Characters - Beyond the Second Dimension

We've all heard at one time or another that our characters are flat. Okay, so what do you, as an author, do with that? Well, it isn't enough to know that you're characters are flat, you need to know in what area they fall flat in.

Characters can be flat in a couple different ways: personality, emotionally, physically, and psychologically. So, if you're having trouble figuring out just how your character(s) fell flat enough for someone to comment on them, ask them to elaborate.

How do you stand that character up and give him or her enough mass to hold themselves upright?

If it's merely a case of the reader wanting to know more about the physical appearance and description of your character, ask them what they feel is lacking. Maybe the problem isn't necessarily lack of detail, but how long the reader has to wait to find it. Be sure to put a face to that name early enough to draw the reader in, even if the current features are temporary and might be different from the true ones. It will help the reader put things into the proper context.

If you're not sure how to get your descriptions any clearer, maybe you need to test your description skills. The best way to do that is to start with your own body and how you would describe it. Then, give that description of yourself to your significant other and ask them to guess who you are describing. Then you might want to move on to other people (family and friends) that may be in a position to recognize your physical description. See how many people guess that it's you? If some have trouble, ask they why? Maybe you left out some key detail that helps cement the picture in their head.

As a test, repeat the exercise for a couple of other people you feel you know very well and then test your description with the people who may be in the best position to judge your description and see if they can guess it correctly. The results can tell you a lot about yourself and your relationships with others. How observant did you find yourself to be? If others found your descriptions lacking, you've just identified a weakness. The best way to fix this is to observe people and try to describe them. The more you practice, the better you'll be.

If their seems to be issues with the personality, psychology, or emotional nature of your character, the problem may be that you did not dig deep enough into your character's mind and you need to go back and pick it some more.

How do you do get deeper in to a character's head?

Well, the first thing I suggest that you do is think about yourself and what makes you tick. Make up a realistic situation, put yourself in it as the main character and consider how you fit into all of the facets of it. What would motivate you? How would you react in this situation? What would your thought processes be? If you aren't sure, talk it through with the person who knows you best and ask them what they think you'd do and see if you agree with what they came up with. If not, why not? This might help you arrive at your answers. How do you're life experiences effect your answers?

Once you get some sort of understanding of yourself, move on to other people that you know (male and female). How would they react in the same situation? Do you understand what would motivate them in that situation and what their thought process might be? If not, then you need to discuss this activity with them and find out how they answer the questions to try to see what makes them tick.

The interesting thing about this type of exercise is that you learn a lot about yourself and your relationships with other people. If you were able to answer them in some way, you need to test how accurate you were. Who do you think you know better, your family or your friends? To see how well you really did, talk to them and find out how close you were.

Be sure to understand how their life experiences effect their decisions. That can help you better understand a character type you chose to write about and help you to dig deeper into your character's head to find the missing pieces.

If you did very well, the problem could be that you just need to add a few more well placed details to make a more complete picture to help the reader understand your character better. Maybe the problem is that you don't understand the character type well enough (soldier, car salesman, etc.) and you need to do more research into character types.

Yes, a character interview/questionnaire can be helpful and informational, but it won't take you very far if your understanding of your chosen character/character type is lacking. The best way to discover this is when readers or others, "in the know," tell you.

Another way to give your character substance lies with the emoting and the, "show don't tell," approach. To really make an impact here requires two things - physical gestures and speech descriptions. Sure, a character may be smiling when he says something, but how does he say it and what kind of smile is it? Does he have a sarcastic, bored (as in a sense of ennui), or devilish tone?

Another parameter to consider is the emotional and physical responses of the other characters involved, if there are any. How do they react to what he says and how he says it? Do they laugh and call him a card, are they offended and slap him before walking away, or are they downright scared with chills running down their spine?

What the character says and does when alone (especially a villain) can be very telling for motive and attitude towards other people.

Hopefully, I have helped you find a way to flesh out that character that's giving you trouble!

Unique Characters?

To me, one of the hardest parts about writing is creating unique characters. I'm always reading, so I am always finding new character types, but inevitably, I find that someone has already created a character similar to what I am working on. Of course, the character type is never exact, but close. It used to bother and frustrate me, but not anymore.

During an Ancient Egyptian Civilization course, we had a class discussion about the advancement of early civilizations. During that discussion, an argument was made that a civilization couldn't make huge strides all by themselves but had to be influenced by other societies and/or civilizations. Conversely, another argument of that discussion brought up the notion that all it took for a society to advance in great leaps is for one person to have an ingenious idea and for others to listen to and support that person. Which means, that it is totally possible for two civilizations to evolve along the same lines even though they might be oceans apart. The over all point of the discussion was to say that human beings tend to think alike, or solve the same problems in similar fashions.

The more I thought about this, the more it made sense. Think about it for a minute. Where might we be today if they actually listened to Galileo when he first proposed his thoughts? What about Kepler, Da Vinci, and all those other intelligent people who were considered heretics at the time, even though they were leagues ahead of their generation? I guess we might be a bit farther along than we are now, but maybe not.

So, if I can think of something neat and interesting, why shouldn't someone else be able to think of something similar?

When I accepted this as an inevitable possibility, I started to realize that it wasn't the character types that would be unique, but the personality that I breathed into each character that would make him or her unique. While I may find many people who think like me or experience some of the same things I do, ultimately, my voice will be different from theirs and the personality I give to a character will be different too.

Dreams and Souls

It took me a long time to get to this point in my life. I tried to take this part of my life and put it in a box because it didn't fit with the life I thought I wanted, nor did it fit with the life others encouraged me to follow. I did have two teachers that tried to encourage me, but I was too young to appreciate or understand the compliments they gave me.

It wasn't until years later that I began to grasp just how good my writing could be. It wasn't that people told me my writing was great, it was because they told me they wanted more. More of characters mentioned only once, of an unfinished short story, or about a world I created. It was in this moment that I realized that I have a talent that I was ignoring.

When I made the decision not just to become a creative writer but to pursue it, I felt something that I hadn't felt in a long time - whole. It might sound weird or cheesy, but it's true. By reconnecting with the writer in me, I found the missing piece of my soul. I felt empty for a long time and always attributed it to the loss of close friends and family members that I experienced in high school.

Sure, the loss of those people effected me greatly and a couple of them played a big role in who I am today, but the reason my soul was hurting and felt incomplete was because I had shut off a large part of my soul from myself. Now that it has been released, I feel whole, complete, and happy. I may not be published yet, but I am finally heading in the right direction. I am not just sitting on the edge waiting for my wings to grow and wondering if I'll ever fly, I am stretching them out and flapping, waiting for the wind to catch me!

I would like to know - What is your dream? Are you living it? If not, why not? How does that make you feel?