by
Kathryn Page Camp
As a general rule, readers engage best
with a story when the main characters are round rather than flat. E. M. Forster
describes these terms in Chapter 4 of Aspects
of the Novel.
In
their purest form, [flat characters] are constructed round a single idea or
quality: when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of
the curve towards the round. The really flat character can be expressed in one
sentence such as “I never will desert Mr. Micawber.” There is Mrs. Micawber—she
says she won’t desert Mr. Micawber, she doesn’t, and there she is. Or: “I must
conceal, even by subterfuges, the poverty of my master’s house.” There is Caleb
Balderstone in The Bride of Lammormoor.
He does not use the actual phrase, but it completely describes him; he has no
existence outside it, no pleasures, none of the private lusts and aches that
must complicate the most consistent of servitors. Whatever he does, wherever he
goes, whatever lies he tells or plates he breaks, it is to conceal the poverty
of his master’s house.
* * *
The
test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a
convincing way.
Elsewhere in the discussion,
Forster says that both types of character have their place in a novel. It’s
okay if some of your characters are flat. The reader doesn’t care about the
maid who opens the door and then fades into the background. Major characters
should be round, those with bit parts can be flat, and secondary characters may
have varying degrees of roundness depending on their role in the story. Mrs.
Micawber is more than a bit player in David
Copperfield, but her sole purpose is to stand by her man. In that role, her
flatness works fine.
If you think about your characters
as balloons, they are flat until you inflate them with multiple emotions,
motivations, and faults. But how do you know when you have added just enough
air for their role in the story (and to keep them from exploding because you
were too ambitious)?
That’s too complex a subject for a
blog post. Instead, I suggest finding some good craft books on the subject,
such as Characters, Emotion &
Viewpoint by Nancy Kress and Plot
versus Character by Jeff Gerke. To learn about the different personality
types, you can read Please Understand Me
II by David Keirsey.
Then there are all those character
profile sheets. Writers don’t agree on how much advance work should go into
developing characters. Plotters generally fill out a long form of
characteristics before starting to write, while pantsers let the characters
reveal themselves to the writer as the story develops, much like we learn about
new friend (and enemies) in real life.* You should do what works for you.
Still, every writer should have at
least a skeletal list to refer to. Otherwise, the protagonist’s green eyes in
Chapter 2 may suddenly become brown in Chapter 22.
Here are some websites that include
character development sheets or lists:
http://nanowrimo.org/forums/character-cafe/threads/249614—this is a list of
character development websites
So blow up that balloon and inflate
your characters.
__________
* See 3/9/16 post on “Plotters v. Pantsers.”
__________
Kathryn Page Camp is a licensed
attorney and full-time writer. Writers in
Wonderland: Keeping Your Words Legal was a Kirkus’ Indie Books of the Month Selection for April 2014. The
second edition of Kathryn’s first book, In
God We Trust: How the Supreme Court’s First Amendment Decisions Affect
Organized Religion, was released
on September 30, 2015. You can learn more about Kathryn at
www.kathrynpagecamp.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment