Kick-Starting the Novel: Session 3 – Characterisation

Whether your novel is plot-led, or character-led it will not generate any interest unless the reader can empa­thise with the main character. They can love or hate your ‘lead’ but they do need to feel something.  As a starting point, let’s consider the following:

• If you don’t care about your characters, neither will the reader
• Characters must be credible, but they don’t have to be likeable!
• Avoid stereotypical characters and cardboard cut-outs
• A strong supporting cast is essential

In most cases, the novel starts with a germ of an idea relating to how a certain character is going to think about, react, or experiment with, a situation that life throws at him/her. In a nutshell, this central character is the pivot around whom the rest of the story is constructed – and you the author will have to maintain the reader’s sympathy/empathy/hatred for him/her for the next 80,000+ words.

You’ll know when you’ve got it right because the character will be­come real for you. You will be equally aware of his/her likes and dis­likes in the same way that you know your closest friend would, or would not, do something that went against her principles. Your character must be real to you or he/she will not be real for the reader. The reader must want your character to win through, whatever the odds.

Which brings us to the credibility of your characters within the story. Unless we’re talking about   fan­tasy, supermen or women really don’t work, simply because there is no provision for failure or the human elements that provide con­flict and misunderstanding. The main characters must fit comforta­bly within the period/setting of the story.  When the author was first marketing The Wild Horseman, one literary agent took a dislike to the main male character and suggested that the plot be re-written around the other character, a sixteen-year old girl. Now in war-torn France, it would have been highly unlikely for a teenager to take centre stage, simply because the story was about survival and the male was a survivor. To do as the agent suggested would have given the whole thing a ‘Famous Five’ slant and ruined the story!

When we are talking about credibility, we are also talking about character flaws that can make the man or woman more appealing. Let’s face it, the fact that the sight of blood always turned Inspector Morse’s stomach, never made him less of a man in our, the viewer/reader’s eyes, did it?

Another of our authors created a character who, in her youth, was too intense and self-obsessed and had we worked through the novel from A to B there would have been very little about the girl to make us care whether she lived or died. In this case, the author told the story in flashbacks from the vantage point of an eighty-year old woman, who could see all too clearly with the benefit of hind­sight, just how her intense and self­ish behaviour had cost her dear. We like and respect the older woman for her honesty, and there­fore are more sympathetic towards her younger self as the story un­folds.

Think back to the sadistic camp guard in Merry Christmas Mr Law­rence, whose geniality belied his callous treatment of the POWs. Then there was the film director who told a scriptwriter that he could totally destroy his image of a hard­ened contract killer, by having the man stop and stroke the head of a cat, while on his way to a kill. These subtle nuances can add depth to what could be perceived as a one-dimensional character.  It’s also very easy for the subcon­scious to take over the ‘drawing’ of characters. As one author found to her horror, when she discovered that in her draft typescript, all her ‘goodies’ were blonde, and all her ‘baddies’ were dark haired! Is this a subconscious throw-back to the days of black and white films, when the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black?

This is what we mean by stereo­typing – when characters are so predictable that their appearance and behaviour are almost a cliché.  Another typescript that came our way featured the heroine (a gentle and rather colourless creature) and her rival, a glamorous ball-breaker. The problem with the story was that the author had made the glamour-puss so consistently awful that it was impossible to see why the chap they were fighting over, was attracted to her in the first place. To break the impasse it was sug­gested that there should be a few added dimensions to the glamour-girl’s personality to at least make her credible and give a reason why she was moving in such a social circle. The author’s reaction was that she wasn’t supposed to be liked and that there wasn’t any good to be found in her anyway. The real reason, one suspects, is that the ‘heroine’ was so wet, that any quarter given the protagonist would have merely made her appear wetter!

Characters that move woodenly through the story will bog down the action and bore the reader to death. Allowing char­acters to grow as the plot develops may work for experienced authors but that it can be a disastrous as­sumption for a beginner to make; creating a character profile for the central char­acters is as necessary as any other form of plotting. So spend some time producing a full c.v for each of the important people involved in the story and indicate where their lives interact with the others. Just remem­ber that no character should be 100% perfect.

Although they are not often an integral part of the plot, minor char­acters are equally as important and can provide:

• light relief
• help move the story along
• chance encounters
• red herrings
• throw a spanner in the works
• wisdom

Minor characters should be there to serve a purpose and for that we should turn to the greatest ‘bit player’ of them all, Shake­speare. He created bit parts throughout his plays that are often the ones the audience remembers – like the gatekeeper in Macbeth, for instance. The only ‘bit’ of light relief in the whole play.  Minor characters can be the woman who keeps the local post office and the focus of all village gossip – just think how many red herrings that one could provide – and she only need appear as a ‘bit’ player throughout.

Beware, however, of creating a supporting player who appears quite fre­quently at the beginning and then sinks without trace, for no appar­ent reason – this is more common than you would believe. Minor characters are there to move the plot and dialogue along when the author feels it is necessary to inject a piece of information, but doesn’t want it imparted by the main char­acters.  Here are two simple tricks for creating the perfect blend of ‘people’ for your novel:

The casting couch. How many times have you been disappointed by the casting when a favourite book has been turned into a film or television series? Use this process in reverse and think of an actor who has played a similar part to the one required in your novel. Mentally take the image and superimpose it on the character you wish to create. In other words, if you were casting your own novel as a film, who would you get to play the parts both main and supporting roles.

Astrology. There are plenty of books around on the subject (try the charity shops) that give the positive and negative traits of all the ‘sun signs’ and I know several authors who use this method to create multi-dimensional charac­ters by using a fictitious birth sign as a starting point. It will even help you sort out who is compati­ble, and who is a potential pro­tagonist.  [See recommended reading]

Choosing the right name for characters is also important because a name can say an awful lot about a person, without the need to go into a long and involved description about colour of hair, eyes, etc.   Avoid having two people whose names begin with the same letter (unless it’s a comedy), i.e. Jason and Jayne, Robert and Rebecca, or James and Jamie. And watch those names, first and surnames, ending with ‘s’. Or you’ll be forever writing James’s  …Mrs Prentiss’s

Get the point?  Names should reflect the fashion, society and history of the period and avoid using something that no one can comfortably pronounce. One book that should be on every fiction writer’s shelf is The Oxford Names Companion, which will provide end­less sources for both first and surnames, as well as place-names.

A character’s occupation should also be an integral part of the story. There’s no point in slinging in the fact that Cyril is a retired antiques dealer and not exploiting this to the full in the narrative. Your story will revolve around the main character’s occupation, so more than a little detail needs to appear, if only to convince the reader that they are about to enter this particular world. Unless your plot centres around the double-dealing of high finance, then an art expert, fighter pilot, or race­horse trainer is going to appear much more glamorous than a com­modities broker.

The vast majority of Dick Francis’s novels were in some way related to the world of horse racing, but he wasn’t frightened to go out­side these parameters and explore other worlds. And it shows in his writing.  There is an obvious enthusiasm for the subject and the reader learns something in the process. One of his best novels involves an injured jockey becoming involved in his deceased brother’s gem business. Here Francis resisted the urge to go over the top and, instead of pre­cious stones, the business special­ised in the importing of semi-­precious stones. The confusion of the jump-jockey in this unfamiliar world was actually shared by the reader as they were drawn in to almost actively participate as the story unfolded.   In today’s society, we are what we do, so it makes sense in terms of publisher interest, to spend some time researching this important area. Who knows, it might spark further ideas to give the plot more depth, since it will require the interaction of other characters in order to make the ‘work-place’ credible.

One of the best examples of creating a character in the reader’s mind, is the style of interview found every weekend in the colour supplements. Bearing in mind that lengthy de­scription is ‘out’, obtain a few back issues and study the way that the interview is constructed.  The angle is usually related to the celeb’s current work but throughout the 3,000 word piece, there will be single sentences that skillfully de­scribe what the subject is wearing, appearance, mannerisms, attitude, etc.  This is the approach you should aim for when developing your char­acter’s personality throughout the narrative. Sharp, incisive thumb-nail sketches rather than lengthy descrip­tion, allow the reader to recreate the ‘person’ in their mind’s eye and participate in the story, rather than just being a casual observer.

Exercise: Session 3

1. Write 150 words giving the opposite characteristics of your main characters, i.e. what are the ‘flaws’ in your ‘lead’, and what are the good points about the protagonist?

2. What is it about your main character that you like (a) best, and (b) least? What else could you add to make them more believable?

3. Have you paid enough attention to the occupation of your characters, or is it merely a throw-away piece of information? How can you exploit this in the plot?

4. Conduct an imaginary interview with your main character, using the style of the colour supplements. In 200 words, create a thumb-nail sketch of how they look, what they are wearing, manner, etc.,

5. Create a character profile for a secondary character, who will play an important, but minor role in your story.

Recommended reading:

Astro-characters, by Judy Hall (Compass Books)

Creating Convincing Characters, Nicholas Corder (Compass Books)

www.compass-books.net