By:
Roz Morris
Why
is character so important? Isn't plot enough?
A
story certainly needs a plot. We have to feel the characters will do something
interesting and it will be a tale worth telling. But part of the reason a story
is interesting is who it’s happening to. Everyone’s unique, and a well-drawn
character will help create a unique plot. Put Jane Eyre, Mrs de Winter,
Elizabeth Bennet, Oliver Twist or Philip Marlowe in an identical situation, and
you’ll get five completely different stories.
When
we feel a character is real, the plot events matter more. For instance, Nevil
Shute’s novel On the Beach is about the last straggling
survivors of a nuclear war. So on the one level we are drawn in by intellectual
curiosity about an unusual situation. How did it happen? What does the world
look like? What will the end be like? How will people die?
But
Shute also shows what it’s like to live under those conditions; how different
people cope with the knowledge that they will die. Some of them are in denial,
and talk about the future as though they will live for many more years. One of
them buys a sports car and hopes he’ll have a fatal accident while driving it.
These people are individuals and their psychological depth transforms an
intriguing idea into a real and heartbreaking story.
Here
are some of the ways writers can create characters who bring a plot to life.
Engage
our emotions
Great
stories get you emotionally involved with the characters. This connection
doesn’t happen automatically. There has to be a deliberate moment where the
writer reaches out to the reader.
This
principle has an equivalent in real life. There are plenty of ways we can have
people around us and not feel connected to them. Imagine you’re squashed up
against commuters in a rush-hour train, or crowding into a lift, or standing in
a queue. They’re bodies, not people - unless something breaks the ice. The same
happens with characters in novels. Until the writer reveals a character’s
humanity, they are just a name on a page, or a job description: a policeman, a gladiator,
a doctor.
How
do writers do this? With the things we all have in common - a history,
relationships, things that matter. Take The Hunger Games. Like On
The Beach, it’s an intriguing story idea - a reality gameshow where
teenagers kill each other. But the author Suzanne Collins doesn’t coast on
that, she works hard to make us aware of her main character’s humanity. So we
begin with the heroine Katniss, her family who she feels responsible for and
her close friend Gale. This hooks us to her.
Then
Collins adds emotional conflict. This is the other great hook that writers use.
Emotional conflict makes us curious to know what happens to a character.
Katniss is made to team up with Peta, a boy who makes her uncomfortable. The
show’s organisers want to present them as star-crossed lovers to boost the
ratings, which will help keep them alive, but in the end one of them will have
to kill the other. And Katniss is torn even further because her soulmate Gale
will see everything on TV. This turns her story into a daisy-chain of personal
dilemmas - and dilemmas really hook our attention.
Once
you’ve got the reader involved with your main character, here’s how to keep
them riveted:
.
. .
Read the full article HERE!
~*~
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