Post by account_disabled on Jan 1, 2024 4:54:49 GMT 1
Perhaps creating a character is the trickiest part of writing. At least it is for me. Every time I read a novel, I try to glean some secrets of the trade - no tricks, there are no tricks in writing - some information to improve my stories. I am a veteran of a long novel by Stephen King, The Stand , populated by many characters, some more important than others, some only mentioned, little more than an extra (extras are also needed, as in films). But the main characters – the main actors – were all well characterized, distinct from the others, clear in the reader's mind. The following 7 elements were all used by King in that novel. And the same ones are also found in works by other authors, which I will cite in the post. The physical description Describe the character or not? There are readers who prefer to imagine the protagonist and the various characters themselves.
There are authors, like the aforementioned King, who describe the appearance of each character, even how they dress, and others who instead limit themselves to calling him by name, then leaving it up to the reader whether to imagine him as blond, thin, robust, etc. I was once part of the first category of authors, then I moved to the second, who knows why. But now I'm thinking of going back to basics. In my opinion a character needs to be described, at least in general. It doesn't matter if you know the precise length of your Special Data hair, but at least you can say whether it's short or long. Even the dress, the way of dressing, is important, because you can deduce a lot about the person from the choice of his clothes. When and how to describe a character? Good question. I don't have the answer. King has no problem introducing a character by immediately describing him: hair color, clothes, height, build, tics, presence of pimples, etc.
But he does it with such ease that you don't even notice. I think the best way is to describe it when necessary and in a way that doesn't look like a mugshot. The name How much have I written about character names here? A lot of times. The name of the protagonist must stand out above all, it must be the name that is most remembered in the novel, in my opinion. But even for the other characters we need to do an in-depth study. It is a question of sounds, of the musicality of the word-name . In the long science fiction story that I'm revising for the fourth time (or fifth?) I chose Nordic names. They are not very common – I didn't choose names like Otto, Fritz, Helga, etc. I needed to give an exotic touch by avoiding the usual American or too imaginative names. In the science fiction novel I'm writing, however, the names are Czech (for a specific reason). But even in this case I wanted to assign those names based on the character: where the sound of the name - and even its spelling - suggested ruthlessness to me, then I gave them to cruel characters, for example.
There are authors, like the aforementioned King, who describe the appearance of each character, even how they dress, and others who instead limit themselves to calling him by name, then leaving it up to the reader whether to imagine him as blond, thin, robust, etc. I was once part of the first category of authors, then I moved to the second, who knows why. But now I'm thinking of going back to basics. In my opinion a character needs to be described, at least in general. It doesn't matter if you know the precise length of your Special Data hair, but at least you can say whether it's short or long. Even the dress, the way of dressing, is important, because you can deduce a lot about the person from the choice of his clothes. When and how to describe a character? Good question. I don't have the answer. King has no problem introducing a character by immediately describing him: hair color, clothes, height, build, tics, presence of pimples, etc.
But he does it with such ease that you don't even notice. I think the best way is to describe it when necessary and in a way that doesn't look like a mugshot. The name How much have I written about character names here? A lot of times. The name of the protagonist must stand out above all, it must be the name that is most remembered in the novel, in my opinion. But even for the other characters we need to do an in-depth study. It is a question of sounds, of the musicality of the word-name . In the long science fiction story that I'm revising for the fourth time (or fifth?) I chose Nordic names. They are not very common – I didn't choose names like Otto, Fritz, Helga, etc. I needed to give an exotic touch by avoiding the usual American or too imaginative names. In the science fiction novel I'm writing, however, the names are Czech (for a specific reason). But even in this case I wanted to assign those names based on the character: where the sound of the name - and even its spelling - suggested ruthlessness to me, then I gave them to cruel characters, for example.
