Gems
from Nancy Kress on characters in Write Great Fiction. (Buy a copy; study it; sleep
with it under your pillow.)
- Changers – characters who alter in significant ways as a result of the action
- Learn or grow
- Their evolution is the stories emotional arc (logical sequence of alterations)
- Stayers
- Come to grief because of their blindness
- Locked into destructive patterns (personal/societal)
- Strength of character
- Enough variety in individual characters – Sufficiently diverse
- Plausible
- Interesting?
- Have plausible scope of players?
- Logical for setting?
- Elements of the character
- Name (to suggest family background, ethnicity, age, class, play against reader expectation
- Nicknames
- Appearance
- Overall impression
- Stereotypes -- to provide strong visual image – impression; imply personality, background; provoke future action – reader interest
- Worldly, aloof
- Gritty, dangerous
- Appealing, unsophisticated
- Smart, dumb
- Thin, lank hair (nondescript personality)
- Fat, sweaty hands (grasping person)
- Short (Napoleonic)
- Class
- Money
- Education
- Prestigious job
- Socioeconomic group
- Dress
- Vacations
- Sports
- Pets
- Liquor
- Brand names – can date, stereotype, mislead
- Make characterization count
- Use dress to convey
- taste
- social status
- personality
I have new trailers. Would love some feedback, if you have a few minutes. Most are less than a minute.
I don't know this book, but this list would be great for devising characters' back stories. I've had a quick look at a couple of your trailers. I'd never thought of doing this. It definintely works better than those where the author stumbles through a sample reading of his/her own words as though seeing them for the first time!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julia
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