By Reece Hirsch
How well do I know my protagonist before I start
writing?
I’ve tried doing elaborate character profiles before getting
started, listing a character’s personality traits, education, job history,
family, musical tastes, etc. But
while a laundry list of traits and likes and dislikes may stand in for
character, it isn’t really character.
Anyone who’s gone on a date based on a match.com profile could tell you
that.
For me, character profiles inevitably end up being a little
lifeless. While a profile can be a
useful way of setting down the broad strokes, my protagonist
usually only starts to come to life for me until after I’ve experimented with a
few scenes and tried out some dialogue.
Hopefully, by the third or fourth chapter of the first draft,
the character has started to speak in a distinctive voice that I can
recognize. Once I reach that
point, it usually means going back through the initial first draft chapters and
rewriting that character’s dialogue and interactions.
Once I’ve found that voice in a character, then I can start
finding ways to take some of the elements from the character profile and
building a protagonist who starts to feel like a real person who makes sense –
to the extent that anyone makes sense. I think it’s important that a character not be too
schematic. Although biographers do
their best to explain a life and turn it into a coherent story, no one is a
mathematical product of their traits and experiences. There are always contradictions, loose ends and weaknesses,
and that’s where a character begins to get interesting.
Maybe it’s the lawyer in me, but I tend to think of chapters
as transactions. In most effective
chapters, someone wants something and someone else is standing in opposition to
that desire. In THE INSIDER, I
found that in the scenes between lawyer Will Connelly and Yuri, a young wannabe
Russian mobster. In my next book,
there’s a scene between another lawyer protagonist and a slimy online
pornographer that served the same purpose for me. It’s always interesting to observe two characters who can’t
stand (or understand) each other.
Those are often the scenes where I really start to find a character, and
what I discover is usually something that wasn’t in my character profile.
4 comments:
I really like this little gem. It's so on point and not something I've considered: "I tend to think of chapters as transactions. In most effective chapters, someone wants something and someone else is standing in opposition to that desire."
Although I work better when I "prepare" before I write, I'm with you on character bios... I don't really get to know my characters into they start moving around on the page.
Interesting. I always assumed writers started off with fully formed protagonists itching to have their stories told. Of course it makes sense that sometimes it's the story/plot itself that demands telling and the protagonist comes along in the process.
Sue Ann -- Glad you liked that one. Like I said, I think it's the laywer in me.
Meredith -- My sentiments exactly. I'll keep preparing character profiles, I just find that once I start writing, I discover my best stuff.
Alisa -- I'm sure there are some writers who have the character in their head from the moment they put pen to paper. I just find that I need to wander around a bit before I get there.
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