Character in Your Character

Hero as a label for the main character of a story is somewhat misnomered, or at least overrated in my opinion. The word hero implies someone with outstanding abilities, almost perfect in every way, even someone who doesn't include "mistake" in their vocabulary. "Nonsense!" I say. Who wants a main character with no possibility of error? With no chance of conflict? Or problems? There wouldn't be much of a plot with no conflict, no problems to solve, and no resolution. Besides, I need to relate to the main characters I'm reading about. Human flaws are essential as a part of that. And we as readers develop empathy for these flawed human beings. We cheer them on and hope they overcome their challenges.

So, what does all this mean to you as a writer? Well, during that constructive stage of your story, when you begin to mold your characters --who they are and what they will attempt to do, you should also think about what makes him or her human. It might be a weakness that's physical or emotional. Or perhaps it is something that has happened in his or her life that leaves the character frightened or conflicted. As the character moves through events in the story, trying to achieve his or her goal and confronting the conflict presented by the antagonist, the one with human flaws will have a greater challenge. Without flaws, the "perfect hero" would find the road ahead simple to travel. But we don't want the journey to be simple. That would be like watching our favorite team play their biggest rival, and the game ends up being a total blowout. No excitement in that, is there?

Remember: fiction portrays life and life is made up of humans. So, characters, in order to be human, should be flawed. It makes sense to me. I hope it makes sense to you.

This posting is brief, but it seemed worth stating. And if anyone has anything to add, I welcome your comments and words of wisdom :-)

P.S. A bit of advice I just picked up over on Coffee Shop discussion board from John....use your own flaws as a starting point. They are the ones you are most familiar with and might help create some pretty fantastic characters!

Flashback: Another Way to Make Your Writing Pop and Sizzle!

"Jane was a shy girl. She never talked to anyone unless they spoke to her first. Maybe this was because she wasn't very pretty, wore thick glasses, and stood taller than most boys."

Seems like an okay description of Jane, right? Maybe if you were describing her to a friend in conversation or mentioning her in a letter. But for your novel or story? No. It's boring. At least if you wrote your character descriptions this way all of the time, it would be. So, what can you do about it? You definitely don't want your writing to be boring. What publisher would want to buy that? Come to think of it, what reader would want to read it?

Let's try this again with using flashback as a tool.

"Jane walked into the reunion, her palms sweating. She could see one of her classmates waving to her. Oh, God. Why did I come? She thought of turning around. This always seemed to happen. It never changed.

Her mother had taken her by the hand right up to the front door the first day of school. After some persuasion and a gentle push, Jane walked into the room and sat in the back row. All the kids were laughing and chattering. Jane kept fidgeting with her glasses. They felt heavy and awkward on her nose. One boy sitting next to her turned to stare.

'Your eyes look funny with those on. All big and goofy.'

Jane opened her notebook, brought it close to her face and studied the inside.

'What's a matter? You deaf?'

Jane popped out of the chair and scrambled over to another desk.

'Wow! You must be ten feet tall!'

Now, everyone was staring. Tears welled up in her eyes. Jane ran out of the room and out of the building.

'Jane Goodman! It's so good to see you after all these years. And you look great.'

Jane turned to see a face she would know anywhere. Even if there were a few creases around the eyes and grey in the hair. She smiled and nodded. Maybe this won't be so awful after all, she thought."

Now, if you will notice, the flashback to Jane's first day at school helps the character to come alive. This way, the reader begins to "know" Jane, become familiar with her. And in the long run, the reader will become "invested" in her character, care about what happens to her. When readers have this kind of empathy for the character(s) of a book, they want to keep on reading, they have to know what will happen.

Flashback is a wonderful tool, but there are a couple of warnings that go along with using it.

1) Don't announce the flashback with phrases like "it brought me back to" or "I remember the time" or even using ellipses ... Changing the scene with a certain look, (for example in mine the setting is the first day of school) and introducing it with the past perfect verb tense (in mine I used, "Her mother had taken her") is one example of how this works.

2) Don't announce the return from flashback with phrases like "that was in the past" or "I was brought out of my daydreaming". Just changing the setting with a few words or even a bit of dialog will work. (In mine I used: "Jane Goodman! It's so good to see you...")

3) While you are new to using flashback, be careful of the length. The longer the flashback, the harder it may be to transition in and out. Many use a separate line of asterisks **** or white space.

Overall, giving your writing a bit of variety with flashbacks to describe characters or to explain needed information without literally "explaining", i.e. telling instead of showing, will make your writing pop and sizzle off the pages, make your readers cry for more. And that's what we all want, don't we?

Description... How much is too much?

Description and Details... I often need to tell my students before, during, and after a writing assignment to include details... supporting details, sensory details, vivid, colorful, meaningful DETAILS! Of course, you need to understand that writing is like a tooth extraction for my wonderful kids. They want to know exactly how many words they need...right down to the last letter. No more, no less. Yet, for those of us who enjoy the written word, we create our beautiful masterpieces with those many, many words and phrases...maybe too many. I was reading in Stephen King's On Writing -- one of my favorite references on the subject -- where he states, "good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else" and "that it's as easy to overdescribe as to underdescribe. Probably easier." He continues to explain that what comes into your mind first, what you see first... those details are the most genuine and best to use. He's not big on physical description of characters, but rather description of time and place, i.e. the setting. I agree for the most part. Who cares what kind of handbag and shoes someone is wearing? Unless the shoes are going to be an important clue to a murder, for instance, it's unnecessary. I'd much rather hear about the character's character than the color of his or her hair. And as King puts it, "get on with your main job, which is telling the story" and don't bog down your writing with weighty details that bore your readers.

So, what do you think? Do you agree? What "details" do you tend to include in your writing?

To Prepare or Not to Prepare....How do you write?

Inspiration versus preparation... It's a quandary for some... If you wait and write after preparing notes, an outline, etc., does it take away that creative spontaneity and leave the writing sterile and cold? Or does preparation keep you organized in thought, preventing your writing from taking a haphazard, frenzied path?

I personally find spontaneity great, but if I am working on a longer project such as a novel, then sooner or later -- and it's probably better to be sooner -- I will feel the need to organize my ideas, make that decision on where I'm going. Of course, then I always change a few details here and there along the way. Heck, I even do that with a simple email, come to think of it.

But let me know what you think... What works for you? Bottom line for me is... I'm at the wheel and that's great no matter what road I drive on!

Setting the Mood & a Writing Prompt

What sets the mood? Descriptive words, for one, help to create mood. Your setting, your characters, your plot, all these are dependent on such words. You appeal to your reader's senses, help him/her become an active participant. I often tell my students when they are about to work on a writing assignment to be aware of this. Or when they read a story, look for descriptive phrases and what senses they address. I tell them that when they write a narrative piece, for instance, if they haven't grabbed the reader's attention this way, then they haven't done their job. If I read a scary tale, I want to sweat, to feel my heart hammer with fear. If it's about romance, I want to melt inside and recall my own first love or kiss. You want the reader to feel this is personal, written just for him/her, to exist inside that story and its characters. Not an easy task for the writer, is it?

Now, I'd like to know what you do with mood. How do you create it? Also, how do you make your reader become involved through the senses? Give me your opinions. For those of you who want to tell by showing an example, here's a prompt to play with:

The clock chimed eight. She sat waiting with little patience when finally.....

I can't wait to read what you have to contribute. I hope you enjoy!

Back to the 3 r's.....here we go again!

Less than 5 weeks...4 weeks... now, make that 12 days and counting. The think mode has to change, reset the alarm clock, write your lesson plans, buy your materials...ready, set, go! And you are off to another great year. You hope. Great expectations and enthusiasm are abundant, and probably will last...oh, let's say....umm....maybe for the first month, maybe even until the winter holidays, or at least until that first unmanageable student, that first hard-to-please parent, or... what gets to you the most? What is your biggest challenge? And let's address the flipside... what do you look forward to the most? What helps you get through and really make it a great year? Afterall, it's been said often enough, you get what you expect. So, after looking at the problems we have--and we should recognize those--we should find ways to correct them, or at least make them better. ( I refer to all the unmanageables, the hard-to-please ones, etc. They aren't going away!) So, what do you think? All suggestions on the table.