The Character Snapshot

November 28, 2008

 

Mary Rosenblum: I wanted to talk about creating the character snapshot.  Everybody concentrates on their main characters, but you have all kinds of secondary characters, too.   And the more realistic and vivid they are, the stronger and more realistic your fiction or personal narrative will be.   But on the other hand, you can't stop the story to delve deeply into the backstory of characters who are not central to the plot.  And of course, if you're writing something very short, like flash fiction, you have only a relatively few words in which to reveal those characters.  

 What you see a lot of in fiction are cardboard cutouts.  These people are kind of faceless and familiar, but not very vivid and not very individual.   They don't make much of an impression.   Now you don't want your secondary characters to distract from your main characters, but creating unique individuals will give you much deeper realism.   

A great exercise is to simply pay attention to one person every time you are out in public.

 

Charge2Charge:  and describe them in 2 sentences?

Mary Rosenblum: More than two sentences is fine, Charge.   For example, I was sitting around in the pharmacy waiting area with George, my neighbor, just now.   A checker came over to sit on the bench on her break. Her nametag read Linda. She had fine, curly hair and Christmas tree earrings, a white blouse, and was stock in build. She sat on the bench and ate five candy bars in a row, unwrapping them with brisk, almost angry precision and eating the chocolate bar in three for four large bites, then unwrapping the next.

Kmart:  sounds like she was angry.

Charge2Charge:  and hungry

Mary Rosenblum: Maybe all of the above.  When she went back to her check stand, she was brisk and efficient, rattling out the prices on her keyboard with one hand, shoving groceries across the scanner with the other.

I LOVE people watching. All writers need to people watch. Now I might have a story where my main character goes through a checkstand and this is the checker. She might play a bit role....just there to check the groceries, maybe. Or maybe she'll be the person who plants a clue for my mystery or something.

Kmart: Why all the personal description?

Mary Rosenblum: Well, K, we assess most people by their personal appearance and body language.  If you meet someone, you notice their clothes and personal hygiene, then you notice the way they behave, and you notice what they say and how they say it.

 

Charge2Charge:  oo I have a question -- what if they end up being a major character, but you want the reader to think they're just a minor character when they first appear, what do you do about that?

Kmart: The heavy set check out gal plopped next to me and gobbled down five candy bars

Mary Rosenblum: That works, K. You don't need all the personal description I noted unless your POV character has reason to notice those details.

Kmart: Doesnt that allow the reader to picture the person?

Mary Rosenblum: Charge, you can introduce a major character the same way you do a minor character. If that person is going to play a major role in the story, their importance is going to quickly become apparent.  And K, the amount of detail you include depends entirely on how much detail that your POV character...whomever that is...would notice.

Kmart: I assume in nonfiction you must describe as opposed to fiction.

Mary Rosenblum: Depends on what your goal is in the nonfiction scene, K.

Charge2Charge:  Well what if it was third person POV

Mary Rosenblum: Personal narrative follows the rules of fiction. Only the POV character is you, the author. In third person, you are only going to include the details that your POV character would notice.

Awehner:  What distinguishes a minor character; example, watching classic "Home Alone" last night, wondered if the old man next door would be considered a major or minor character. He ends up being integral to the story.

Mary Rosenblum: Didn't watch it, awehner, so I can't help you, sorry.

 

Charge2Charge:  I would consider him a major character

Mary Rosenblum: Major characters are integral to the plot, but so are some strong secondary characters.   Generally, you have three classes of characters.   You have the main characters. This is their story, they have the greatest stake in the outcome.  Those are usually...but not always.,..your POV characters.   Then you have the strong secondary characters. They can be integral to the plot, but it's not their story... they are simply part of the story and may have their on subplot arc.

 

Awehner:  Are "secondary" and "minor" synonymous?

 

Mary Rosenblum: Well, all these terms are a bit fluid, awehner.  Spear carriers or bit players are the characters who are simply there to make things happen.   The guard at the palace gate. The checker in the supermarket. The servant who brings the letter into the drawing room.   'Minor' might mean secondary or spear carrier depending on the person using the term.

Rae:  Using the servant as an example, you'd need to show what she looked like and how she sounds, but nothing else, right?

Mary Rosenblum: Right, Rae. And even here, if you can give that spear carrier an attribute or two that is specific she’ll seem more real.

Kmart:  In an action moment, aren’t I supposed to make the reader feel rather than notice

Charge2Charge:  so like a waiter at a restaurant would be a spear carrier?

Mary Rosenblum: Yes, charge.  K, that's exactly right.   If your main character is under stress, preoccupied, in fear, what have you, that person will notice fewer details.  But let's take that servant. Say your POV is lounging in the drawing room and she comes in with logs for the fire. She might have red curls and sparkling green eyes and give the POV a saucy wink as she whisks past him after piling up the logs.   That might be her only appearance, but it makes her other than a 'someone'.  Or it might be a bent old man in a black vest who scuttles in, clucking under his breath as he notices the mud the POV has tracked in, lining up the logs with perfect precision on the hearth.  We might never see that character again, but the impression is of a unique person.

Kmart:  wouldn't you do that only with a purpose? to say show that the pov charactor was either receptive or not receptive to flirtatious advances?

Mary Rosenblum: You COULD do it on purpose.  Or it could be 'window dressing'. The MC notices and rolls his eyes, thinking the young lord of the manor is following in his father's footsteps where servants are concerned.   You would probably need some kind of response to the first example on the part of the POV, since he received that wink.  He'll either dismiss it or not.  second example is less personally engaging and it doesn't require a reaction from the POV.

Everything in a story, long or short, should be there for a purpose.  Even when I'm putting diners in a restaurant scene, where they have nothing to do with the plot action in that scene, I put each person there on purpose.  What do I want to suggest to the readers?  Type of restaurant? Economic level of the folk? Regional behaviors? There's always a reason for the people in that scene.   If my POV walks into an inn, I'm going to want to reveal the community by the people that POV notices sitting around the fire.

 Too many minor characters in stories are vague cutouts. They're described very vaguely. 'People' "Diners'.

 

Rae:  If they have an accent, do you put that in as well?

 

 Mary Rosenblum: Yes, Rae, briefly.  Remember...you're balancing those unique details with the demands of the scene.   Description is good, but too much description bogs down the pace. It's always a tightrope to walk.  You can just mention the accent.  Caren followed Kayle into the smoky warmth of the inn. Farmers argued livestock prices over pints of beer, their rough boots clotted with mud, their brogues so thick she could barely make out one word in ten.

Darceeyates:  so you constantly have to ask yourself in the revision, is this necessary, does it add or subtract from the scene, plot ect?

Mary Rosenblum: Yeah, Darceeyates. That's what revision is all about. The balancing of this over that, so that it all works as strongly for the readers as it works for you.  So in the above example, I've given the readers a scene to look at that is more specific that 'crowded inn'. It required a sentence. Maybe they'll cross through the room, be on to another room and scene, and that's all we'll see of the farmers and their pints.

Kmart:  I like that scene because I can picture the farmers anyway I want

Mary Rosenblum: Exactly, K.  Another balancing act...give the readers some 'seeds' to start the scene and let them take it from there.   If I tried to make the readers see exactly what I am seeing, it would bog down in details that aren't really important.  That is the key to powerful writing.   Lots of effect in very few words.  

 

Think about that scene...I include a lot of senses. Smell: smoky.   Feeling: warm  Vision: the farmers  Hearing: Their arguments
Only taste is missing.   It's a way of increasing reality.   Sometimes you can't include that many of the senses without making the scene seem contrived.   But we also have some visual seeds. Boots. Mud.  Readers can add more from those.  And all of a sudden instead of a 'crowded inn' we see people.

Awehner:  Did you just make up that scene, or was it from prior material?

Mary Rosenblum: I just made it up awehner.  And you do the same thing with individuals.  Think of my prompt this week.  You have a dinner table full of family. What will convey Uncle Danforth to us in a sentence?  He thrust his chin out, his bushy white eyebrows popping up and down over his glare. "Your mother said no politics this year." He jabbed one knotted forefinger in Bobby's direction. Cousin Rob swayed to his feet, his cherry nose shining as he lifted the current glass of scotch high. "A toast!"

 

Awehner:  Our Grandma Cassie, 90, in her wheel chair

Mary Rosenblum: So take Grandma Cassie, Awehner, and give her action, details, that reveal her to us?  Piercing eyes in spite of her bent frame, not missing a thing as the Grant twins pinched each other under the table?

 

Awehner:  Thanks, Mary. I'm working on it.

Mary Rosenblum: It's too easy to stop with basic details. Try adding the details that say 'this person is like this!'  Cousin Rob sways and his holding that 'current' glass of scotch.   We know a lot about him.  

So to summarize the character snapshot thing...add specific details that make THIS place or THIS person special.  Give us the details that give us a sense of Uncle Danforth or Great Aunt Rose or the Grant twins.   Then even your minor characters, your spear carriers, will seem like real people.