How to Kill a Character-And Avoid Hate Mail
by K.M. Weiland @ Wordplay charactersSome of the most powerful stories in literature and cinema have a surprising common element: The death of a main character. At first glance, this would seem to be an instant turnoff. Why hang with a character for 300+ pages only to watch him get knocked off in the end? But the truth is, when handled properly, the death of a character can add untold power and pathos to a tale. It can lift your story from ordinary to extraordinary. The death of a popular character has caused more than one book to be hurled across the living room. So when you find your story demands you kill a prominent character, how do you tap into the power and pathos without infuriating your readers? After analyzing a number of books and movies in which the main characters bit the dust, I discovered three keys to playing the assassin and living to tell another tale.
Characters: Likability Is Overrated
by K.M. Weiland @ Wordplay charactersWriters want readers to love their characters. We want them to connect with the men and women who inhabit our stories. We want them to empathize so strongly that they are moved to laughter and to tears right along with these imaginary people we’ve created. So, naturally, we want our characters to be as likable as possible. Right?
Writing Your Very Own, Very Good Villain
by Laura @ Word Grrls charactersI think I’ve been having trouble getting my book off the ground, writing the characters, because I have been writing the villain as the heroine and the heroine as the villain. At first I thought I was just out of practice writing a good villain. So, as I was in the shower and had nothing else to do, I began plotting my villain.
The All-Important Link Between Theme and Character Progression
by K.M. Weiland @ Word Play charactersthemesTheme is a slippery concept. The prevailing wisdom among writers is that if you apply any deliberate force to your theme, you’ll end up with a heavy-handed Aesop’s fable. On the other hand, a story without a theme is shallow escapism at best and an unrealistic flop at worst. Theme is arguably the single most important facet of a memorable story. Vivid characters, witty dialogue, and killer plot twists can certainly carry a story by themselves, but without theme they will never deliver their full potential. And yet, no theme at all is often far better than a poorly delivered theme.
Describing Characters
by K.M. Weiland @ Wordplay charactersIn recent years, a minimalist trend has surfaced regarding character descriptions. Common opinion these days states that physical descriptions are unnecessary, distracting, and even poor writing. “Dickens,” these minimalists claim, “might have been able to get away with a page and a half of in-depth description, but that sort of verbosity is not only intolerable in modern fiction but even retroactively ridiculous.” Having read far too many novelists who abuse and misuse the art of description, I’m in utter sympathy with whoever decided the character description was passé. But I’m not in agreement.
Utilizing Character in Beginnings
by K.M. Weiland @ Word Play charactersIf all of writing was as difficult as the first 50 pages, I probably would have wimped out years ago and found myself a new vocation. (Something easy and safe—like being a Wal-Mart greeter or maybe the collector of the quarters from Laundromat machines.) Despite the fact that I already know every plot turn that will arrive in the pages to come, and that I’ve sketched my characters down to the most obscure detail, and that I’ve probably even imagined the have dozen splendid panegyrics that will appear on the glossy back cover—writing those first 50 pages is always a foray into dangerous and unknown territory.
POV and Character Description
by Linda Yezak @ AuthorCulture characterswriting techniques and stylesThe current trend of writing in deep third-person point of view can pose a challenge for some writers–the same challenge first-person POV writers face: How to describe the main character to give the reader some image to latch onto. The usual techniques of having the character stare in the mirror or flip through a closet, although effective, are old, worn out and limited. As competitive as the market is these days, freshness in every aspect of writing is mandatory, and this includes character description.
What Dickens Can Teach Us About Complex Characters
by K.M. Weiland @ Word Play charactersIn Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens’s final completed novel, he presents for us one of his most comprehensive and well-rounded tales. Herein is all the darkness of Hard Times, the cynicism of Martin Chuzzlewit, but also the optimism and hopefulness of David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby. G.K. Chesterton wrote of Our Mutual Friend that it “marks a happy return to the earlier manner of Dickens at the end of Dickens’s life.”
Naming Characters
by K.M. Weiland @ Wordplay charactersMy parents chose their children’s names according the meanings. They named me Kathryn in hopes its meaning, “pure,” would bear fruit in my life. (Of course, they also gave me a middle name that means “bitter,” so I’m still trying to figure out the ramifications of that… Pure bitter just doesn’t have quite the same ring, now does it?) They understood, as do most parents, that names are important. Mention a name, and instant preconceptions spring to mind. Although our names may not play a role in shaping our personalities, they certainly become a reflection of our background, our ethnicity, even our faith. They can even define our relationships: I’m only Kathryn in extremely professional situations; to most people I’m Katie; and to a select few I’m Kate.
A Necessary Evil: The Dark Knight and the Art of the Antagonist
by K.M. Weiland @ Wordplay charactersAllow me to be radical for a moment, and reduce the art of story telling to three basic components. Take a gander at your bookshelf, maybe even pull a couple titles, and see if you can’t pick out the common threads. (Presumably, your personal library of favorites doesn’t contain any shoddy writing or weak themes, symbolism, or dialogue, so we’ll just take those necessities for granted.)
Unmasking the Villain
by Hannah Gilead @ NouveauWriter characters“Bad guys” are expected to look repulsive and to live in dark, eerie places. Superhero adventures and fairytales make villains easy to detect. Haven’t we all seen their brooding expression, occasionally offset by a smug smile, suddenly explode into an arrogant laugh as they bask in the pleasure of having successfully created chaos?
The Major Role of Minor Characters
by K.M. Weiland @ Word Play charactersI’ve been thinking lately of two decidedly minor characters in two of my works-in-progress. Although both impact the plot in crucial ways, neither is irreplaceable or deserving of more than a handful of scenes. But both of them taught me some vital lessons in the art of the minor character.
How to Build a Vivid Main Character from the Inside Out
by Bill Henderson @ Write a Better Novel charactersWhen I started writing fiction, I loved creating my minor characters: they were so lively and vivid; they stood out unmistakably. My main character was a different kettle of fish. Though he walked and talked, performed actions, had motives, and projected a reasonably credible pattern of personal qualities, he wasn’t iconic or compelling to me. I couldn’t quite get my hands around him; and because I couldn’t, nobody else could.
Interviewing Your Characters
by K.M. Weiland @ Word Play charactersHow well do you know your characters? Like the back of my hand, you say? Do you know the color of your hero’s eyes? Do you know where the bad guy went to college? Do you know your heroine’s most embarrassing moment? Can you rattle off a list of your main character’s idiosyncrasies? Typical expressions? Romantic history?
Fiction Writing: Don’t Touch My Character!
by James @ Men with Pens charactersfictionFiction writers care deeply about the characters they bring to life. They think up personalities, quirks and flaws, they romanticize the image, and then they allow the vision of their character to pour forth in words.
Fiction Writing: Conflicts and Characters
by James @ Men with Pens charactersfictionAlmost all good stories need conflict – and not the epic battle-style of conflict. The conflicts that bring characters alive are the smaller conflicts that occur between two people, a small group and the internal conflicts we deal with on a daily basis.Conflict adds an incredible amount of depth to characters. Without conflict, a character falls flat. No one wants to read about Joe Schmoe and his easy life where everything goes his way.
Fiction Writing: Hurt Your Characters
by James @ Men with Pens charactersfictionFear of the unknown. Fear of pain. Fear of death. Isn’t that what holds you back from putting your character through hell? But without the raw emotion that only hurting your character creates, you’ll never achieve a rich, in-depth story that grips readers – from the heart. What makes us fear pain so much, even the pain experienced by characters that don’t exist? We are afraid of what hurts our characters because we know it will hurt us, too.
Baby You Can Drive My… Screenplay (Or, Why You Must Know What’s ‘Driving’ Your Script)
by Laura Cross @ About a Screenplay charactersplotstorytellingWhat’s driving your screenplay? And why do you need to know?
Understanding what drives your script helps you determine the essential foundation of your story (or throughline) and allows you to strengthen the script by incorporating elements (scenes, sequences, and characters) that “serve” your story.
How To Create Your Main Character’s Backstory
by Laura Cross @ About a Screenplay charactersBackstory is not necessarily told in the pages of the screenplay. A good writer will embed aspects of the backstory throughout the script and reveal them as the story progresses, never having to inform the reader of the character’s backstory through heavy-handed exposition.
Four Freewriting Tools Every Novelist Should Use
by Bill Henderson @ Write a Better Novel charactersfreewritingideasAny novelist, any fiction writer, lives under the constant threat of being shut down by one form or another of writer’s block. It’s just a given of the trade. New writers encounter it as an existential crisis. It’s frightening, because it seems to be a cosmic message that we’ve made a huge mistake. We thought we had what it takes, but suddenly, it seems, we don’t. Experienced writers have looked into the eye of the beast and realized it’s just that, a beast, and like any beast, can be successfully grappled with and defeated. In my opinion, anyone can blow writers block out of the water by knowing when and how to use several variations of freewriting. I call them tools because they do what good tools are supposed to do: they make it easier, and in some cases possible, for anyone to build, repair, and speed their work.
What is High Concept? And Does That Mean My Little Character-Driven Script is Conceptually Low?
by Laura Cross @ About a Screenplay charactersstorytellingThe term ‘high-concept’ may fall in and out of favor, but it remains the standard for what Hollywood looks for in a film premise. ‘High-concept’ basically means the concept is the highest appeal. It is easily understood and creates immediate excitement. If a film executive hears your idea and asks you what it’s about or has no emotional reaction, then your script is not high-concept.
What’s In A Name? The Truth About Sticks and Stones
by Hannah Gilead @ NouveauWriter characterstipsGovernment agencies have been known to refuse parents’ requests to give their children eccentric names. The jury is out when it comes to the real psychological damage such names may inflict on the self-esteem and future success of these kids. But when it comes to naming literary characters, is there such a thing as a bad name? Will the wrong name hurt your story? And where can you turn for inspiring ideas?