifelong friend and hunting mate Jim in a jealous rage, and who is not too likeable in any event adopts a hound. He names Blue by stealing the dog from its abusive owner. That's called the Adopt a Dog technique. The second ingredient, an almost all successful fictional hero's, is courage. And I don't mean necessarily when the hero turns up her heels and races back into the burning building to rescue the old lady trapped in or wheelchair on the second floor. Physical bravery is indeed a component of many well-drawn characters, but the courage that makes many characters in fiction memorable and likable is the courage to forgive and the courage to sacrifice. These are traits of the noble character. Forgiving means to renounce a sentiment, anger, hate, resentment, that she has a right to. During the course of the novel she has earned the moral high ground. She deserves to feel righteous, but now she will seed some of it by forgiving. Orcourage can mean the ability of the character to sacrifice. Here's the character's bravery is her willingness, perhaps, against common sense or in spite of her need for revenge or success or understanding, to give up something. The character makes the difficult choice and surrenders something she highly values. Perhaps she has worked years for it, her reputation or wealth or career, her loved one, her health, and she's going to let go of what she values. Sacrifice is an enormously appealing human attribute, as valued as it is rare and is the nature of heroes. Here's the third ingredient of successful fictional characters. Our novel's main character should be active. He cannot simply allow events to roll over him, accepting with equanimity whatever comes his way. Readers do not want a passive protagonist. Even a character who is retiring and passive at first say Jack Krab in Thomas Berger's little big man eventually goes into action. Often at the last minute readers want a protagonist who has some energy, makes decisions and moves forward. The reader is sitting in her chair, she doesn't want a protagonist who sits in his chair. The fourth ingredient, a protagonist need not be brilliant or even very smart, but he should not be a fool. A key ingredient of the relationship between the reader and a novel's protagonist is respect. A reader will not care about and will not want to accompany a character who the reader doesn't regard highly. A fool generates no respect. Louis B. Meyer, the movie producer, said to David O'Selznick, "Never ask an audience to sympathize with characters who are acting like fools, David." Of course many protagonists do something foolish in a novel. Often that dumb act is early in the story and is the setup for the entire plot and the character spends the novel extricating herself from the mistake. Everyone makes mistakes and readers understand mistakes. But can you think of a protagonist of a successful novel who consistently does foolish things? Readers won't put up with them. Here's a famous example of fictional foolishness and it is evidence of the rule of exceptions. In Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, the story opens with a mysterious sailor arriving at an inn owned by the Hawkins family. The sailor is full of bluster and likes to drink and has a huge secret. But he tells Jim to warn him if a one-legged man comes to town to look for him. The sailor is mortally afraid of the one-legged man enough so that he pays the boy Jim Hawkins a monthly fee to keep his eye out. Then after the mysterious sailor dies, Jim finds a treasure map and a trunk. Several well-to-do town folks out that a small ship to travel to the island to look for treasure. They hire a one-legged man as the cook. Then the one-legged man helps them hire all his friends. The one-legged man is of course Long John Silver and all his friends are pirates. This bit of foolishness brought me out of the novel. No, it's a wonderful novel anyway. The fifth ingredient, the novelist James Scott Bell says, "We respond to the character who changes, who endures the crucible of the story only to emerge a different person at the end." A memorable character must grow during the course of a novel. Daughter Moss, the literary agent sums it up. "Make sure when the dust settles your hero will never be the same again." Usually this growth and change is for the better. The hero is a more complete person at the end of the novel. Certain difficulties in his character may have been resolved or he's been awakened to his true desires or freed from mental constraints. Often she has learned a hard lesson. Once the character will often the character will change in ways that surprise the writer. Stephen King points out, "The writer's original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the readers." Those are the internal ingredients for successful fiction protagonists. Let's talk about the external ingredients. The outside. Two external conditions work to make our character more likeable. Hardship and the odds. First hardship. In a novel readers do not want things to be easy. They want them to be difficult. Usually, the harder the better. The reader is sitting in a leather reclining chair next to a warming fireplace with a cup of tea on the side table. The reader is doing this. But does she want to read about it? Of course not. She wants to read about a character whose body is about to be bitten in half by a shark or a character who has picked up the phone to learn her fiancee has run off with a woman with an inheritance or a character who has been sentenced to 40 years at the big house. A protagonist should not have an easy path through the novel's 400 pages. Reader sympathize when a character has been dealt a bad hand. Often before the narrative of the novel begins, the protagonist is an orphan at Cole Stone House or he has just lost his bank account in a scam or she has watched her lifelong friend die of a wasting disease or she herself has a wasting disease. We like characters who are made to suffer whose home life has snubbed. And the second ingredient on the outside are the odds. Hard chip alone isn't enough, usually. The odds of success and happiness should be against the character. If the queen of England loses her diamond ring, she might not like the fact but she can ask her chambermaid to reach into the vault and pass her another ring. But if impoverished Mary O'Grady loses her tiny heirloom diamond ring, it's a catastrophe. The odds have been stacked against Mary. She's poor and the ring is all she has. Her husband is a drunk and their only child is just run away to get away from the husband's beatings. We respect the queen but we love Mary. Human beings are programmed to applaud the underdog. The movie Rocky is about Rocky, not about the champ of Paula Creed. So we as writers should jigger the odds against our hero. Her chances must be slim. She might not like it but the reader will. So this is a formula for creating a memorable and likable character. The word formula is a pejorative but when something works we should consider using it. Let's talk about a couple other things about creating a character. One of my favorite things to write and to read about are a character's quirks. All of us, maybe especially writers, are compilations of personality quirks. We've gathered them over the years and they're easier to collect than to discard. Readers find these oddities remarkably interesting in a character. Particularly if the quirk is a harmless little add-on. The odd behavior of the hero reminds the reader of himself. Not that particular quirk but because we all have quirks and they are a reminder of being human. Orson Scott card says, quote, "The way to make such minor characters instantly memorable without leading the audience to expect them to do more is to make them eccentric, exaggerated or obsessive." That's Orson Scott card. Here's my favorite quirk of a fictional character. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a hundred. years of solitude, the protagonist eats asparagus every day so he can smell it in his urine. My second favorite, Quirk in Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey Matron novels, which are set in the early 1800s. Stephen Matron is a surgeon and intelligence agent who will drop whatever he is doing to follow an exotic bird to get a good sighting. The novelist and writing teacher Saul Stein says, "One notices people who stand out in a crowd. That's exactly the kind of character you want for your novel." He points out to hold and call field in the catcher in the rye, Henderson in Saul Bellos, Henderson in the rain king, and Jay Gatsby in the great Gatsby as examples of this. We've discussed those traits, protagonists of successful novels almost all have. They almost always have eccentricities that make them stand out in the reader's mind. We should also remember that it's not always the strengths that endear readers to our character. The editor in chief at Simon & Schuster, Michael Corda, says, "Characters' weaknesses are more interesting than their strengths." And he cites the characters of Graham Green, John LaCarae, and William Shakespeare in particular, Othello. Weaknesses endear a character to readers and they rouse sympathy. We root for people we sympathize with. One of the reasons we read books is to find someone to cheer for, and we want to be on that character's side as we accompany her on her adventure, cheering all the way. But don't go overboard with characterization. The depth of our characterizations, the layers that we add to our protagonist and the others in our novels, will often depend on the nature of the story. The hero of a thriller or a mystery or a horror novel doesn't usually require an exhaustive personality inventory. Romance readers and some other genres may be more interested in seeing deeply inside their heroine to understand her problems and desires. But Orson Scott Card says, "It's a mistake to think that detailed characterization is an absolute virtue in storytelling." The terrific thriller writer, Robert Tagoni, spoke to my class once and he said that we were talking about characters. He said there are five tools to create a character in our novels. Five tools for our description. The first, what do they look like? Can you pick them up out of a police line-up? Movement is often the best time to let the reader know what a character looks like. Robert Tagoni's second ingredient, second waiter, show the reader about a character. How do they dress? What are they wearing? But don't just throw some clothing on your character. In real life, people can choose what they wear, which often shows us something about them. Same with fictional characters. A character's choice of clothing can show a lot about her. Is her skirt five inches above her knee or one inch? Is she wearing flats or five inch heels? Is he wearing a hoodie or a polo shirt? Bob Tagoni's third way to describe a character is physical behavior. How they walk and stand and sit. Does the character always slouch? Does he think it does he sink back in a chair or sit upright on the edge? Does a character chronically look behind herself when she's walking? Does a character slurp his soup? All of these things reveal your character to the reader. His fourth element in description is how they talk. Dialogue is one of the best ways to reveal your character to the reader. And his fifth, how they view the world. Is a character bitter with a negative comment about everything and anyone? Or eternally happy? Is the character suspicious of everyone? Or is she helpful and encouraging? This is a terrific list from Robert Tagoni on how to describe our characters. We have come to the end of this episode. Next time we'll talk among other things about creating credible villains. This is Jim Thayer on the author of The Essential Guide to Writing a novel. Until next time, keep tapping those keys.