 Drama: January 05, 2022 Issue [#11144] |
This week: Revealing the Character Flaws and Assets Edited by: Joy  
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“In daily life we never understand each other, neither complete clairvoyance nor complete confessional exists. We know each other approximately, by external signs, and these serve well enough as a basis for society and even for intimacy. But people in a novel can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist wishes; their inner as well as their outer life can be exposed."
E.M. Forster
“Is the writer cruel that makes his characters suffer only to bring them to triumph or tragedy in the end?”
Johnny Rich
“I'd like my readers to feel they want to follow my characters off the page at the end of the book.”
Vanessa Couchman
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about when to best unveil character traits inside a novel or a long story.
Please, note that there are no rules in writing, but there are methods that work for most of us most of the time.
The ideas and suggestions in my articles and editorials have to do with those methods. You are always free to find your own way and alter the methods to your liking.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Recently, I started reading a favorite author’s novel whose use of the language and diction is to die for; however, by the end of the second chapter, I ended up seriously disliking the personalities of her four main characters, and I almost stopped reading. After all, who wants to read about four nasty people?
Still, I continued reading on. Why? Because the author is a really good one, and to reiterate, one of my favorites, and I knew she’d pick up the story somehow and make it interesting, which she did…eventually.
Then, I thought about this “flaws” thing. In creating characters, we the writers are told to give each character their flaws. This is really good advice because even saints may have off days and their flaws make the story more believable.
On the other hand, the author I mentioned above opted to push, immediately in the first two chapters, the flaws of her most important characters down the readers’ throats. Shouldn’t there be a better way? After all, who wants to read about people who are so lacking in morals or social adaptation!
Yes, there is drama to the nth degree in sinning or stumbling heavies, but what about their positives? Did this author have to point out all the negatives up front so strongly? I think not.
I think a better method can be to blend in the character traits into a story through these approaches:
1. What the author does in the beginning chapters is important. The author should not point out everyone’s negative assets all at the same time, and neither should she introduce them all as angels.
2. If an author needs to introduce their characters right away, it might be a good idea, then, to put these people in normal situations, such as while they are shopping, at a birthday party, a neighborly exchange, or watching TV as a group, etc. and therefore, to show in subtler ways their actions, reactions, and their ways of relating to one another. In everyday situations, people usually expose, to a degree, who they really are; also, the smarter, trickier ones may hide themselves well. Thus, this approach crosses out the need to point out, in such a stark fashion, all the bad or all the good things about them.
3. If the story is introduced with a dramatic scene, so much the better because this, as a strong impact, attracts the readers’ interest right away and postpones their character evaluation to later chapters. This is because we have a whole book, or at least, more than half of it, to fully introduce our characters. Showing the flaws and the assets of characters in small increments and in agreement with the essence of the story will keep the readers reading.
4. The villain against the hero offers strong drama, such as in crime stories. Even in such stories, the better strategy could be to postpone showing who is the villain and who is the hero until later chapters as this strategy will insure the readers’ interest and appreciation.
In short, we run the risk of readers’ disinterest in the story if we tell everything or the most negative or the most positive things about all our characters right at the beginning chapters. On the contrary, when we hold back a little in showing everything positive or negative about our characters, we encourage the readers to look more deeply beneath the characters’ surface-makeup and thoroughly understand their dramatic functions inside the plot.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy, prosperous, and successful 2022!
Until next time! 
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 This Issue's Tip: In essence, all stories are character oriented but the most character oriented fiction is called slice-of-life, told mostly through stream of consciousness and may or may not be character-driven. The author usually selects a moment in time and just starts writing as if a pantser.
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