Lesson 6: Portraying Character

[Tamur]

Lesson 6: Portraying Characters

Last week we discussed ways to define your characters. This week, we answer the question: how do you show your well-defined characters to your readers? The following list covers the major possibilities, but as always there are many more ways to do this.

I. Character Summary

A character summary is basically a list of backstory and character points which are said in a writerly way. For example, if you had defined a character as narrow-minded, irritable, and one who holds grudges, you might introduce the character with:

Henry was born irritable. His mother is less direct, but his father often told me that Henry tried slapping the doctor five seconds out from the womb, after the doctor slapped his back to set him breathing. That slapping fight might not have happened, but something sure happened to make Henry endlessly irate at any point of view besides his own. I know, because I tried loosening up his world last year. He hasn't talked to me since.

There are weak points to this approach: the reader hasn't actually seen the character or setting or anything else when he's done reading this summary, which of course holds up any sense of attachment to the characters. Also, because of it's compactness, if it's worded poorly (as a simple list, for example), you risk losing your reader.

But imagine how much word space this little summary would have reqired to show rather than describe in a summary. Summary is a good method to use if you want to quickly sketch in a teaser backstory, or if you want to start in media res - in the middle of the story. Also, note how much is revealed about the narrator, the father, the mother, and Henry in this little description. A good summary should introduce multiple characters at the same time.

II. Repeated Action or Habit

The most basic definition of the word "character" is, how we expect a person to behave. This can also be a very effective way to show a character. Consider the following example:

She was fifteen, and after meeting new girls she spent quite a lot of her time looking in mirrors, comparing her face to theirs to reassure herself that she was still prettier than everyone else.

The reader can suddenly picture this girl meeting others and over and over going to her mirror. This habit can define the character in your reader's mind: vain? insecure? posturing? envious? Your reader brings her or his own outlook to this description.

III. Self-Portrait

Dostoyevski comes to mind whenever I hear this term. He was brilliant at making the characters reveal themselves through their own words. Consider this example from Notes From Underground:

I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. I am an ugly man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have...

The introduction goes on, but you get the idea. In this case the narrator is introducing himself to the reader in the plainest way possible. What he says, and what he leaves out, are identically important. Another form of this is quotations, where the speaker reveals something about him or herself that wasn't otherwise known - personality, fears, characteristics, etc.

No portrayal method can stand alone, but this one can come close.

IV. Appearance

Physical description could be considered very limiting and surface-only. However, phyiscal description can quickly go well beyond the surface. Take for example:

When I saw Donna for the first time, she made me think of cabbage gone to seed. True, she was tall and graceful, walking about her garden in her floor-length dresses. And of course she had a face that would have defied the skills of a Greek sculptor to capture. But the impression she left with everyone was, simply, a cabbage gone to seed: round on the bottom, floppy, and ready to wilt as soon as the water dried up.

The beauty of this technique is that it is fast, and it leaves the details of personality to the reader's imagination.

That, of course, is the danger as well. In this example, if your reader has never seen a cabbage that's gone to seed, then he or she will make any other association that even vaguely fits — and that may not be healthy for your story.

Combined Technique

It's impossible to use just one of these portrayal techniques exclusively. How they're combined, and what effects you can achieve playing with these techniques in combination, is a huge subject area so we'll devote an entire week's work to it -- next week.




Exercise 6: Due a minute after midnight GMT on Thursday, 12 June.

Note the extra day this week. Next week we'll tighten the schedule back up to Wednesday deadlines.

Length: 1-2 pages

1. Pick a single character you want to write about. This could (maybe should?) be the character from exercise five, or a new one. However, if this is a new one, please do Exercise five before doing this exercise, or at least write a backstory for the character, as described in Lesson 5. You don't have to post the backstory, though you're certainly free to do so.

2. With this character, use each of the four numbered techniques above (summary, habit, self-portrait, physical) to introduce your character. You can keep it as short as a single sentence or as long as half a page - whatever you think works for each of these methods.

Note: When introducing a character for this exercise, don't attempt to introduce disconnects or backstory unless these items fit well. Your introduction of the character can be completely separated from both disconnects and backstory, and should give the "flavour" of the character. It should act as a teaser, leaving your reader in a state of wishing he or she knew more.

Compared to the last assignment, this will be a piece of cake, but try to stretch yourself into techniques that may be unfamiliar or awkward for you. It's an exercise! Good luck.