 Horror/Scary: July 10, 2013 Issue [#5763] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: The Flesh of Character Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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Tearing the Flesh Off Your Characters
The best characters are the ones you can associate with, the ones that make you want to love them or hate them. I remember reading The Hobbit for the first time and simply falling in love with Bilbo. At first, he was just your average everyday Hobbit having no desire to embark upon a dangerous adventure, and yet, there he was, thrown into one 'life and death' situation after another. And each time he continued to grow as a character, and each time I grew right along with him. Hobbits are amazing creatures.
But if I had known all there was to know about Bilbo from the very start I wouldn't have loved him as much. In fact, when Frodo came along, I thought there was no way he could be as awesome as Bilbo, and yet, he was . . . and more. Good characters are like that, they have layers, like a famous Ogre, like an onion, and you have to write them that way.
If I were to take a piece of paper and tear it in two, and then place the two halves on top of each other and again tear them in two, it would produce a stack of paper that would be now four times the thickness of the original. And, if I was to continue this process multiple times, the stack would continue to grow each time until it became larger and larger. This process is called geometric progression, and if you use it in your writing it will flesh out your characters as if you were ripping them limb from limb, and then stacking the pieces on top of each other.
Imagine your characters are like that piece of paper, at first appearing two-dimensional, but then, as the story progresses, they become thicker, fleshed-out, more three-dimensional. Meaning, each time they are referenced, the reader should learn a little bit more about them. This is a natural progression that doesn't take away from the original story. If you start out writing page after page about the nature of the same character, you will lose your reader's interest. Tell the story! Let the character develop slowly and naturally.
For example, when you meet someone for the first-time, say a fellow worker, do you know everything about them in that first meeting? No. You discover who and what they are over a period of time. Sure, sometimes you will experience a gut-reaction, an instinctive, "Hey, that guy seems like a real jerk!" But maybe later your view of this person will change. Maybe there was a reason he acted like a jerk in that first meeting; maybe he's just a zombie and it doesn't really matter how many times you meet, he's still gonna be a freaking zombie!
By the end of the story, your reader should know exactly who or what this character is all about: Is it some lusty wench from Hell writhing in fiery rain, or some fat gluttonous slob floating in a pile of his own excrement, or maybe just some treacherous villain frozen in Satan's icy grasp? Whoever they are, tear the flesh from their bodies and dress them up in it again, but slowly, bit-by-bit.
Until next time, my lovelies,
billwilcox
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Pieces of Flesh
My heart pounded away knocking all thoughts from my head. I walked like a zombie back to the living room and turned on the lights. The sound of my heart paused as I surveyed the horror. I did not recognize this as a room that was once a part of my life. This room was an abattoir. I hoped that this was just an animal’s remains, or several animals to be exact. Gore clung to the ceiling, blood pooled on the couch, the coffee table and the floor, scraps of some other kind of flesh hung on the walls. My mind wanted my stomach to retch; my body was too confused to react.
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I'm there again. The terrible dark place that reeks of decay and death. The city that plays tricks on your mind, only long enough to draw you into a fatal trap before releasing your mind from temporary insanity so you must face your fate. The Devil's Playground.
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As I passed by the bunkroom on my left, something lashed out from the doorway and seemed to tug at my clothing. My natural nervous jumpiness that had been the subject of so much ridicule throughout my life could very well have saved it for after instinctively dodging the danger I whipped around in time to see Reggie's lesion speckled arm withdrawing into the gloomy doorway. Still assuming T-Skip and Paul were in the aft hold, I ran panic-stricken in that direction, hollering for help as I went.
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My room was filled with the girls’ laughter as we took turns dialing random numbers and hanging up on people, after saying hurting and wicked statements. We were winding up for the night and I had to be the last one to make a call.
No rats fled before him, as he had expected, as he had hoped. In fact, he had seen no rats at all on the stairway and this bothered him. He loved rats. They were carrion-eaters, revelers in decay, scurrying janitors that cleaned up in the wake of death, and he respected that. But he also appreciated their sinister presence, their undeniable creeping in silence, gliding as fluid as black water, darker than the night and radiating merciless intent.
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DEAD LETTERS
Mark Allen Mc Lemore 
Screams:
This is great. A lot of writers use their most creative ideas to open a story and then by the middle of the story there is no more feeling to it and I lose interest, or I trudge on drearily telling myself all the ways I would improve this story. Now, I like reading stories where I can take any spot and continue writing a whole different story from it, those to me are written excellent and I feel the writer wrote the story just for me, because it draws me in, maybe even leaves me wanting to make my own conclusion, or write fanfic.
It's amazing where a good story can take you. It's why I read. It's why I write.
LJPC - the tortoise
Wails:
Hi Bill! Your NL was inspiring and so poetic. I didn't know a big tough guy like you had such
poetic stuff inside. That was fun!  I especially loved the "Fingertips steepled..." one.
~ Laura
Thanks Laura, you are and always will be, a good friend.
Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ 
Shudders:
" because if ever I fail to find a laugh of any kind, then I'd be crushed by dread, by hopelessness, and it wouldn't matter if I was technically alive or not, for I'd be dead in my heart." I couldn't have said it better myself--feel the same way. Great Newsletter AND advice, Bill! 
Chill on!
Aww, Witchy-poo, you're the best. Thank you!
writetight
RIP:
Thanks for the plug, Bill.
-Dan
You're an awesome writer, Dan. You need more plugs . . . or, is that you're real hair?
Michael Thomas-Knight
Eviscerates:
Great passages and examples, Bill. Now you just have to tell me which story(ies) they are in so I can continue reading :)
Soon, my friend, very soon.
rachie
Creeps:
good letter!! Ive done some flash fiction pieces and tried to show not tell...
Hello to all!
Rachel
Aww, Rach, you're like a hug with no end.
pinkbarbie
Gurgles:
Thanks for this helpful newsletter. Sense of humor is a very mature way of dealing with situations no matter how negative.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
Howls:
Zombies- They come back for more. Where's my crowbar?
"Dead Rising: Your Story" [18+]
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