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I have seen this in two other posts and I have addressed this in four submissions this week. So I am going to mention it here for your comment.
Character purpose.
I have asked this question and it usually takes a few discussions before I can get an answer from the writer. Here is the question:
What purpose does X serve in the story?
What one job does X need to accomplish?
I feel that many problems writers (myself included) suffer are a result of not having a clear understanding of what X is supposed to be doing. I know a character can develope a life of its own and run its own course. But if you never tried to understand why X is in the story how can you know if he is running away?
The two biggest problems I see is this:
X tries to do the job protagonist, antagonist, and side kick all rolled into one somehow. Because the writer does not seem to see or understand that the characters develope and contrast one another.
The other problem WHY is X doing this? They just throw X in a situation without understanding why X is the best choice for their story. They just do it and cannot understand why reviews come back saying: I just don't believe in this charcter. Or I don't connect with this character etc.
quote:I feel that many problems writers (myself included) suffer are a result of not having a clear understanding of what X is supposed to be doing. I know a character can develope a life of its own and run its own course. But if you never tried to understand why X is in the story how can you know if he is running away?
Assuming X is the main character, isn't this the same as not knowing what the story is and where it has to end? Or, do you mean secondary characters that just drift in and out without ever really doing anything?
I see X, the protagonist(s), as always striving for resolution.
I see Y, the antagonist(s), as always striving for chaos -- or, more precisely, to prevent X from getting resolution.
I see Z, the incidentals, as either helping or hindering X or Y, or sometimes both helping and hindering either X or Y at the same time. I like Z's... they are wildcards, and sometimes they are metaphorical wildcards.
X's must always have a goal.
Y's must always have a goal, usually opposite to X's, but always against whatever X wants.
Z's keep things slightly more interesting and bring more life to the world I create.
posted
I like stories where Y, the antagonist, is not striving to mess up X, but striving for his/her own perfectly valid and explicable resolution, that conflicts with X's goal.
posted
Knowing X's motivation is one thing, knowing X is quite another. Giving a character a goal isn't enough to make him/her/it seem real to a reader (not this reader, at least). It's the little things that connect me to the protagonist, the idiosyncrasies in their personality. For example: In Barbara Kingsolver's Pigs in Heaven, there is a little girl who carries around a clunky flashlight instead of a teddy bear. It's such a small detail, and yet it made that character stand out to me (nevermind that she wasn't the actual protagonist). It's the same in The Poisonwood Bible (also by Kingsolver). In that, one of the daughters speaks, and often thinks, in palindromes. Again, that's what made her seem real to me. Devil's in the details, as they say. Of course, this is all irelevant if the goal and motivation aren't clearly established first.
[This message has been edited by Isaiah13 (edited March 17, 2005).]
posted
I think I can paraphrase your question, JB, as: "Why is this character included in the story?" And you'd want an answer like "to frighten the protagonist" or "sounding board" rather than "well, the story took place on Route 66, and he happened to be driving by ..."
Posts: 2830 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Do you think this is caused by not sitting down and outlining the story first? In other words: Is this a product of characters running the show, rather than the writer telling the characters what to do.
Posts: 497 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
I think this is a result of not editing and not understanding story structure. Personally, I've got no problem with a character entering a story while I'm writing and then axing him if he's redundant.
For story structure, I don't think you have to outline a story. A lot of people sit down and just start with a cool setting but without an idea...you might have some lovely writing, but it's not a story. And you have to have conflict which means Character X has to want something. If they want something, the story aims toward achieving that goal; in fact the whole story is sort of a series of questions. Will X get closer the goal this time?
I frequently forget this while I write, but have some first readers who I trust to read my early drafts. They (often Survivor or Dakota) clonk me on the head and point out structure issues. Then I edit the sucker till everything has a purpose.
[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited March 19, 2005).]
quote:A lot of people sit down and just start with a cool setting but without an idea...you might have some lovely writing, but it's not a story.
I think that basically is summing up my thoughts on the matter. Without knowing the story to begin with, you don't have one. While outlining isn't necessary (and may or may not be useful), you still have to have a basic idea for a story.
It has occured to me that some of this could be caused by not knowing the ending (or having enough of an idea what the ending should be), before you start. While some people might be able to turn out a very nice product this way. Other's might not. I'm in the can't category on this. If I don't have enough of an ending in mind, (it doesn't need to be more than a scrap of an idea, really), my characters will simply sit around chatting and drinking coffee. Then eventually they begin to bring along their buddies who have some donuts and the whole thing degenerates from there. This results in a lot of words, but no real story worth telling.
posted
I feel your pain, JBSkaggs. I am also faced with the dilema of having to make choices based on how useful is the character. I'm preparing to edit a mega-story (1,000,000+ words) down to a reasonable size (100,000 words), and there are many characters who are just going to have to go away.
I've been trying to sketch an outline and identifying: which characters have to be present to get my X characters from beginning to end? Which Y characters have to be present to present obstacles? Which Z characters add flavor and color to the story, while not being central to the final outcome? and Which D characters represent dead threads, characters that were weak and didn't really have anything to add to the story.
I'm also holding in mind the usefulness of these characters later on... like everyone, my co-author and I plan to sell this story to the highest bidder, get wildly rich, and go on to write a whole fistful of these books. (Hey, it's MY fantasy!!) ... so I'm ALSO holding in mind which of these characters will be useful in "Book Two."
It is my hope that getting clear on the importance of these characters in the big scheme of things will give me some much needed guidance as to how much real-estate to devote to them, before I began whacking at this stupid thing with a chainsaw.
But I'd encourage you to let characters jump out at you and grow with the story. My main hero at this point started out his life as a one-time-mention throw-away NPC (in gamer jargon "Non-Player Character.) He's now become the primary character of this book, even over the character I initially formulated the story around.
If they aren't going anywhere, you can always write them out of the story or simply exorcise them from a later draft.
And let me know if you come up with a better formula than this... cause I need help with this issue myself!!!
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