 Drama: July 26, 2017 Issue [#8398] |
  Drama
This week: Characters through Their Words & Actions Edited by: Joy  
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“Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue.”
Jack Woodford
“Mackay had just failed to tip the coat-check girl and was now blinking and working his arms into a too-small trench coat; he looked like a seagull trying to lift up out of an oil spill.”
Isabel Fonseca, Attachment
“The ‘difficult’ female character can—and will—do the shocking, the unexpected and, as a consequence, will give your story an immediate jolt of energy. She is the character who doesn’t fit the mold.”
Ruth Harris
“Character is not created in isolation or repose; it’s forged through interaction with others and the world.”
David Corbett
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about characterization without going inside a character's head.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
The most basic law of the writing land is that you have to have characters even if you turn them to rocks, ghosts, or animals. In dramatic fiction, it is also impossible to work with a solo character. This means you’ll most often, if not always, need more than one character in any form or shape.
Moreover, you’ll need characters with contrasting personalities, backgrounds, and backstories to enable the readers to see them clearly. In fact, a character may contrast or conflict with other characters, the environment, or himself.
The main feature of a character that propels him into action is motivation, but even motivation depends on the already established traits. You cannot motivate a wingless character to fly, although that character may wonder what flying would feel like.
Let's suppose, you come up with a character by writing up a character sheet, assigning him looks, jobs, families and friends, quirks, vices, and positive personality traits. Your character sheet is only a rough road map and possibly flawed, but it is still a map you can refer to. On the other hand, copying your character sheet as exposition in a story should be out of the question because it shows laziness and its results will be dull.
At this point, after the character sheet is written, in which ways is your character going to show the reader his traits? How is he going to act, especially if he is a tricky character? Then, how will you, the writer, reveal all his attributes or failings while you create scenes, other than going into your character’s head and reading his thoughts?
In that case, with characters who can be difficult or tricky, the writers can turn nosy. Hence, underhanded though this may be, some of the ways to make the characters unveil their innermost beings are:
• You, the writer, can burglarize their home and search: storage units, closets and shelves, medicine cabinet, mailbox, desk drawers, their journals, the trunk of their car, purses, pockets on or in their clothing, hidden nooks and crannies in the furniture. This is because what a character keeps, values, or hoards can be an indication of his personality.
• You can eavesdrop on them when they gossip, when they are on the bathroom scale, when they argue with co-workers or boss, when they are talking to themselves out loud, when they are tough on others, when they act sweetly to others, when they may be lying or cheating, when they are praying.
• Watch from a distance their actions: When they enter a room, what catches their eyes first? Which kinds of products are they buying in the supermarket, drugstore, or any other store? Where do they go when they want/need to be alone? What do they get away with if they think no one’s watching? How do they act when they are scared, cornered, or falsely accused?
• Find out what they avoid to do, to say, or to think; what they hide; what they don’t want to do on a regular basis.
• See if you can catch them being witty, joking, laughing while doing something illegal, immoral, or not quite right. See if you can catch them doing something kind to others and if they are hiding it together with the good in their hearts.
• When they attack another character, is their attack open or underhanded or is it physical, psychological, or moral?
It is a good idea, as practice, to write several scenes that the character is in, without going inside his head and revealing his thoughts. This way you’ll be showing who the character is strictly through what he says or does.
This doesn’t mean that the character’s thoughts should remain hidden in a full-fledged story, as going inside a character’s head can often produce spectacular writing. It is a good idea, however, to train the pen and one’s writerly observation, first.
Until next time! 
Note: In a few days, "Game of Thrones" will begin. These games have almost nothing to do with the TV series but with our writing and reviewing stamina.
For those of us who are participating, I sincerely hope we all do our best.
Those who want to play but do not have a team, there may still be openings. You might wish to apply with a post in "Game of Thrones" or e-mail the leaders of the teams.
Best of Luck, Everyone!
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 This Issue's Tip: Make sure what your protagonist learns about himself at the end of the story is truly meaningful, not some generalized platitude about life, and don't have him state what he has learned by preaching directly to the readers.
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Feedback for "Writing the Ending Scenes"
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Quick-Quill 
Saving this one. I'm using an old west setting book I started and using her present day gr granddaughter to tell her story while experiencing life during a summer vacation.
Thank you for the feedback. That sounds like a good story. I guess the granddaughter will assume some things, correctly or not, which may add more depth to your book. Best of luck with writing it.
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