The door into any story is the character. That is why characterization is so important for a writer. It is so important that I am going to devote the last two blog posts to it. This is part one.
You can built the most compelling world in your imagination or be brilliant at reproducing the real world in words, but unless you can also build a good character, your world will not come to life. That is because it is only through the eyes of your character/s that the reader will observe your world. How the character sees it will shape the way the reader sees it.
Even if you choose to write in third person, through the eyes of an omniscient narrator, the world will be seen through the eyes of that character. If you think it is ‘only’ you telling the story, think again. You are not nothing. You are not a clear glass. You are a human being with preoccupations and fears and resentments and longings and a life that has shaped you to see and interact with the world in certain ways, so you are going to offer a biased view, no matter how much you wish to be objective. It can only ever be an illusion of objectivity.
Think about telling your best friend about a party you went to. You have an agenda in telling the story to your best friend. You what them to see the events you are describing in a certain way. Maybe you want them to admire, be startled by, be shocked, be amazed, be amused, be a little envious. So you will tell your story to get that result. You will focus on some aspects – a kiss, the fact that someone stole alcohol or drank it, smoked, the fact that there was a gate crasher, the fact that someone slapped someone else, someone cried. You will drop out other details- the kind of sandwiches the parents supplied, the fact that you were told to behave, the fact that you felt fat in your jeans or dress or were worried about getting food in your braces – you will recreate yourself as a character which you manipulate- give certain words, thoughts, actions, in order to set your audience up to react to the story as you wish. We shape stories in life like this without even thinking about it, to fit our audiences and our desire for them to react in certain ways. If you don’t believe me, try imagining that you are telling the same story to your grandmother- think what might be left out and now included, because you obviously don’t want to frighten or horrify or embarrass your grandmother. Think how you might tell edit that same story when telling it to one of the parents of the kid hosting the party, when they called to find out why their house was trashed. Or to your little brother, or to your mother who is estranged from you. Or how you might write it to a pen friend in another country.
When you tell a story there is always a reason and an agenda, and the character must be shaped to serve that agenda.
Don’t be fooled by the idea that you can step outside of your own humanity and be a truly objective observer. You have a reason for offering your story in a certain way, and you need to figure out what that reason is. Ask yourself what you want to make your reader feel or think or see. What effect do you want to have with your story? What expression would you want to see on the face of a listener if you were telling this story aloud?
If it is the story of how you fought with your father about going to a party, after he had forbidden it and locked you in your room, how do you want the person you tell to feel about your father? He may be a real person, but in your story, he is only a character whom you must first bring to life for a reader/listener and then you want your audience to feel something for and about him, and you will reshape him to get that effect. Probably you want your audience to share your sense of anger and injustice, so you will reveal details about him that ensure it. You will ensure that your audience gets your side of things. Or maybe you are telling the story from the point of view of a grown woman sitting at the side of an elderly father’s bed in a hospice where he is dying, and remembering a tempestuous argument you had with him as a teenager, which seemed so very important at the time, and which now feels far away and long ago, and you find you side with the father rather than with your younger self, or at least, understand his point of view now, where you did not then. See how the age and point of view of your character can change the story and its impact?
Try it. Think of a time in life you were really angry with your mother or father, and write the story as vividly as you can, making sure the reader gets your side of things. Remember you cannot tell a reader how to feel about anything in a story. That leaves no room for them to imagine and therefore to connect with your story. You have to give them a reason- details, clues etc, that will make them see a character or situation as you want them to. Then rewrite the story from the point of view of a grown woman in hospital watching that parent lying mortally ill after a heart attack or car accident, having your character remember that same incident.
The amazing, wonderful thing about writing- the BEST thing about writing is that it helps you to think better. You will be amazed how much more you understand about an incident in your own life, if you try this exercise. I call it walking a mile in someone else’s shoes and it lets you see how important character is, how the sort of character you choose as your mouthpiece shapes a story.
If you are writing third person, then you will most likely be following one or a couple of main characters, and they must be well developed too, so that your ‘observer/omniscient author’ character, can make interesting observations about them. But your true protagonist is the person telling the story, no matter how much they try to hide. The important thing, when you are writing third person, is to understand your own motivations very clearly. Why are you writing this story- ask yourself and answer it. Why are you making those things happen? Answer the question. Why are you making your main characters this age or that age? What is your intention – because once you know, you can consciously work to fulfill it.
Writers must be brutally honest with themselves, no matter how they mean to deceive or manipulate their audience. They must understand what they want to do with a story. Only a fool says, but that was how it was. Four people seeing a car accident will see it differently. Only a fool says I am not doing anything with my story but telling it. You MUST have a reason for the telling. You DO have a reason- figure it out.
If you are showing your story from this character’s point of view, or are following a certain character or cast of characters, there is a reason. Know that reason.
Figuring out what you are trying to do is the most important part of brainstorming ad drafting- that is WHY you need to brainstorm and draft – so that you can figure out what it is you are doing WITH THE STORY.
