Character Depth and Empathy!

In the previous post we covered, what makes your characters more believable, what stereotypes to avoid and an online test that allows you to avoid them!

This time we’re looking at:

* Adding more depth to your character and,

* How to get readers to empathise with them.

First things first, the initial idea of adding depth to your characters is quite simple.

Write a back story.

This is where you write a short, or long, story of your character before the your novel started, if their a teenager or young adult you might want to write about their childhood, if their in the mid thirties or forties you might choose to write about a time when they were in their teens.

The idea about a back story is to create a bit more depth with your character, there’s no point writing a back story if absolutely nothing bad or good has happened to your character because that doesn’t affect who they are now in the current state of your novel.

 So use it to probe around:

* Why is your character afraid of the dark?

   -  Was it because when s/he was younger they saw something terrible happen in the middle of the night and have never been able to tell anyone about it?

* Why are they so mistrustful?

   -  Did their family have a messy separation where both the parents fought bitterly over custody?

* Why are they so aloof?

    - Did they spend a childhood in a distant boarding school where they hardly ever saw their friends or family?

Obviously it doesn’t always have to be as melodramatic as that, you can quite easily includenon-dramatic events:

* Why does your character has a phobia of flying?

   - Once when they were in a simulator plane they threw up.

You can also have positive evens affecting them negatively.

* Why is s/he so selfish?

   - Maybe they won the lottery and forgot about what’s important and focused on moneymoneymoney.

* Why do they struggle to make friends?

  - Are their parents famous or fabulously wealthy?

And of course you can have negative things affecting them positively and positive things affecting them positively, it’s your playground to do with what you will!

The point is looking at a trait your character has and deciphering why. 

By adding a back story they’re no longer a 2D character. Essentially you’ve given them a life, past experiences, memories, lessons, and as we all know, everything we experience in the past affects how we act in the future.

It doesn’t have to be a long passage, you might choose to write a few pages on one time when they were sixteen, its completely up to you. So long as something happens or there’s some connection between what happened in their past to how they are presently in the novel then you’ve managed to create a whole other side to your character…then you’ve created some depth!

This links in nicely to how you can get your audience to empathise with your character/s. Having a back story is a brilliant way to make your readers empathise with just about anyone in your novel, good or bad.

Naturally, we’re normally on the side of the ‘goodies’ , we want them to save the world from chaos and destruction against which ever evil-schmeval baddie is causing problems. However, I always find myself wanting to know more about the villain and what turned them bad. In most cases you don’t find out, you just have the good, the bad, and the ugly battle in between, but this is where having a back story comes in to play.

You might get to a part in your novel where the main Hero/Heroine knows how they’re going to defeat Mr Evil Whoever, and you’re glad for it, but if it then comes to light that actually, Mr Evil Whoever is only evil because his baby sister was kidnapped one Christmas, his parents blamed him even though he was only seven and he’s never been able to forgive himself, no, you don’t want him to be forgiven necessarily (or you might), but you suddenly understand. The back story doesn’t have to affect the plot, so your Hero/Heroine might still decide to go out and end him/her and their dastardly deeds but you’ve created something for your readers to connect with, you’ve made them empathise with your baddie which automatically creates yet more depth within your story.

So rounding it all up:

* Back stories are the best way to create more depth in your characters, we don’t just have random phobias or behaviours, everything is a product of something that’s happened before.

* Back stories are also great ways of adding in twists, we want the whole “good will out” thing, it’s human nature, so shake it up a bit and make us empathise with the villain, make us realise that actually, there might have been something there worth caring for after all.

* Don't worry about having a back story that's too long or too short, too complicated or too simple! It's only really there to give you a better idea of what your character is like and why they're like that. 

* If you get really stuck try picking out two or three of the more prominent traits in your character and writing past scenarios for them either individually or together in one main past event.

Who knows, it might even give you some more ideas to write about! 

Stereotypes and Believability!

         

I’m assuming by now, if you’ve read the post on Characterisation, that you’ve already worked out the base line of your character, their sex, height, hair and eye colour, birthday etc.

So moving on, it’s time to look at what to include and what to avoid when creating and adding different aspects within your character/s.

Let’s not lie, avoiding every stereotype out there simply isn’t possible, or if it is, very few have found a way of making it work. The way people are, even the most cynical of us enjoy a stereotype every now and again, the trick is knowing which ones to avoid and the moderation in which they should be included.

Getting straight to the point, if your character’s description fits either of the following then you’re not going to appeal to any reader over the age of five, or possibly a sappy, love sick teen in need of a lousy read and a tub of ice cream…and that’s if you’re lucky.

It sounds basic, but so many times I’ve picked up a book and thrown it down again when I recognise one of these ever lingering stereotypes.

 Time to cover the basics!

~What to avoid:

Female/Heroine:

                * Always has long and/or perfect hair either straight or in long ‘tumbling curls’ (blonde hair is the worst stereotype for this).

        *  The most popular girl in school, a cheer leader or prom queen (or in-waiting).

        *  School loner who may as well not even be there.

         * Pregnant and all alone, i.e. broke, no male partner and no family support, (or very little of it).


  * From a broken hopeless family in which she is discontent or badly treated, 

OR
*  From a rich privileged family where she is either waited on hand and foot or alternatively locked in a room somewhere. 

(If she is a princess or lives in a castle, delete the entire thing! – It should be illegal…unless it’s a re-write of Rapunzel or something similar.)

Male/Hero:


* Dark hair, clean shaven, or possibly a little stubbly, dark eyes and a six pack, with amazing abs and sculpted arms


* Always brooding or looking depressed or skulking somewhere in the background.

      * The popular, good looking guy every girl would kill for.

      *  The loner who barely says more than four words to anyone else, except for “May I be excused?” suddenly and/or mysteriously in the middle of class.

      * The guy sitting on his own table in the canteen with an empty tray of food in front of him, or a full up tray of non-touched food.

      * Either from a tormented home where he feels misunderstood and is generally considered a failure,

OR

           * From a wealthy family where he achieves absolutely everything, is the most popular boy in school, head of a major sports team (or a few) and is every girls living desire.

(Unless, of course, he’s a creation from a Cinderella rewrite, rethink him now!)

~ That's not to say you shouldn't use any of them, by all means most novels do, but they even it out by compensating with something else, usually plesantly unpredictable. 

* Nowadays we don’t want to be able to guess the story line but the rate of logic makes it practically inevitable, so instead we crave twists and turns along the way…just to spice things up!

Looking at some of the most successful books and authors of today and the characters, such as JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ and Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight Saga’ , excluding the truly naïve, (believe me there’s always a few) everyone knew that Harry would defeat Voldermort and Bella would become a Vampire. Overlooking that they’re in some way enlaced with romance -which never helps when trying to be unpredictable-the outcomes could be seen a mile away! 
It’s the twists and turns and the nature of the characters which keeps readers so engrossed.

So how does it work?

Take for example, Hermione Granger and Bella Swan, they have many similarities, neither of them tie immediately into a stereotype.


* They are neither described as obviously or outrageously pretty, their physical faults of frizzy hair and unattractively pale skin are presented outright. However this makes us able to relate to them more, we all have aspects of ourselves we’d probably change if given the chance and many writers choose to draw from this to create more believable characters. 


* Secondly both Hermione and Bella are studious, from normal families and are basically average people (except, of course, for Hermione being a wizard and Bella constantly falling in love with mythical creatures. – but I’ll get to that later!)

Being average is something the majority of us like to relate to, after all, if amazing unbelievable things can happen to seemingly normal people, why can’t they happen to us?! – It feeds directly into our suspension of disbelief.

Of course, a book without any stereotypes would be…just like real life, which is clearly not the point of a novel. The majority of people read to escape real life and so a balance has to be incorporated. With Harry Potter the element of magic and adventure keeps the reader enthralled whilst the realistic characters make us willing to suspend our disbelief. (Come on, who didn’t wait for a letter from Hogwarts on their 10^th birthday or utter a spell and wave a stick when they were younger just in case we weren’t actually Muggles? ...)

Similarly with Twilight, it’s based in a normal school (settings will be covered later) with normal people, Bella, like most of us, isn’t the schools it girl, she’s just part of a group, she doesn’t come from a wealthy family and honestly most of us would probably bored of her if it wasn’t for the superhot, mythical Vampire boyfriend Bella can’t stop burbling on about.

But once again it’s the balance, if you’re willing to create a totally ordinary and otherwise dull character (Bella Swan) then by all means create someone more stereotypical (Edward Cullen) Just make sure he’s not a prince!

A good way to keep plots balanced is remembering the Alkali/Acid theory…

Imagine one aspect of your character/s is alkali, normal, average, a day-to-day person you could probably pass on the street and not look twice at. Then imagine the other half is like acid, the side that makes the character/s completely different to who we are, magical, mythical, something we want to be but never will.

We relate to Alkali and are engrossed by Acid, the two work with each other to create our suspension of disbelief.

Remember:

     *  Total stereotypes like Princesses and Princes, Prom Kings and Prom Queens are a drag! No one wants to read about the people they loathed in life.

      *   Decide if you want the interest in the novel to be sparked by events that happen to a character or are ignited by an aspect of the character.  

(No one would bother with Hermione if she was a normal school know- it-all with dentist parents, it’s a mixture of her magic and the situations that it leads her to which make her interesting.)

             

          * Don’t shy away from a little disbelief! – If Twilight were just about a girl going to school and dating some guy barely anyone would bother… I’d rather read about a girl besotted with a handsome vampire than trawl through a book that might as well be my own dreary diary…just don’t go too overboard!

     * BALANCE!

 Ask yourself:

Why should I believe in this character? What can I relate to? What makes my character/s that   little bit better than just real life? What is it about my characters that I, as the reader, will be drawn to? 

January - The Month of Characters!

My previous blog was quite focused on the basics of creating and noting the characters in your novel, but throughout January I'm going to be focusing on the other essential aspects writers need to consider, such as:

* How do I think up names and background for my characters?
* What makes a Character believable?
* How do I add more depth to my Character/s?
* What makes them likeable / un-likeable
* How can I get readers to empathise with my Character/s?
* How many is too many?
* Can I create a controversial Character?
* What stereotypes work and what ones don't?


So, character trouble? Let the month of Character writing begin!

(photocredit: http://photos-by-hagrid.deviantart.com/ )

Characterisation!

 I felt this quote summed up a lot about the importance of creating characters within your novel:

Now, of course, a lot of how "compelling" you make a character is the way in which you write about them, the description, dialogue, their actions and circumstances, etc. For the large part, it is entirely up to you!

However, there are more than enough things to do to help you create your characters, for instance, every character I so much as mention, even as briefly as 

"...There she is! Standing next to that blonde girl, Katie something..." 

is jotted down in a 'mini profile'. 

The easiest way, I find, is to create a spread sheet which then allows you to have a column for information like;


* First name,
* Surname,
* Where the main character first meets/see's them,
* What page they first appear on
* Their importance in the novel, etc.


Bearing in mind this is only a 'mini profile' to keep track of  all the charters you've mentioned there's no need to go into excess detail.

For Example, the profile for "Katie something" would look a little like this:

(click to enlarge)

This creates a brief quick profile of all the basic data from every character mentioned so you never have to scroll back through dozens of pages looking for one persons name if you suddenly want to mention them seven chapters later! 

However, it goes without saying that, that won't 'cut the mustard' when it comes to writing in your main characters.  The good news here is that you can get help with this just about anywhere, all you have to do is google it! A few years ago, when myspace was still king of social networks and barely anyone had heard of facebook I found another writers myspace blog. She posted lots of advice of her own and hints and tips for writing main characters, as well as sharing a Character Profile which she, and now I, liked to use to create a basis.

 So, here it is :
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZCYT_UMpTZRtAcqAbLbamDKkm41-1rvPlPBJP1cVTFg/edit?authkey=CLe7qOwO&hl=en

This will help you create a more vivid image of your character and the more idea you have about the things your character likes the better your reader will understand them. This profile still only provides the basics of your character and will probably change considerably throughout writing your novel as you learn more about them through the situations you create. 

There's always more you can add to the profile if you decide you want to or there's other thing you''ll need to consider, such as;


* Food preferences - (but only really relevant if the character is vegetarian or vegan, has an allergy or some dieting problem which plays a role within the plot line).


* Genre of books and music they enjoy, - (which is only really relevant if the story revolves around them being a book worm or continually attending places like Reading Festival).


However, as a whole, these are very rarely of any interest to the reader...unless you're trying to draw some sort of comparison - such as Stephanie Meyer did by continually mentioning Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet in several of the 'Twilight Saga' books, (and even they didn't really affect the storyline either way) - then you're probably best to leave inconsequential stuff out!

So,

* Keep a running chart of all the characters you mention with brief information - you'll thank yourself for it later!

*  Feel free to add in extra information to your main character's profile that you want to feed into your story  -that will in some way affect one of other of your characters. - Otherwise the profile above pretty much has you covered. 

*  Make sure you believe in your characters! - If you don't why would anyone else?!

*  Be open to altering aspects of your character throughout the novel writing process. - Character grow and learn as much throughout the novel as you do through life, no one stays the same forever!

*  And just in case you're worried your character isn't "compelling" enough try out the "MarySue Litmus Test"  - It gives you an idea why your character might seem so flat or un-original and the questions it asks might spark some new ideas to help you spice things up! 

Both these MarySue tests are good indicators, have fun! 
* http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html
* http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html

What to blog?

When you think about it writing a blog, about writing, is actually rather tricky. It's not like a fashion blog where I can snip a few pictures from a MODE magazine and discuss my love and hates of this seasons trends, it's not like a holiday blog where I can snap pictures of amazing places and gush over all the details of how marvellous it all is. Part of me thinks that writing a blog, about writing, is perhaps one of the most original things to attempt, I have to write about my own imagination as well as trying to embrace a range of potentially different audiences...I call this the "Blog Blot."
The biggest question i'm asking myself the day after setting this shenanigan up is, "what exactly do I write about now?"


* It's all very well writing about my own work but is that what people want to hear?
* How can I keep it interesting, colourful and to the point?

I've googled "writers blogs" and, sure, a lot comes up but the majority of blogs I've found are based around NaNoWriMo (NationalNovelWritingMonth), which is all fine and dandy in the months prior to, during and after, (October, November, December), but I seem to have hit upon a dud time of the year to star blogging, NaNo is over and the other writing blogs I've seen are mainly all professional writers and columnists with busy schedules and a lot to say for themselves. I, on the other hand, am a first year University Student with little worldly knowledge of writing and a big imagination. Although I'm convinced that half the information churned out by most 'professionals' are made up along the way.

Improvisation? Sure!

(PictureCredit:http://tripeak.deviantart.com/ )

Welcome to a New Young Writer!

First of all that sounds like i'm saying hi to myself, or welcoming someone else aboard my writing boat. Let's go with the second, I want to welcome you aboard the writers boat for every one and anyone with their own goals to write a novel!
The idea of starting up a blog as a "Young Writer" feels some what daunting, if I never reach above three lovely followers I'll know i've failed, similarly if I only get round to posting three time a year that's also up for a fail, (at least as a blogger.) However, I may be 18 but i'm not that naive and I know it'll take time and effort, one of those I never have enough of, the other is normally spent doing other things, like University work, or, more normally, Novel writing! (I'll leave it up to you to decide which one is which!)

A quick disclaimer/fact fire just to forewarn/enlighten anyone who reads this.
* No, i'm not a published novelist...yet.
* Yes, I am actually working on a Novel.
* No, I do not have the luxury of spending hours infront of my notebook working on my novel, I lead a very busy student life at university and have ridiculous amounts of assignments and revision.
* Yes, sacrifices must be made.
* I have "competed" and "won" NaNoWriMo 2009 and 2010! (Writing a novel over 50,000 words in a month).


* Often the best place to find inspiration is your own imagination...

(photocredit: http://soul-of-the-wolf.deviantart.com/ )