By:
Les Edgerton
The
writer who can master the art and craft of defining their characters by their
actions is going to be the author whose work gets read. By
Most
of us as fiction writers flesh out our characters with the use of description,
via dialogue, by the interior thoughts of characters and by similar methods.
All of these are good techniques and work well in the short story and novel.
However,
if the author ignores the use of using physical actions to help create their
characters and to also show how they’ve evolved due to the events that happen
along the way in the story (that character arc us writing teachers are always
talking about), they’re missing what can be the most powerful tool of all.
This
is an area where we can really make our novels come alive and impact the reader
on a much
deeper level.
The
use of description is perhaps the weakest of the novelist’s tools in terms of
character description. What of the following makes more of an impact in the
reader’s mind? To read: “Elizabeth was an arthritic old woman.” Or,
to read: Elizabeth labored up the stairs, a painful step at a time. She
paused at each step, grasped the handrail with both hands and forced her
ancient legs up yet another step.
The
second example wins, hands-down. Why? Because we “see” an action the character
takes and because we see it happening it has
This
is important enough that I’ll say it again: Characters are defined best
and on a deeper level by their actions. As are their
character arcs. You know, that deal where the character emerges at the end of
the story a different person than when the story began as a result of all
they’d gone through during the course of the tale.
Why?
Because they experience what the character does and what the character
experiences at the same time the character does. They’re not being “told” this
character has undergone a sea change and asked to take it on faith—they “see”
it with their own eyes, and are therefore convinced to a degree not remotely
possible with the author “telling” them
A
movie that illustrates brilliantly how all this can be accomplished through the
character’s actions is screenwriter Callie Khouri’s Thelma & Louise. It’s
one of those rare movies that provide many, many teaching moments that can be
valuable to fiction writers.
. .
.
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read the rest of this post, click here:
~*~
If
you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they
are again:
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Pinterest - How Actions Determine Character & Arc | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/R3D1E
- Writing Mystery and Suspense Fiction: Can You Ever Really Know a Person? — Bound and Determined http://ow.ly/R3EE1
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Publishing on
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- WOW! Women On Writing Blog: Characters: Tormenting them for the sake of plot http://ow.ly/R3GwW
- How to Get Early Feedback on Your Book Idea or Manuscript - Write Nonfiction NOW! http://ow.ly/R3GCU
- 6 Clever Ways To Achieve The Perfect Ending To Your Story - Writer's Edit http://ow.ly/R3GGm
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