Lazy Writer, Shallow Stories – Allies and Adversaries
I hope my two loyal fans are still lurking about because today I would like to continue our conversation about Lazy Writing as it pertains to characters.
Last time around I mentioned that I never took the time to know my characters and that I ‘developed’ them on the fly. I’ve come to realize that if you don’t know them, how in the hell can you motivate them? How can you possibly know how they will react in different situations? I publicly admit guilt. Mea Culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
But there’s more.
Other aspects of character we as writers need to understand are who are our characters friends and who are their enemies. If you know a man’s friends and his enemies, you know the man. So here is the grist for this week’s mill: Allies and Adversaries.
You need to know your character’s allies at the beginning of the story, in the middle of the story, and at the end of the story. Allies morph and change and switch sides throughout the narrative – or at least they should if you want an interesting story. The same goes for adversaries. So ask your characters the following:
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Who are your three most significant allies in order of importance? For each identify the ally’s name, relationship and type.
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For each ally, tell me why he or she seems important.
- Because:
- Because:
- Because:
- Briefly describe what these relationships suggest about your values, beliefs, and current situation.
Do this for the beginning of the story, the middle, and the end. Then, substitute adversaries for allies and ask the same questions.
Now you have a better understanding of each of your main characters and – with a little luck and imagination – this exercise will help you develop your story’s narrative. By having allies and adversaries shift in importance throughout the script means your story is dynamic, shifting, growing too. So, you end up killing two birds with one stone: character and story.
That’s a wrap for now.
Defy Gravity – Keep Writing!
I thought I’d commented on this - but it seems the machine has gobbled up what I wrote
But briefly, I think of the image of a sculptor creating a statue out of a block of wood. First she takes a chainsaw to it to hack out the rough shape. Then come out a series of finer and finer tools, all the way to fine grade sand paper at the end. In the final pass, all that is removed is a pinch of dust.
That is the way I think of developing characters in fiction. First a rouugh cut - the basic shape of the character. Then finer and finer changes. At some point you start writing. But the development of your understanding of the character continues until the final edit. Though at that stage you might only remove a comma.
Let’s see if this comment gets through this time…
Rod