 Fantasy: August 22, 2012 Issue [#5225] |
  Fantasy
This week: Smart-Mouthed Characters Edited by: Satuawany  
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" 'It's easy to consider everyone a sucker who cares about things you don't care about. So who does that make a sucker?' "
~From Dzur, by Steven Brust
Vlad is the main character of Brust's Taltos series, of which Dzur is number ten. He's my personal favorite smart-mouth in fantasy, and it's because he has motivation and depth. |
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For the past few years, I've looked at this time of year with a sort of distracted dread. I can never remember why---until it gets here and I'm wondering why my son's teachers demand he have four dozen pencils, when all the supplies section has is pencils in packs of ten. I growl about having to find folders in specific colors. And I hear myself saying things like, "Son, I think you have enough shirts with pictures of skulls on them."
If you believe that fantasy is the ultimate escapist genre, then I should really be barreling through them about now.
You betcha I am. As a product of all this, back-to-school, a couple of fantasy worlds, and smart-mouthed characters come together and peel away in different combinations. What I'm reading, what I'm writing, and what life throws at me war in my head, spinning off eddies of similarities. The constant in all three arenas is...
C'mon, you can guess it, especially if you've read the title of this newsletter. That's right; smart-mouthed characters.
The great thing about smart-mouthed characters in fantasy is they tend to be entertaining. They take a genre with a reputation for taking itself too seriously and make it more human. They're also a lot of fun to work with.
The problem is, as with smart-mouthed kids, they can very easily become irritating. Especially when the smart mouth is turned in your direction. Therefore, lesson number one with smart-mouthed characters is: Don't let them sass the reader.
That one's relatively easy to follow if you're already learned not to address or acknowledge the reader. If you want the challenge of writing a story that breaks that rule, and doing it well, don't make the mistake of thinking you're being original. Get out there, read, research, and make sure you do it well.
Lesson number two with the smart-mouthed characters: Why are they that way? Even if it never comes into the story, you need to know why your characters are the way they are. Maybe their backgrounds put them in a fantasy-back-ally place where only the smart-mouthed were respected. Maybe they have a masochistic streak that makes them want to see how far they can push someone until that person unleashes some form of punishment. Maybe it's more complicated than all that (which would be great!)
Lesson number three: Show some differences. Are they clever, sarcastic, or full of good-natured rejoinders? How does this change in accordance with their companions? You can show a lot about a smart-mouth and her fellow characters by what form of her art she puts to whom.
For example, just how does the lord of the castle take her quip about the ignorance of the elite? And, should he take it badly, does she keep making quips? Then what happens?
Be careful out there, as well. You're not the first to enjoy working with smart-mouths. They can be predictable, especially when they seem to be acting in unpredictable manners. (Lots of smart-mouthed characters "unexpectedly" dig at the more refined, "higher class" characters.)
It's also easy to fall into the trap of leaving them as two-dimensional beings, devoid of anything but some amusing remarks and biting wit. If there's no further development to differentiate them from the others like them, then they tend to be boring and irritating. At fascinating combination, but not one anyone cares to read.
We keep coming back to the smart-mouths, even if they're just a side character who breaks the monotony now and then. They're fun, they're entertaining. They loosen things up so long as they don't become every other smart-mouth in the genre. Adding a little depth and some reason behind that mouth makes them real, and that what every character needs.
I'll see you out there with them. Reading, writing and...in the back-to-school sections, where the smart-mouths are motivated by hormones and having to live with parents who just don't understand that a boy can never have too many shirts with skulls on them. |
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Feedback on "Is it Dead?" :
bertiebrite hoping for peace  writes:
I am writing a novel. I began it in the Horizon Academy class. In the outline, I had my protagonist die. My instructor said, that was not good, because he was the main character and that would anger the reader.
So, I had him battle his brother and not die, but escape without their knowing he was still alive.
Don't know about doing a sequel, but, I do like this second ending better, it keeps the reader much more involved.
My first reaction is to respond with, "But sometimes characters die." It is true, though, that there are very, very few instances where a main character dies and it feels true. Most of the time, it feels like the writer is saying, "See, look! I have the guts to kill my main character!"
But even when it's true that the main character dies, it is so difficult to pull it off in a novel. In the good novels, readers have all that time to become really invested in the main character. And it can feel like they got cheated if that character dies.
I like the sound of your revise, especially if it keeps the reader more involved. That's definitely the main thing.
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