  Drama
This week: Edited by: Elisa: Snowman Stik  
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| While only a certain number of possible plotlines exists, the choices of characters knows no limits. In the end, the characters are what keep people interested in your story, and in order to create characters that keep readers interested, you have to know your characters. This issue will offer one possible way for you to get to know your characters. |
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Inspiration is a quirky critter. Why do I say that? Well, the topic of this issue stems from two rather unusual spurts of imagination.
The first spurt occurred when I participated in mood indigo  's journalling contest. What was the result of that spurt? I found a method for developing characters. Many fiction writers enjoy sitting around and inventing characters, settings or even plot outlines when they don't feel like writing an actual story. To me, these sketches can be excellent reading material in themselves, but character profiles can become a little routine. Why's that? I've noticed some people (myself included) tend to list various aspects of characters. These lists tend to stick with characteristics that can be listed, such as physical traits (hair color, body type, etc.) and intangible personal background (favorites, dislikes, residence and birthplace, etc.). Yes, these things are good to know, but they don't always show you what makes a character tick. At this, inspiration struck. I found myself stuck for picking three fictional characters I liked (since much of my pleasure reading is non-fiction), so I decided to combine characters from works in progresses with those corny MySpace-type surveys. Much to my surprise, the premise made an impression with some of my journal readers, and I'll share with you one of the characters I "surveyed".
Name: Jillian McKenna
1. do you know what time you were born?
Exactly at high noon.
2. what do you want more than anything right now?
I'm ready for my trip to Athens. I've never travelled alone before, and I managed to get tickets at some high profile events at a substantial discount. Hopefully the pictures I capture will mean work with Sports Illustrated.
3. what annoys you most?
Fluorescent lighting. I once was asked by my orthodontist to take pictures of his office for his pamphlets. The project took up nearly a whole Saturday afternoon, as my shots kept coming out too dark. Since I was using a film SLR, the cost of that fiasco is nobody's business (not to mention it spurred me to switch to digital toot sweet). I've figured out how to work with it, but I'm still selling my film SLR soon, probably when I'm ready to upgrade my digital one.
4. what word best describes your mood right now?
Two words: hectically annoyed. I'm still trying to pack for my Olympic voyage next week, but I'm also loathing the eight million year trek through airport security. It's bad enough I have to put my camera equipment through the carry-on baggage screening. If any of those TSA twits tampers with my electronics, heads will roll, even if I have to use a nightstick to get the job done.
5. who/what do you secretly love?
Normally, I'd ask what the hell this question is doing on such a survey, but where else can I get it off my chest that I'm just a tad fascinated with the idea of being Bob Costas' intern, if you catch my drift.
Notice I didn't display twenty or fifty questions, and you don't need to do that many (although you can if that floats your boat). What I find most useful about using these surveys is it presents an opportunity to explore a character's attitudes, diction and thoughts without inserting it into the story. You may not disclose that the veteran detective has every Jessica Simpson album downloaded to his iPod during the course of the story, but answering questions like that may help explain why that very detective decides to canvas a popular concert venues for clues of a young girl's disappearance. Likewise, these surveys give the character an opportunity to speak prior to the first draft, so it saves some time in trying to find your character's voice. On top of it all, it's a good way to get to know your characters, and you don't have to worry about them spamming you with buckets of pointless surveys.  However, if you start dreaming of your characters e-mailing you a list of 100 questions involving making out with celebrities, what kind of soda you consider the nectar of the gods and incorrect grammar dominating the list, it's time for a break from surveys.
As I said before, you really only need a few questions. What questions should you pick? Really, anything is fair game. I would suggest avoiding the most common ones, such as favorite colors and celebrity crushes. However, finding out the kind of underwear your character favors might prove amusing if nothing else. I do recommend using mundane questions, such as whether the character has central air conditioning or not. The most superficially banal questions are great for developing characters' attitudes toward his/her environment and/or an eye for detail (even a lack of one). Throwing in a question dealing with politics or moral dilemmas is also helpful, but be careful not to project yourself onto that character. Such projection can manifest itself later on. With all types of questions, I recommend answering with a couple sentences or more. A one sentence answer may work for some questions (such as a person's time of birth). However, with most questions, one sentence may not provide enough information or show enough of the character's diction. In the end, though, this is a pre-writing exercise, so length is up to you. I'm just providing suggestions to help you get in the swing of using these surveys to give your characters a chance to speak.
So the next time you stumble across a survey to do, don't run like the wind to avoid it. Make a note of the more interesting questions you find and give them to your characters. The answers they give might surprise you. Speaking of surprises, I almost forgot to mention my second spurt of inspiration. Last week, I was wracking my brain for newsletter topics on characters. After taking a shower, I sat on the toilet staring off into space when I thought about mood's contest. During that time, I stared off into space and remembered that entry. So it was on the john when I thought Eureka! I have a topic! The toilet can be a great place to think. Don't you agree?
Until next time,
(sig courtesy of panthera |
Here are several stories with characters which captivated my attention due to being complex, well developed and just plain captivating.
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As for the contest which inspired this month's topic, I'll go ahead and link that as well.
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Here are a few comments on the previous newsletter on D.A.D. and a general question.
From werden  : You are so right. Description is so important. However; it is also important not to overdo it :), you don't want to drown the reader in detail.
I have found that description, while important, will be the first thing to be truncated in shorter fiction. For longer works (short stories over 3000 words, novellas and novels), a writer has more room to write in chunks of description. With shorter fiction, description must be sparse, and that is when the writer must decide what is essential in description. With short fiction, I recommend keeping your description out of the very first line. Use that to establish the conflict, main character and basic setting. After that, description may be added, but be careful not to drown in it yourself. 
From scarl : Maybe you have already answered this question before in another newsletter, but how would you define drama?
Hello, Sabrina! To answer your question, I actually tackled defining drama in my debut newsletter, which appeared...last year.  I suddenly feel a little old.  Here's a link to that issue: "Drama Newsletter (November 16, 2005)" As you can see, there's always some amount of learning curve in any endeavor on which you embark. As far as my fiction writing is concerned, I understand the definitions, but I still feel like I'm on a 45 degree embankment stuck in a left turn. (And 500 gift points go to the first five people who can figure out what inspired this metaphor. )
From billwilcox: What an awesome newsletter, Stik. Thank you for sharing your D.A.D. with us...
You're welcome, Bill. Somehow, I think you and my dad get along, as you both have very warped senses of humor. Now I'd love to see how your characters would act when it came to answering surveys.
The next newsletter will address the concept of two antagonists in a story. What do you think of stories without a clear cut protagonist? Does the idea of a two antagonist story sound interesting? I'd also like to see if anyone tries out the surveys when doing characters ketches. If you attempt it and find you like it (or not), send me one or two questions along with the character's answers for some GPs.
And if you happen to miss or misplace a newsletter, feel free to stop by "The Drama Box" [13+]. |
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Drama: November 07, 2006 Issue [#1362]
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