Tag: character development

What Can Theatre Do For You?

A Guest Post
by Benjamin Steele

Some time ago I was approached by my mum, Carolyn Steele, who wanted my opinion for a blog post. She said it was about characters, what makes them flat or page-leapy, and how we feel about our creations. She had to stop me when I started to ramble about Stanislavski, and we decided there might be a post in how an actor’s method could benefit the fiction writer. I would like to share with you how my experience as an actor and playwright helps my development of prose characters.

So you’ve got a character that comes off a little flat, a little boring—he’s just zis guy you know? I’ve heard all sorts of tips for giving characters a little more life: the most common being physical or personality quirks, and rich backgrounds that shape their development. While these are undoubtedly useful tools for both the writer and the actor, I consider them to be traps. These should be supplementary tools, second to the arguably most important influence on a character’s action: Dreams of the future. Continue reading “What Can Theatre Do For You?”

How Well Did the Reader Know the Decedent?

Here is the situation: You have written a mystery, police-procedural, thriller, spy novel, western, or something of the like. Now you get to the part where there’s a dead guy. You killed off a character. Maybe your bad guy killed the person. Maybe your good guy killed the person.

It ramps up the drama. It gives urgency and purpose to the story. Maybe the good guy has to stop the bad guy before he kills again. Maybe the vigilante just wrought his first bit of rough justice. Continue reading “How Well Did the Reader Know the Decedent?”

Who’s your fall guy?

Author Vickie Johnstone

by Vickie Johnstone

Fall guys… ah, we all know about those. Growing up watching Star Trek (my dad’s fave – and he looked a bit like him!) with William Shatner forever getting his shirt ripped diagonally (in the exact same place every time – was there magic tape?), I knew that whenever someone we didn’t really know beamed down to the spooky planet of the week, he wasn’t coming back. But that was okay because we hadn’t really got to know them, and sometimes their death saved the life of someone more important or much fitter, and it was always much better than one of our heroes – Kirk, Spock or Bones – getting squished.

I was thinking about this while watching an episode of the second series of The Walking Dead. I love this show – it’s my latest addiction! Anyway, a character that I really liked got… well… how can I put it? He got dead-ed. Kaput. Squished. Therefore this person (I won’t give it away) won’t be appearing again. I went to bed thinking oh no! I liked this character. He had personality. I’d gone through nearly two whole series with this person, sharing his laughter, sadness, struggles, battles with the yucky looking undead-ed people, seeing what he had for dinner… the whole kaboom. And now… well, you-know-who was zombie spam. Continue reading “Who’s your fall guy?”

Characters – Who Are They Really? Melissa Pearl

Author Melissa PearlI am in the throes of planning my next novel and having so much fun with it. I love the planning stage. Who am I kidding? I love every stage!! But there is something very cool about starting with a blank slate and filling in all the spaces.

I have been working on character profiling this week and as I delve deeper into who these characters really are, my story is getting shaped and formed into something much stronger than my original idea. Scenes are being added and changed as I discover what these characters are like beneath the surface.

Robert McKee, author of STORY: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting says the best characters are the ones who are contradictory in nature. I agree. It is so much more interesting writing about a person who comes across as a golden boy, but when push comes to shove, turns out to be a total weakling… or a woman who is all prickles and snark, but in reality is just a scared little kid, afraid to face the failings of her past. Continue reading “Characters – Who Are They Really? Melissa Pearl”