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| Photo credit: Thomas Milne on Flickr |
This could be a really good test of characterization. In a
hypothetical world where we are all copies, how would you tell your character
apart from everyone else? Does he shuffle instead of walking? Does he keep his
eyes low and shoulders hunched or is he brimming with confidence? What about
the way he talks? Does he curse a lot? Does he stutter? Does he speak in short,
abrupt sentences or long, eloquent phrases?
Since I’ve been rather philosophical and haven’t posted any
exercises in a while, try this one:
Take two of your characters and pretend they looked and
sounded exactly the same. Ask yourself how you would tell them apart and write
down every difference you can think
of. The way they hold themselves, the way they walk, they way they talk, how
they would react to different situations—anything goes. If you have trouble
differentiating between the two, you might need to work on a little more
characterization.
Since I love The
Hunger Games, I’ll use two of the main characters as an example:
Katniss
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Peeta
|
Makes unwavering eye contact
Stands with her shoulders back
Walks with her chin up
Blunt—doesn’t really care about
eloquence
Fiery temper
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Makes eye
contact, then looks away
Slouches
slightly
Shuffles
Soft-spoken,
has a way with words
Patient
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I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
So lets see it, guys—how would you tell your characters apart?
22 comments:
This is an awesome exercise. I'm going to use it on my new wip. :D
Great! Let me know how it goes! :)
The one thing I took away from Red Letter Media's infamous critique of the Star Wars prequels was asking whether or not you could describe any of the characters without mentioning their name, profession, or clothing. I thought that made an interesting exercise.
Huh. I hadn't heard of that, but that's really interesting. I guess it would be pretty difficult for the prequels...
Nearly impossible in some cases. Most of the characters even have the exact same bland speech patterns.
Hmm...come to think of it...you're totally right. I suppose Yoda is the one huge exception...and Anakin as a kid...huh.
That's a good exercise. I think I'll try it out my current characters. Thanks!
Sure thing! Let me know how it works for you!
Great article! Thanks for posting, now I'll go back and check
Sure thing! Good luck! :)
Good point. Sometimes people make their characters look different, but they're essentially the same person, and that gets boring. Thanks for sharing!
You're very welcome! I think it's a good test to help make sure you haven't accidentally done what you just described.
I think this is helpful to everyone in remembering all our audience gets is the written word. My characters are usually very different in their speech patterns and what they might talk about or phrase things.
That certainly helps differentiate between characters. You're right--the audience isn't in our heads and doesn't know exactly what we see, they can only see what we give them. So if our characters aren't distinct enough, they all start to look and sound the same.
I think this is where I'm really getting a lot out of our character trait posts--writing them is foring me to think a lot more carefully about the make up of each character, and how different traits naturally create different beliefs, goals, motivations and actions.
And I <3 Hunger Games too! :)
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse
You know, I knew what a fantastic resource those character trait posts are for us as readers, but come to think of it, I imagine it really helped a lot for you and Becca as you write them because as you said--it really forces you to think about the little eccentricities and dynamics of each trait.
Also, The Hunger Games rocks. Can't wait for the movie! :D
Hi, I've given you an award on my blog. Check it out for more details!
Thanks so much, Angie! ^_^
I love your comparison. It really got me thinking ...
Glad to hear it. :)
I used to have trouble with this until I started planning my character's unspoken thoughts. By giving them all predetermined perspectives, they have distinctive dialogue, so when a character speaks without a physical description, you know who it is.
That's a fantastic method! Really getting to know your characters is key to being able to write them differently--and knowing their internal lives is a huge part of that.
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