Character Capsule, The Update

Sharon Wildwind

A couple of years ago—June 19, 2007 to be exact—I blogged about five key characteristics that go to the heart of character development. If you want to refresh your memory about those characteristics, click here to see that blog.

I’m happy to report that dominant impression, tag line, flawed life view, uncrossed line, and jobs have, so far, aged gracefully. They still form the core of where I begin to develop or update a character.

I’ve learned something new about tag lines in the past two years. This is one place where cliches work. Why waste time thinking up a pithy description, when a tried-and-true line can do it for you? Do you get an immediate mental image of a secretary who believes in a place for everything and everything in its place? How about a family matriarch who would never wash her family linen in public? Would you like to work for a boss who believed that power is the greatest aphrodisiac? No one but the author sees the tag line, so go ahead, just this once. Poach cliches to your heart’s content.

I’ve added four more key elements to my character capsule.

Dangerous secret(s):
Every character needs a secret that will come out in this book, or occasionally, be the set-up for a future book. The secret doesn’t have to relate to the mystery, though it may. In many cases secrets provide the best red herrings because the character’s motivation which can be misinterpreted. A classic example is the song Long Black Veil, ©1959 by Marijohn Wilkin and Danny Dill. The guy in the song has a good reason for not telling the judge where he was when the murder was committed, and in the end, he pays for keeping his secret.

Emotional profile:
Where does the character’s heart lie? Or equally important, what does the character’s heart lie about? How does she express emotions? What emotions are most important? What does he value and why? Does he attempt to hide his values? Why or why not? Is she successful at hiding them? What has it cost him to value this? What rewards have come from valuing this? How does having this emotional profile make her stronger? Make her weaker?

Defining moments:
What were three utterly defining moments, each related to the theme, that brought the character to the book’s opening? This is where the character’s world turned. He could never undo this moment. She could never go back to being what she had been. The first two moments might have happened any time in the character’s life; the third one should happen very close to the book’s beginning; it may even happen in the early part of the book. Imagine a glass so full that it has a dome of liquid on top, being held there by surface tension. Now put one more drop into the glass. Of course, everything spills over the side. That’s what the third defining moment does to the character, and the spilling over the side forces the character into the story.

Brand:
A brand is not a something I do for individual characters. Instead it provides a background against which all my characters act. Several years ago another writer commented after reading an early draft, “Your main character keeps breaking down in tears. Why would I want to read about a woman who is that weepy?” Good point. So part of my brand became, “The past overtakes everyone, but it doesn’t have to overwhelm everyone.”

That brand message gives me a yardstick against which I can measure my characters’ behavior. First, every one of my characters needs a past, and the darker, the murkier, the more difficult the past, the better. Second, that past is coming back to haunt the character. Finally, the character isn’t going to fold. She may occasionally cry, but she’s also going to pull up her socks, get angry, be honest, and find the courage to confront her past. By knowing what my brand is, I can use it to generate a whole range of reactions.

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Writing quote for the week:

The author contracts with the reader to provide an ah-ha moment where they recognize the character as someone they know in real life. ~Bouchercon 2003 panel

Character Capsule

Sharon Wildwind

Ah, summer. Wearing shorts, sitting under a striped umbrella or the patio of my favorite restaurant, eating nachos and sipping something cold, my writer friends and I knew we could solve all the writing problems in the world. Then the topic of character development came up.

Some of the group, like me, were plotters. A couple of the others were pansters. And one poor person was a wide-eyed newbie who was in the process of discovering that even writers who had been in the business for a while, don’t have any magic beans, which when planted, will grow the perfect story.

If you’re not familiar with plotters versus pansters, a plotter is someone who does a lot of thinking and planning before even writing Chapter 1. A panster writes by the seat of her pants. She sits down with no more than, I want to write a story about a missing eight-year old girl, and she’s off and running.

After a good bit of wandering discussion about characters we had known and loved, we challenged each other to come up with a character capsule kit, a short list that would be doable by both plotters and pansters. Each person submitted one essential thing they had learned about character development from another writer.

So here it is: the fueled-by-nachos-on-Earl’s-patio-instant-character-development capsule. The name of the writer who gave us the idea is in parenthesis.

Dominant impression: two words—one adjective and one noun—that summarize the character. The noun is not the same thing as a profession, but may indicate a role similar to that profession. Or it might relate to something totally separate from what the person does for a living. Example: a cop might be a disillusioned protector. (Debra Dixon)

Tag line: One sentence that describes the character’s main motivation Example: the tag line for Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz is There’s no place like home.(Debra Dixon)

Flawed life view: How has the character got it wrong about life and/or relationships? Example: he thinks he’s allowed to give to other people, but not take for himself. (Liz Lounsbury)

Line he/she believes they will not cross: What is the one thing the character is convinced he/she will never do? What happens in this book when they cross that line? Example: She’ll never tell who really financed her college education and why. When she does tell, the police reopen a cold case, and her mother is suspected of murder. (Donald Maass)

What jobs does this character have? In other words, why is she/he in this book? All characters should ideally have at least 3 or more jobs. If you have a character with less than three jobs, think about giving those jobs to other characters. Example: 1) Second murder victim, 2) He saw Carla on River Road last Friday night, 3) He’s the one who has been cooking the books at the dot-com company. (Carolyn Wheat)

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Writing quote for the week:

Good secondary characters raise the bar for the protagonists. They force the protagonists to become stronger in order to prevent the secondary characters from taking over the book.”
~From the panel “Writing Two Characters,” Bouchercon 2003