Mary Rosenblum is the author of eight novels and more than sixty short stories in multiple genres.  She also writes nonfiction and teaches writing workshops. 

 

Creating the Strong Character

By Mary Rosenblum

 

            Every book on writing discusses strong characters and good characterization is the key to powerful Story.  But just what does that actually mean.  What makes a ‘good’ or ‘strong’ character? Where do you start?  With vivid description?  Back story?  Actions?

 

            Yes, all of the above.  Essentially, a strong character is a real character.  When you read The Hardy Boys, or Nancy Drew, you probably never really felt that these characters were flesh and blood people.  They were characters on the page, and their adventures were fun, but you didn’t lie awake at night worrying that he would get hurt, or she might fail.  You put the book down and went about life without much of a thought for those characters until you picked up the book once more. 

 

            Real characters haunt readers.  They become friends and long after the book is finished and perhaps the title has even evaporated from memory, you might think about Ender Wiggins, Yossarian, Doc, Scout, or any of a host of characters you have made friends with over your reading life.  These are real people, and their reality is larger than the adventure you met them in. 

 

Velcro Traits

            The key to ‘real’ characters is that they must seem real.  Readers recognize familiar behaviors or attitudes or preferences in these people.  Think of your friends.  How many of them have traits that are similar to your own personality traits?  You might both like sports.  You love chocolate.  You love to read, hate to do housework, love hiking, hate stuck-up people…the list of similarities both large and very small goes on.   When you meet a stranger, you begin to evaluate that person as you talk, walk together, work side by side.  Every time you find a similarity…love chocolate, hate stuck up people…you feel a bit warmer and closer to this person.  Yep, we’re kind of alike.   Think of these as ‘Velcro traits’.  These traits are what ‘stick’ your character to the reader, until the reader and character become friends and share the story. 

 

            But how do you attach these bits of metaphorical Velcro?  You do that by knowing your character well enough that they display all those many small eccentricities that make each and every one of us unique.  All too often, the Main Character charges through the story reacting to the necessities of the plot.  When he or she is not reacting to the plot, that character is a faceless zombie, waiting for the next cue to swing into action.  We really know nothing about that character, who she is, what he likes, what she is scared of.  We only see how they react to the plot. 

 

The Iceberg Backstory

 

            Backstory is everything.  The more you know about your character, the more options you have to slip Velcro traits into every scene without slowing down the action.  It’s not enough to know your Main Character’s name, age, and physical description.  What was this character’s childhood like?  What drives this person in life?  A need to succeed?  A fear of failure?  A need to belong?  What does she like?  Ice-cream?  Chocolate?  Smelly French cheese?  Fresh fruit?  What does he dislike?  Cats?  Snakes?  Rainy days?  Whiny kids?  What does your MC fear?  We all have at least one major fear whether it’s spiders, snakes, dying by fire, or rats.  Something scares us beyond rational response.  What is it?  Maybe you’ll use it and maybe you won’t, but you need to know it. 

 

            Write down your Main Character’s history…how he played as a kid, what his home life was like, parenting, school, any tragedies in his life, first love…write down everything you can think of.  We are the sum of our past experiences and so is your character.  The more you know about his/her past, the more consistently that character will act.   Consistency is the key to reality.  We act like ourselves every day, and if we stop acting like ourselves, our friends immediately wonder what is wrong.  If your character behaves like a bully in one scene and a wimp in the next, your readers simply won’t believe that this person is real…they have never met a real person who behaved so inconsistently.  But if readers know enough about that character to understand why his behavior seems inconsistent, then he will still seem real. 

 

Choosing Your Tip

 

            Just as only the tip of the iceberg protrudes above the waves, so will a small bit of your character’s backstory protrude into your story.  Two kinds of details matter.  From your character’s backstory, you can include the incidents that explain your character’s behavior.  But as your character acts in scene after scene, you can also include those small Velcro traits that will allow your readers to connect with that character and feel that warmth of familiarity.  As your character strolls down the street, she might stop to feed a bit of her lunch to a thin, stray cat.  He might pick up a baseball bouncing across the park grass, and lob it back to the ten year old who missed it.  She might select perfect, fat pears at the market and he might eye a litter of Springer pups and think wistfully about the dog he had as a kid.  These small character details are what ‘stick’ your character to your reader and bring create that ‘he’s like me’ or ‘she’s like me’ reality. 

 

Large + Small = Real

 

          So characterization includes a mix of large details – the reasons from your character’s past that explain his or her behavior now – and small details – the likes and dislikes that make the character human and familiar.  By slipping these details in constantly, embedded in the ongoing action of your story, you will avoid bringing the forward momentum of the story to a halt as you describe your character’s childhood at length.  Instead, we might learn that he had a dog in scene one, that the dog died in scene two, and that his mother’s boyfriend actually killed it as the story builds to the climax and his behavior there is explained by that memory of the dog-killer. 

 

            At the same time, we’ll learn that he loves watermelon, will be late to appointments to stop and throw balls for kids playing in the park, is tongue-tied around women, loves all dogs, and really dislikes vegetables and especially Brussels sprouts.  These are the Velcro traits that make him familiar.  Include enough and nearly every reader will find at least one match.  They don’t explain his behavior at the climax, but they make him familiar, human…real.

 

            So give your readers the big, backstory details and the small, human details and you’ll create a character who will remain a friend, long after the story is finished.