Writing 101 -- Characterization

If you’ve been reading my blog or had me as a contest judge, you’ve heard me rant on and on about backstory as I urge writers to cut the backstory out of their novels. Readers don’t want to know how the character became who they are, unless you like memoirs, we simply want to read this story.

Characterization is backstory, but shown through a character’s dialogue and/or actions.

In other words, all the baggage that your character carries is backstory, BUT how he expresses it is CHARACTERIZATION.

In a nutshell, characterization is who your character is.

And I’m not just talking about the protagonist/antagonist, hero/heroine, or just the main characters. I’m talking about the secondary characters, minor characters and even walk-ons.

Why?

Because how each character reacts to a situation reveals something about . . . wait for it . . . their BACKSTORY. Yes, even minor characters need a little boost to their personalities sometimes.

So how do you take your characters and give them characterization?

Many writers will spend untold hours detailing their character’s personality through character sheets, which might contain everything from the physical attributes of a character to their school grades and subjects to their personal issues. While other writers might ‘interview’ the character to see how the character reacts to certain questions. And other writers (me) will simply write the story to see what happens.

What can I say? I enjoy surprises!

No matter how you figure out who your character is, it’s up to you as the writer to SHOW that to the reader.

For example:

Don’t tell the reader that your character is the quarterback of the football team, and when he goes home across the railroad tracks to the bad part of town  he finds his mother drunk on the sofa. Show the reader who this character is by his actions. It doesn’t have to be much.

Jake Franco unlocked the front door and turned the knob. When he walked through the opening, the sickly sweet smell of bourbon hit him harder than the 300-pounder on Shelbyville’s defense when he was sacked in his very first game of the season.

His mother was drunk . . . again.

Anger shot through him as he ground his teeth together. He forced himself to relax and take a deep breath before quietly shutting the door behind him. Dropping his book bag on the dinette table, he crept to the sofa where she lay sprawled.

As gently as he could he laid his hand on her shoulder and shook her awake.  Her bones seemed even more prominent this afternoon than they had been when he left for school this morning. He was afraid he might break one if he touched her too hard. “Mom? Are you awake?”

She was still alive. He had seen her chest rising and falling. One more day. She’d survived one more day of pain.

Her eyes opened, unfocused. She frowned, as if she tried to remember where she was as the alcohol dulled more than just her pain. Her brow cleared as her gaze met his. A weak smile played on her lips. She raised her hand to lightly stroke his cheek. “Jake?”

“Yeah, Mom. I’m home. Bad day today?”

She took a deep breath and tried to sit up, but a coughing spasm racked her body.  Jake helped her sit upright and handed her a tissue as she continued coughing. Finally, the spasms stopped and she shakily handed the tissue back to Jake.

There was more blood on it today.

The cancer was winning.    

Show your characterization by the character’s actions and reactions to a scene.

 So what is Jake’s backstory? And, yes, I'm making this up as I go along, including Jake's scene. 

His mother raised him to the best of her ability. His father abandoned him. He’s in high school. He’s a football player; probably quarterback (if he’s the one getting sacked). He’s angry, but not for the reason the reader is led to believe at first. They are dirt poor. His mother has no insurance, job, family, or even much of an education. She drinks to dull the pain of the metastasized cancer. Jake is doing the best that he can, but he’s just a teenager forced to grow up too soon. The reader understands that he’s taking care of his mother--he’s sensitive and responsible. He’s also angry, because he can’t do anything to help her.

Yes, there are places one can go for help, but would a teenager know about them? Doubtful, especially if the mother kept him in the dark about her condition. All she wants to do is to protect him for the harsh realities of life--too bad it isn’t working.   

Here’s another scene: Let’s say the same football player was with a group of his football buddies at a coffee shop. They are making fun of a homeless man trying to get his cart up the curb, but he’s too thin and rickety to lift the cart that is heavy with all his belongings, therefore blocking traffic. Drivers are getting impatient and honk their horns.

So, how does your character act? How does he react to their comments?

Does he get quiet? Hang his head? Or does he get in their faces? Does he defend the old man? Go to help him? Or does he join in, ridiculing the old man right along with them?

This is how you show the reader who your character is.

Let’s play this game with a minor character.

What about the waitress? Does she love her job or hate it? Does she flirt with the boys? Chew gum? Throw the bill down?  Does she say something about their rude comments?

There is a purpose to everything your characters say and do.  It’s your job as a writer to show characterization to your reader through the words you choose and how you use them.

 
What can you do to your story to improve your character’s characterization?

Something to think about.  

Writing 101--Evolution of a story

I think many readers think that the story that they read is the first incarnation. Well, for most of us, it isn't.  Beginnings are the most difficult to write because the writer has to:

1) engage the reader
2) introduce characters to engage the reader
3) give enough back story so not to lose the reader's attention

Notice the common denominator?  THE READER.

As much as writers are delving deeply into their own personal psyche, they are also tempering their story to engage as many readers as possible. Writing in a particular genre and style also play a part in the equation. You don't want to pick up a thriller and have it start with how horrible the main character's childhood was. You want to start with action.

Writers not only write, we rewrite . . . A LOT.

About three years ago, I wrote GNOME. During my querying phase, which lasted for over a year, I rewrote the beginning of the story no less than five times. AND this was after I had edited it prior to the query process. After I decided to query FAERIE, Summer 2010, I put GNOME aside. During the fall of 2010, a friend of my self-pubbed and was doing quite well. I knew I would have a tough time selling my novel (it's a middle grade and her novel was a romance--different audience, and romance writers have been electronically publishing for numerous years), but I thought this story deserved a break so I had another writer friend look at it. She thought the beginning was slow. 10,000 words into the 40,000-word story slow. I cut 1/4 of the story and rewrote it into 1,200-words.

GNOME is now lighter and leaner.

As a writer, you have to make the hard decisions--for the good of the story. So many newbie writers feel that their words are gold and refuse to buckle under pressure because someone didn't 'get' their writing. There's a reason many people don't 'get' your writing and many times it's because it is weighty with backstory narrative and information dumps.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't write the backstory information--you should, BUT DON'T SHARE IT WITH THE READER. They don't care. All they want is to get into the story--so start the story with change. What makes your character's happy little world go into Hell-in-a-Handbasket? So what if your main character had to lie about their age to get a job at fourteen to support their drunk and psychotic mother. This is backstory. This builds the characterization of the main character (MC), which in turn, effects the MC's decision making and actions/reactions to various circumstances, but the reader doesn't want to read about it.

Every writer has their own way of writing. Some writers write X# of pages every day and edit the previous day's pages before they move on. Other writers write the first draft all the way through, discovering their characters, plot, etc as they write. And then when they know enough about the character's they can tweak and edit the story based on their new knowledge.

Some writers will write detailed character sheets, while other writers 'wing it'.

Not every writer writes the same way. This is a good thing, because everyone has a story inside and the difference lies in how you tell it. Just remember, that a first draft is 99.9% NOT good enough. Dig deeper into your characters. Read your genre. Cut all the superfluous words. Tighten excessive wordiness. Chose your words carefully. As a writer, you are a wordsmith. Treat words with the proper respect and use them well.

Remember, only YOU will have the passion to write YOUR story.

Getting the Stupid Out aka Backstory

This topic is related to Wednesday's topic. It's an important point that I thought I would hit upon again.
Backstory, whether character or plot, is needed.
Now, now, calm down, don't get your panties in a wad.
Backstory is needed if the author is to write the story well. The reader doesn't need to know the how and why a character does such and such. It isn't needed for the reader, but it is needed for the writer so the writer can craft a character well, making the reader believes the action as reasonable for said character. It is the responsibility of the author to write the scene well enough to make it believable.
The reader doesn't want to read everything about the character up front, he wants to discover it along the road during the story. A good author will dribble little bits of info throughout the story that backs up the character's actions and dialogue.
So, backstory is need, but it should NEVER be in the story except in tiny droplets.
Some writers are what we call pantsers. I'm one of them. I don't write a detailed plot or outline. I know I have to get from point A to point Z in 300 pages. Sometimes I only know of three other points along the way. In other words, I learn about my character as I write.
And this can get me into trouble by virtue of backstory. I discovered after it was pointed out to me that I started the story 'at the beginning' (my words), but I needed to start my 'story within the story'.
This time it really felt RIGHT! I'm happy with how it is going.
And you know what the saddest part of this whole topic is? I can spot backstory from 100 pace--just not in my own story. Not many of us can. We are simply too close to the subject. So thank those crit partners, the mentors, the contest judges, and even Mom for pointing out the honest truth that your stuff stinks because it isn't telling the story that is really happening because it's bogged down in backstory.
What is the highest number of pages have you deleted because of backstory? Mine's 50.
Write on!

Starting Over . . . Again

Scrapping a book is tough, but sometimes a writer has to do it. I'm dumping only about 50 pages, but many authors dump 100-250 pages and start over. I'm lucky in the sense that a small publisher took interest in me. She liked my writing voice in LC though it didn't fit their imprint, and she wanted to see my next endeavor.
I wrote, tweaked and edited a submission and sent it to her. I sensed there was something wrong with it, but I didn't know what. I got a response a few days later, and it wasn't good.
It was all backstory. There's a reason it's called BS, people!
Yeah, when she so kindly pointed out my problem in a two page run down, I knew I had to start over. I find it disturbing that I can spot BS in other people's work, but not my own. I guess I'm just too close to the subject.
Anyhoo, I thought about it and started writing yesterday morning. Now, just because I'm scrapping my beginning doesn't mean I can't use some of my scenes or plotline, I can, though totally rewritten. And I intend to. But what I found interesting is that by simply rewriting the first page I discovered something very important--I discovered the reason for this story.
Oh, I thought I knew what was going on, but one of those simple sentences that I wrote triggered the whole thing to come together in my mind. So I'm off to write--I just had to get the stupid out first.
Don'tcha love it when it all comes together?
Write on!