The Character Conundrum

Well we are now into November, a time when the Christmas references become acceptable, the coats, scarves and gloves are dug out of their hiding places and many writers are turning their attention and time to Nanowrimo.

For those of you who have seen this reference but aren’t really sure of what it means, Nanowrimo stands for ‘November Novel Writing Month’, a project that encourages writers to set themselves a challenge of writing 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Writers sign on take part and can contribute to forums, talk to other writers and write the novel they have always wanted to write. All they have to do to win is hit the word count.

That is not to say that every writer will come up with something fantastic immediately (indeed, writers whose Nanowrimo efforts were actually published have emphasised the importance of editing but I’ve mentioned this before) and many writers have declared it to be a waste of time. But for many, this sense of structure and obligation is exactly what is needed to motivate them to actually put pen to paper and write that story that has been floating in their heads for years and to give life to characters that have been stuck in half-formed existence.

Characters are a difficult thing to create and it is generally believed that female writers find it difficult to write male characters and that a male writer simply cannot write a good female character. I personally think that this is nonsense (Joss Whedon and JK Rowling spring to mind). After all, the best characters are those we remember and shouldn’t be judged solely on their gender.

So what would I consider to be a good character?

I have some pretty strong views on what counts as a good character regardless of gender, but I do acknowledge that there are some points which apply more to female characters than male ones and vice-versa. After some consideration, I have come up with a list of issues that I think need to be addressed when creating any sort of character:

• Consistency of Behaviour

• Emotional Engagement

• Actions and Interactions

• Layers, Depth and Understanding

• Supportive Actions

• Fanservice and Stereotype Consideration

• Gender

• Development

Many of these points are no doubt familiar to you as they are often floated around when discussing characters, no matter if you are looking at the situation from the perspective of a creator or a consumer. But I have no doubt that there are also one or two points that may not make much sense.

Since there are so many areas to cover, I will be addressing the first four topics on this list here before addressing the remaining four in a separate post. In order to make this as comprehensive as possible, I will be addressing each area separately, using examples that I think best illustrate my point, before providing some suggestions which might help in your own writing. This is by no means an exhaustive list and I have no doubt that some will not agree with everything I have to say so please feel free to let me know if you think I have missed something.

So, shall we begin?

Consistency of Behaviour

This might seem like a strange place to start, but I personally think it is one of the most important stages in character creation before even considering plot or narrative.

Consistency of behaviour is behaviour that is consistent with the character. This seems obvious but is very difficult to achieve in practice as behaviour can be motivated by personal beliefs, past experiences or personality. After all, an impulsive character like Korra from Legend of Korra reacts differently to one who takes time to plan and prepare, like Tenzin.

No Korra, you cannot have a tattoo yet.

Many writers discover who their characters are as they write, figuring out personality and pasts as they go. Our past shapes who we are and how we react to certain circumstances. So, Wonder Woman reacts differently than Batman does because her personality has been shaped by different circumstances. They may agree at points, but that agreement comes from a different understanding and independent thought process.

That is not to say that someone will never act out of character for comedic or dramatic purposes, but a writer needs to establish where the boundaries lie before they can start pushing them.

Careful Clues:

Simply, get to know your character. Think of them as a new acquaintance and spend time getting to know them. Learn their likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. These will help you to shape and understand who they are. You may find that elements of them change the longer you spend with them and that some elements of their personality don’t work within the plot when you come to write it. But give yourself a solid foundation upon which to build and develop.

Brendan O’Connell provides a good suggestion from Syd Field’s Screenplay which is just as effective for budding novelists as it is for potential screenwriters:

‘…a scriptwriter should compose a ‘back story’ for the main character in their movie. Just twenty pages that cover his life before we meet him. The scriptwriter may never actually use any of this, but it really makes a difference when the character meets an obstacle in the film-knowing his back story gives an idea of how HE would get around it.’ 

Emotional Engagement

Emotional engagement can easily be summarised into one question: Why should we be interested in this person?

There is a common misconception that this means that a character has to be likeable or relatable in order for an audience to engage with them. I think that this concept is nonsense. After all, it is possible to find a character despicable and still be interested in what happens to them during the course of the narrative, like Azula (one of the villains from Last Airbender). Nor do you have to agree with everything they say or do to be invested in them.

Why do you think THIS guy is so popular?

Our interest in characters is motivated by what we know about them, or indeed what we don’t know. It comes from their backstory, how they react to others, how others react to them or even how they behave. It’s one of the main reasons why the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones upset so many fans; they had become invested in the characters and cared about what happened to them.

However, interest is not merely motivated by hard facts about a character. We can know very little about them and still feel invested in their lives. It’s one of the main reasons why some minor characters are given a larger role later in a series. Phil Coulson from the Marvel universe is one prime example of a character that we know very few solid facts about and yet has a very solid fanbase due to of his interactions with others.

Sadly, this is also one of the major pitfalls in creating a female character. In comic books in particular, a woman must first become a victim before she can develop as a character. This is often to invoke sympathy and to create an emotional imprint on the audience, such as the Red Wasp from the Marvel universe. This occurs across both genders (indeed Batman is probably the poster boy for this concept) and can be handled very well depending on the writer, but it can also be considered a manipulative shortcut. A writer should never rely on one emotion in order to make a character interesting. After all, it may have been the tragic backstory that got River Tam onto the Serenity. But that wasn’t what made her memorable.

At the end of the day, if an audience cannot remember a character, then they will simply not care about what happens to them.

Careful Clues:

Care about your characters. Think back to your school days and those who taught you. Many of you will have fond memories of certain subjects simply because of the teachers. The best lessons were often those taught by people who were excited about the subject. Their passion motivated your interest and the creation of characters comes from the same place.

If you are interested in the characters you create, it will help you to understand who they are. And if you understand who they are, then you can help others get to know them too. And always ask yourself why you think something is important to the character.

The worst characters are not the ones people hate. They are the ones that no one is interested in.

Actions and Interactions

This is where most of the emotional engagement comes from and relies on two different areas that must be addressed in turn; what a character does and how they connect with others.

Actions are simply what a character does during the context of your plot and how they will face certain events. As we get to know characters, we learn what they will and will not do based on their abilities and past experience. I’ve mentioned this earlier, so I will try not to repeat myself too much.

What is more often ignored is the importance of character interaction. How we feel about characters often comes from how they connect with others or what they say about them and can often provide insight into what drives the character in the first place. It is one of the key things that can make a character interesting to an audience. This is best seen in the characters of Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell or Marvel’s Phil Coulson. Hard-core fans may know details about them, but for most of us, we have very little information to go on. Tinker Bell doesn’t even talk (unless you take the latest films into account)! We have an idea about how they will face certain situations, but it is the way they interact with others that provides the most interest. How they treat those they respect against those they don’t really know is what makes them interesting and, more importantly, makes them people.

This is one of the key things that seems to suffer in attempts to create ‘strong female’ characters because writers can choose to focus too much on what someone is doing rather than making an effort to make a character engaging. It is possible to make a character strong, kick-ass and active but still be completely boring. For me, Black Widow is a prime example of this possibility. All of her personality traits and redeeming qualities come from her job. She is rarely seen interacting with anyone and becomes isolated from the rest of the group. She is defined solely by her official title and it is only in the last third, when she is reunited with Hawkeye, that we start to get the impression that she is more than a named background character.

So help me Russo if you don't give this woman character development, I may cry!

In contrast to this is Buffy Summers, who also comes under Joss Whedon’s direction. Buffy might be as kick-ass as Black Widow, but she also connects with people. She goes to school, she has friends and a family. She is a person who happens to be able to take down supernatural beings.

I know many fans will disagree with me but I believe that you cannot solely rely on someone’s actions to create the necessary emotional engagement for audiences. It doesn’t happen in real life and it certainly doesn’t in fiction.

Careful Clues:

Go beyond the boundaries of your story and figure out who your character is. Start with the backstory and figure out the hobbies they have when they have time to spare or the friends that they have made outside of the workplace. Are they a parent? Do they have pets? Perhaps they volunteer in their spare time.

This will also be a big deal when actually addressing the main narrative. An interaction can come from anywhere. It can be a random encounter on the street or a long standing friendship. Two similar people might rub each other the wrong way but total opposites may get on like a house on fire. Ask yourself what connects or indeed repels these characters and how that initial impression has been maintained. Is one manipulating the other? Did someone do or say something to catch the other’s attention?

Some of this will be figured out as you go but just remember to lay the foundation before you try to build on it. This is about creating a sense of scale and establishing a life for the characters beyond the beginning of the story.

Layers, Depth and Understanding

Another obvious one, but it is one which many writers seem to struggle with especially within the realms of children’s media.

It is very easy to characterise people using certain terminology; the Jerk, the Nice Guy, the Bookworm, the Risk Taker. In reality, people are more complex than this and are very difficult to define when all aspects of their character are taken into account. The reason that these labels exist has less to do with the character they apply to, and everything to do with the person doing the labelling.

Children’s media is very susceptible to this because we believe that children see things very simply. The nice person is the good guy, a horrible person is the bad guy and friends like the same thing. For female characters in children’s media, these simplistic labels and understanding of friendship can lead to very simplistic stories and groups with very little variation.

For characters in a group dynamic, variety can be found but there is often a single shared desire or interest which fuels the friendship. The Babysitter’s Club were a group of girls with an interest in babysitting while the Bratz were individuals with a shared love of fashion. But without that single interest, there is rarely anything motivating the friendship. There is no depth to the characters or to the relationships they have created.

However, writers are getting better at creating variety and depth to characters. The latest incarnation of My Little Pony has used many of the pre-existing labels for a group of girls but the writers have made an effort to mix and match. The Athletic Tomboy also has a love of reading and doesn’t mind getting dressed up while the Lady-like Fashionista is able to hold her own in a fight and will get covered in mud if the situation calls for it. A strong character can have moments of weakness and a weak character can still be strong.

Take a guess at which one's which. I dare you!

Layers and depth are also two of the biggest things that suffer under adaptations as writers choose to emphasise one characteristic over another. Wonder Woman’s ability to kick-ass and take names was emphasised over her compassion and background in the infamous Wonder Woman pilot.

People are not flat one-dimensional beings and the face that is shown to one person might not be the face that they show to someone else.

Careful Clues:

This is all about building on the backstory of your character and figuring out who they are in the present rather than who they were in the past.

Also take into consideration the things that they will never reveal to another person. What is your character’s biggest secret? It doesn’t need to be big or dramatic. Does your hero secretly have a fondness for fluffy slippers? Does the boss have a hidden chocolate drawer in the office? Does the bad guy simply want to know what it’s like to be good? Perhaps the tough woman of the gym actually likes wearing feminine dresses on her days off or the annoying womaniser is secretly asexual.

Some of these things you will never directly address in your writing, but you might find something that surprises you and helps to make your character feel more like a person than a cardboard cut-out.

Time for a break!

I hope you have found this comprehensive so far and that you have been given some food for thought. I will be posting the remainder of this list in the near future so please let me know if you find the current format helpful.

My best wishes to all those taking part in Nanowrimo.