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Portraying the Character
By Diana Rogers
I have an image of a main character for my book. Developing the character, who the story is about, is a process for the author to create. I could tell you directly about my main character. “Uncle Ted is the loudest man in the family.” You could also draw your own conclusions when I tell you the color of his hair or describe his tone of voice. “Uncle Ted laughed loudly with his wavy blonde hair tossing about as he slapped daddy on the back telling one of his awful jokes. In his high pitched voice!” When I write a little in my journal, I see the main character and the setting of the story begin to unfold. The characters I choose to write about are not one particular relative but rather a composition of people I have known and liked. There are usually 3 main characters in my stories. Of course there is the main character and then he has a friend; the second character. So now we’ve got to add a third character. We need an antagonist, you know a “bad guy” to create tension, interest and conflict. We’ve got to have drama! Sometimes the bad guy is really bad to the bone! Other times he will have some redeeming qualities. First thing in the morning after a cup of coffee or two, I try to picture the main character’s appearance. Details make a huge difference and you want your readers to like him. It is also so very beneficial to the writer to understand what his character is feeling. What does he want? What makes him sad? Keeping in my mind that nobody is perfect, perhaps we should imply that the main character has some flaws. That way my character seems believable to my readers. If we establish a habit that the main character has, like walking the dog the first thing every morning, then the reader soon begins to understand my character. Character habits now become a part of the plot. Do you see where I am going with this? When we change the habit of the character then we now have stimulated a plot. "Usually every morning Uncle Ted walks his dog, Penelope but not this morning. Now he was nowhere to be seen. The neighbors began to worry." You see, I want my main character to be somewhat intelligent and then maybe the enemy to not be very smart. In any case, most importantly I want my character to have a real name that reflects his personality. My goal in creating the character of the story is for all of my readers to come to know him.
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Blake (Uncle Ted)
Nita Van Sloan
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
LadyD Books
Mostly Childrens Books for Review
ladyd-books.blogspot.com
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Interesting look into how a character is developed. Thanks for sharing.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
I always look forward to reading your notes. You are great at word crafting.
The copyright for this content entitled "Portraying the Character" has been specified by the contributor as:
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This intel was contributed by LadyD
LadyD
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May, 2012
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