Characterization 101 by Nancy Carter

Characterization 101
by Nancy Carter
Characterization is the most important element in storytelling. Great characterization is the number-one reason editors buy new authors, and weak characterization is the number-one reason for rejecting a manuscript. All 15 of the eHarlequin.com community members who sold novels last year had one thing in common: they created strong characters that readers could engage with.
Editors know that (most) plot problems can be fixed, but the fundamentals of building strong characters have to be in place before they get interested and excited about a manuscript from a new author.
We read to emotionally engage with the characters in the story. Their emotional growth and change is what keeps us turning the pages. Brilliant characterization makes us want to shake Scarlett O'Hara and ask "What the heck are you thinking to be stuck on Ashley Wilkes when Rhett is so obviously your soul mate?" It's why we know to our bones that Jane Eyre is the perfect mate for Rochester.
Like plotting, there's no one way to go about the process of creating characters with depth and dimension. Every author has her own approach with her own set of tools in her writer's toolbox to help her. And, like plotting, characters evolve and emerge as you write — and rewrite — your story. This process develops your ear for when your characters are coming alive.
Growth Is Everything
The first novel Sharon Sala sold, Sara's Angel, begins with: "Mackenzie Hawk watched in silence as the only person he had ever loved was buried beneath six feet of the driest, rock-hard earth in Oklahoma. It was oddly fitting that the old woman's final resting place was where she had existed in life: between a rock and a hard place." In two short sentences, the reader learns nearly everything they need to know about the hero: his grandmother is dead, he's had a troubled life, and now he's alone in the world.
Nobody writes wounded heroes better than Sharon. "One night I had this vivid dream and I just got up and wrote this scene where a woman stands in a bar and sees this man walk out of the shadows with a duffle bag hung across his shoulder that 'looked like a cross between a chip and the weight of the world.' I love the tough guy with the core vulnerability: he'll fight to the death, but that one little thing will break him."
Dreaming is Sharon's key writing tool. "I dream all of my stories: literally everything — the dialogue, the characters, the plot. I see them like movies in my dreams." She has honed and developed this skill over the years. "If I'm having a problem with something in my story, I'll think about that just before I fall asleep. During the night I will dream the solution to the problem."
The other tool she relies on for every new main character is the list: "I make a list with how tall they are, how old they are, what they do for a living, their favorite color, their favorite food, something that makes them angry, something that makes them laugh, their special skill, what pisses them off, and the one thing they're afraid of." From here she can layer in all the nuances that give her characters so much depth and dimension. "And if you make a big issue out of the thing they're afraid of, you better make sure that they have to face and overcome it in your story."
A turning point for beginning writers is when they really learn the concept of showing, not telling — particularly when it comes to characterization. "It's the difference between writing 'He went jogging,' and writing 'The sun was hot on his face and the sweat burned his eyes. He wished he'd worn his headband. The ankle he'd turned last week still ached.'"
Her characters' need to grow is at the heart of her stories. "Even if you've got a kidnapping, you've got a big old tornado, you've got floods, whatever, for them to overcome, it's what's inside that makes us care about them. Whatever conflict or crutch or block they have to begin with, they have to learn it, face it, maybe grieve it if that's what's called for, and overcome it by the end."
"Maybe you've given the reader a picture of a woman who was physically abused by her husband. She doesn't have a thought in her head that she's capable of anything. Then somewhere in that story she's going to have to grow beyond that. She's got to learn to stand up for herself. Not in some piddly, 'I'm going to tell my boss off' way, but in very dramatic circumstances. She may be bawling all the way through it, she may be shaking and throwing up, but she's got the guts to do it. That is the growth the reader wants from a character. Always."
Keeping It Simple
For Kathleen O'Brien, getting to know her characters when she starts a story is like going on a blind date. "You've done your research; you know their name and their basic stats, but you don't really feel comfortable with them. Things are stilted at first. You write those opening scenes, and as you continue, you find yourself going back and readjusting your view of this person. Once you get to know each other better, you're more comfortable. They can make jokes, you can make jokes with them, and you can allow them to let their hair down."
Eventually, Kathleen wants to know her characters as well as she knows her best friend. "When I first started writing, I made up this fifty point questionnaire. Answering this can be a weeklong process, and you have to have answers that make sense, but I still use this if I find myself stuck with a character."
One of Kathleen's secret weapons for creating great characters is the "defining sentence." "It's ultra simplistic, but it's where I always begin. For example, I would describe Jane Eyre like this: 'Jane is a timid orphan who must finally find a home of her own.'" The sentence structure is always the same: an adjective, then a noun, concluding with a clause that describes where the character will end up when the story ends. "The noun is easy because that will be whatever career or life situation they're in, like mother, daughter, aunt, orphan, etc. The adjective is the hardest: this is where you must find the one characteristic that truly defines them; that constitutes their dilemma that they must overcome. There are dozens of adjectives you could use for Jane, but timid best describes what she has to confront. This is followed by where they'll end up. This is your character arc." And once she finds this sentence, everything else will fall into place.
Keeping focus on this simple and specific arc has two benefits: it ensures that her characters will grow, and it prevents them from being burdened with too many traits. "The characters we remember so well, like Scarlett O'Hara, have this simple, defining trait. Scarlett's intense selfishness as she goes on that journey toward caring about someone else is really dramatic and effective. Margaret Mitchell didn't try to soften it or mitigate it — she was fearless in letting her be that one thing: selfish."
Balancing characters' flaws with likeability can be a tricky juggling act. Hannibal Lechter will never be a romance hero. In the case of Scarlett, Mitchell also gave her flawed heroine a kind of street smarts and grit that the reader can admire and engage with. "I think apathy is the worst emotion you can invoke. Readers need characters they want to spend time with. Writers who create characters who walk that tightrope have created magic."
Putting limits on the amount of work you put into creating characters ahead of time is smart. "Go ahead and write the scenes. See what your characters do, listen to what they say, watch how they react, then be ready to throw some of the early scenes away if you have to. The blind date is often the date you want to forget, even if you go on to marry that person. Getting too bogged down in questionnaires may distract you from watching how they act on the page — the place where they really come alive. This is where the two of you will get to know each other, and you can take this and start over."
Trust Your Subconscious
Bronwyn Jameson also uses a character template, but, like Kathleen, she has pared down the amount of preparation she does before writing. "I need answers to questions about goals and aspirations, needs and wants, values and attitudes, since they're the things that will shape the story." Armed with this background, she starts writing. "I love that sense of discovery, where I'm writing along and suddenly there's a line of dialogue, spoken or internal, that exposes a whole new aspect of the character. Maybe it leads to a different or better story angle I hadn't thought about before. The subconscious works in magical ways."
That's not to say that you don't develop your character's back story. "I usually start at the situation or setup and then work backward, asking the necessary questions to find out what got them into this situation, why it's important to each character, how they feel about what's going on. The crucial things I need to know about each character: what is most important to them? I'm talking the big concepts here: security, home, family, love, acceptance, respect, wealth — and why? One of my favorite questions is, 'What is the worst thing that could happen in your life right now?' The answer's handy not only for characterization but also for plot development."
Writers, like readers, bond with characters through their struggle to overcome their vulnerabilities and fears. "I like proactive characters who make decisions, maybe not always the right ones, but understandable ones, and then act upon them: characters who drive the story action, rather than letting it all rain down upon them." This is the key to writing characters who will come alive for the reader.
"There will be a point when I actually hear her voice or see the tilt of his smile and it's different from any other character I've written before. I'll know I'm connecting when I start to feel the same visceral reactions — like I'm feeling sick with worry, or tense with anxiety, and my heart is racing or my chest is tight."
When writers know how to listen, characters can also send signals. "I've learned that when my story progress stops it's because I've taken a wrong turn. I've had my character do something he or she wouldn't and it's brought my writing to a halt. Rather than a negative, I see this as a positive sign that my characters are alive and objecting!"
Practice Makes Perfect
Character sketches are Cathy Yardley's starting point with every new story. "I use a process where I write about a random day in the life of this character. What does she do? Where does she go? What does she see? I'll also describe her favorite room. This gets me in touch with who this person is under the surface stuff, and allows me to find the details that will bring out that characterization."
Getting beyond stereotypes is vital. "You want your characters to have their own agendas, no matter how much you plan. They have to be empathetic, but they shouldn't be always admirable — that can be boring. But you always want to know what their goal is and what they will do to achieve it. This will dictate how your story runs. And it's got to be the same goal throughout your story, no changing goals in the middle."
Cathy's key tools for creating characters that jump off the page are prewriting and practice writing. "Prewriting is all the work you do before you start writing your story: all your research. Some people are seat-of-their-pants writers, with the result that their prewriting is an early draft: simply working with the book and getting the details that they need. Practice writing actually has nothing to do with the story. This is writing about the time when you were most frightened in your life, or writing about your feelings for the first love of your life, and your first broken heart; anything that is emotionally big and difficult to write about. The more you get used to working with this kind of emotion, the more it translates into your fiction writing."
She knows her characters are really coming alive when she laughs at their jokes. "Or, if it's a dark scene, I know I'm doing something right when it's hard to write." Getting characterization right is fundamental to writing good fiction. "If you don't have strong characters, there's no reason for the reader to keep turning the pages. I don't slight the importance of plot, but I think all plot comes from character. If your characters aren't alive and emotionally engaging and driving the plot, your story's going nowhere."
Characterization 101
April Homework
Make sure you know your characters.
1) Create detailed character worksheets for your main characters. This usually means your heroine and hero, but could include one or two key secondary characters depending on the type of story you're telling.
Use whichever template you like, we have one here. Along with all the details, make sure you have answered the questions that will help you define your character's goals, motivations and conflict:
- What are they most afraid of?
- What do they want most in life?
- What would be the worst thing that could happen to them right now?
While experienced writers often find that they can pare down on this preparation, this is a very useful process for writers learning how to give their characters depth and believability.
2) Try to write the single defining sentence about your heroine and your hero.
This won't be easy, but it's a great exercise. Actors use this to find their way into their characters. Make it something that packs an emotional punch. For example, Cate is a struggling single mom and waitress who secretly dreams of a more secure life for herself and her daughter. Jake is an unsettled undercover cop who, having grown up in foster homes, is trying to figure out where he belongs.
3) Are your hero and heroine the yin to her yang? Do their personalities, conflicts, required growth elements make them each others perfect romantic partner?
4) Create brief character worksheets for your key secondary characters.
You want to be able to see and hear them, so make sure you know what they look like and their personal style (of dress, what car they drive, etc.). You also want to be able to hear their pattern of speech, so where are they from? How old are they? What is their relationship to the hero and heroine? What are their basic wants in life?
5) If your story has a villain — whether a murderer or the land developer or the other woman — make sure he or she isn't a stereotype. Fill in a character worksheet for your villain. This prevents you from falling into the trap of making him/her a cardboard cutout. Does he like dogs? Does he send his mother flowers on her birthday? Does he eat a cinnamon donut and coffee for breakfast every day?
Great villains are always fascinating. These are the characters who make heroines and heroes out of otherwise average folk, so the more dynamic your villain, the better your heroine will be. Get to know your villain as a human being, albeit a deeply flawed one.
6) Find pictures of your main characters.
Flip through magazines until you find the photographs that jump out at you as your heroine and hero. Look for expression and attitude more than face and figure. Attach this to your character template.
If you've already done all of the above, then step back and look at where you're at with your manuscript. Have you broken through the blind date anxiety and started to feel comfortable with your main characters? Maybe you need to keep writing a few more scenes, or maybe you need to go back and review or revise some of the steps above.
Keep Writing
By now, beginners should be well into their first draft. You will find that this character homework will give you new insights and a better feel for your characters' voices. If you're in the 'blind date' stage, trust that this is the normal getting-to-know-you awkwardness that most writers face at the start of a new story.
If you're working on revisions, or further along in your writing process, double-check to make sure your characters are indeed driving your plot, not letting it "rain down on them." Are they proactive in the face of all external events; making choices and decisions that keep them moving forward? Have you followed up action scenes with an "emotional mirror" that shows us how the character feels about what's happening?