Gabe Redel's Blog: FRYING POTATOES BLOG - Posts Tagged "single-trait"
Creating Characters: Consistency
There are multiple ways of creating an interesting character, but there is one principle that all writers need to follow. And that principle is to make your character consistent.
The way to make a character consistent is to give them a character trait that does not change.
I have a character in my novel, "The Amazing Pitsville and The Beggar's Invisible Railways," that is always crying. Her name is Jessica, and the narrator of the story continually describes her as the "weeping butterfly." She is the "weeping butterfly" because she is lonely and wants a husband, but where she lives, Pitsville, there isn't one other butterfly for her to date. So, that's why she is always weeping.
Why is it important to give a character a single trait that the reader can identify the character with? Because in most stories, excluding slice-of-life works, the main character and even some of the supporting cast are suppose to undergo a major change.
What that change is depends upon what type of story you are writing. But no matter what type of story it is, the change needs to be consistent with the character and obvious to the reader. In the "weeping butterfly's" case, the day that she finds her lover and stops weeping does just that.
In Daniel Abraham's "A Shadow In Summer" the main character, Otah, starts out as a humble boy who doesn't like confrontation---he is kind of a goody-goody. But by the end of the book his character is completely changed. I won't tell you how or in what way in case you ever want to pick up the book. But Abraham does a great job of giving his character that "goody-goody" character trait all throughout the first half of the story so that by the end Otah's change is obvious and consistent.
The way in which we show our character's single trait depends upon the character's major or minor role in the story. With a minor character, we don't have many pages to spend on them, so using something simple and direct is best. With a major character, most of the book is devoted to them, so we can show our character's single trait in many different ways.
Otah is the main character of Abraham's book, so instead of simply giving Otah a single, reoccurring action (such as weeping), Abraham is able to use multiple vices to show Otah's good-goody tendencies. He uses Otah's position of power to show it. He used Otah's reaction to conflict to show it. And he used Otah's relationship with his girlfriend to show it.
In my novel, I made my character Jessica always want to weep because she was not the main character. Describing her as the "weeping butterfly" gave her immediate consistency so that I didn't have to spend as much time developing her character as the story moved forward.
So, as we write, we need to keep our characters consistent. And, depending upon how much time we want to spend on each character, we need to decide how we are going to show their consistency.
For minor supporting characters, giving them physical traits to describe their single character trait works perfectly. We can give our characters scars to show that they are tough guys. We can give them goopy eyeliner to show that they are slobs. We can give them clean cowboy boots to show that they are only posers. . .
The way to make a character consistent is to give them a character trait that does not change.
I have a character in my novel, "The Amazing Pitsville and The Beggar's Invisible Railways," that is always crying. Her name is Jessica, and the narrator of the story continually describes her as the "weeping butterfly." She is the "weeping butterfly" because she is lonely and wants a husband, but where she lives, Pitsville, there isn't one other butterfly for her to date. So, that's why she is always weeping.
Why is it important to give a character a single trait that the reader can identify the character with? Because in most stories, excluding slice-of-life works, the main character and even some of the supporting cast are suppose to undergo a major change.
What that change is depends upon what type of story you are writing. But no matter what type of story it is, the change needs to be consistent with the character and obvious to the reader. In the "weeping butterfly's" case, the day that she finds her lover and stops weeping does just that.
In Daniel Abraham's "A Shadow In Summer" the main character, Otah, starts out as a humble boy who doesn't like confrontation---he is kind of a goody-goody. But by the end of the book his character is completely changed. I won't tell you how or in what way in case you ever want to pick up the book. But Abraham does a great job of giving his character that "goody-goody" character trait all throughout the first half of the story so that by the end Otah's change is obvious and consistent.
The way in which we show our character's single trait depends upon the character's major or minor role in the story. With a minor character, we don't have many pages to spend on them, so using something simple and direct is best. With a major character, most of the book is devoted to them, so we can show our character's single trait in many different ways.
Otah is the main character of Abraham's book, so instead of simply giving Otah a single, reoccurring action (such as weeping), Abraham is able to use multiple vices to show Otah's good-goody tendencies. He uses Otah's position of power to show it. He used Otah's reaction to conflict to show it. And he used Otah's relationship with his girlfriend to show it.
In my novel, I made my character Jessica always want to weep because she was not the main character. Describing her as the "weeping butterfly" gave her immediate consistency so that I didn't have to spend as much time developing her character as the story moved forward.
So, as we write, we need to keep our characters consistent. And, depending upon how much time we want to spend on each character, we need to decide how we are going to show their consistency.
For minor supporting characters, giving them physical traits to describe their single character trait works perfectly. We can give our characters scars to show that they are tough guys. We can give them goopy eyeliner to show that they are slobs. We can give them clean cowboy boots to show that they are only posers. . .
