Paul Raymond Martin, author of Writer’s Little Instruction Book: Craft & Technique (2005), compiled motivational quotes and secrets for effective writing. I find what was compiled inspiring for the writer who may feel stuck when trying to develop a character in a WIP. Here are a few tips that resonated with me. Perhaps they will excite and re-energize you as you are in your writer’s journey.
“Study ordinary people in order to create extraordinary characters,” (Martin, 2005, p. 10).
I think that journaling is not a lost strategy for writers. Sometimes, I carry a journal book in my purse. When I hear someone say something intriguing and/or even jarring, I secretly write it down in hopes I could use that to spark something in my writing. How did what I observe excite me, make me think, make me feel, or change me? How will something like that change my character, trigger that character into action, or dismantle my character for a moment?
What about simple actions or behaviors you have observed in people? Every character you show the reader can’t always be like you. Observe other people, their actions, and their reactions. In secret, is there a person you know who you can’t understand or can’t stand? Try to figure that person out. Fortunately, your notions about that person don’t have to be accurate. In my opinion, you are simply developing a complex character.
“In order for the character to speak, the writer must remain silent,” (Martin, 2005, p.12)
I learned a very important piece of advice a long time ago. Don’t tell. Show. In other words, have the characters speak, respond to conflict, act on feelings, feel things in their bodies rather than simply telling the reader about it yourself. Instead of telling the reader that this character never got along with her mother and that’s why they do not speak anymore, show the reader things that make the reader come up with that conclusion on his or her own. A writer can create a flashback or a backstory of a scene from the past that shows the mother and daughter fighting and/or having an uncomfortable conversation triggered by an object that the daughter is holding in the present or triggered by a similar conversation she is having with a coworker or her own child. The ways to go about it are endless.
“Tell how a character feels, and you’ve given your readers a fact. Show how a character feels, and you’ve given your readers an emotion,” (Martin, 2005, p. 15).
This goes back to show, don’t tell. When a writer shows the reader, the reader is part of the unfolding. The reader is part of the perception of what is really happening. When I was going to college to be a teacher, I learned in one of my Children Literature classes that authors give a sensory experience to the reader. A reader must smell, hear, and see with the character. Above all, a reader must feel with the character, physically and emotionally.
“Readers will like a character for the character’s strengths. Readers will embrace a character for the character’s weaknesses,” (Martin, 2005, p. 20).
Paul Raymond Martin also mentioned that a writer should practice empathy for others so that it can be used when developing characters (2005, p. 14). I feel readers have this natural empathy for a writer’s characters too. I personally feel it is human nature for us to cheer for the underdog. Seeing a character’s weaknesses makes a character more round and plausible for the reader.
As a writer, we want to make sure we put our characters through it. In other words, they need to be tortured, put through trials, feel something that causes them to change or take action. As a writer, we must or we will have a very boring plot and a very flat character.
“Your character’s way of thinking, as well as the thoughts themselves, help to define your character. From time to time, let the reader sneak a peek into the character’s thought process,” (Martin, 2005, p. 20).
Writing an internal thought here and there is a good tool or a way to share with the reader. I feel it can speed a story along especially if another technique won’t benefit the general plot of your story. No need to go into a scene to show something that can be expressed with a quick…
Why do I always do that! Jane thought as she tossed the wet knife in the bathtub filled with bleach water. She hated a messy clean up.
As a reader, I am already wondering if Jane is too hard on herself…
“During dialogue and internal monologues, provide your characters with “stage business” – trivial but distinctive actions, e.g., adjusting the blinds, browsing through a magazine, or retying boot laces,” (Martin, 2005, p. 21).
As a writer, it is fun to move your characters through space making sure they are not lego men bouncing around the stage but more like real people with thoughts and feelings who we can relate to. We walk around this planet and think of things as we are doing even the most mundane like laundry or dishes. Why is that character adjusting the blinds? What came first? The action or the thought? What is the character worried about?
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Thank you. That is all for now. Sometimes it is better to digest little bits at a time. More is to come. May you enjoy your writer’s journey.
Sincerely,
T.J. Hopkins
WAY2WRITING
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Martin, Paul Raymond. (2005). Writer’s Little Instruction Book: Craft & Technique. Writer’s Digest Books.
