Slowly, the Mule bowed his head, equally anger together with despair cornered his remove heed completely, “Yes. Too late–Too late–Now I encounter it.”
“Now yous encounter it,” agreed the First Speaker, “and similar a shot yous don't.”[Isaac Asimov, Foundation together with Empire]
The menses betwixt the completion of the showtime draft of a new together with embarking upon the changes required to orbit a concluding draft is, for me at least, i of bang-up intensity. Sometimes it tells me things I seriously needed to larn – together with non exactly for the refinement of the electrical flow novel-under-construction.
In my stories, the driving forcefulness is e'er character. More specifically, my stories are virtually the reasons people produce things. Tom Kratman has said that illuminating the “eternal verities” is his fuel. That’s a skillful brusk fashion to position it, for the eternal verities are immutable facts of human nature – together with the most of import of those facts, at that. So equally I write, the characterization procedure is continuously uppermost inwards my thoughts.
That doesn’t hateful I e'er acquire it right.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 friend I shan’t cite has served equally an indispensable exam reader for Experienced, which is drawing close to release. Her observations select proved critical to unearthing flaws together with under-exploited motifs inwards the story. But the most valuable matter she’s done for me is to illuminate, to together with for me, a stunningly of import guideline to characterization.
There are entirely 3 ways to characterize a character:
- Through what he says;
- Through what he does;
- Through what other characters tell virtually him.
My friend illustrated this for me past times capturing each of the Marquee together with Supporting Cast characters inwards Experienced inwards no to a greater extent than than 3 sentences. And inwards reading her summations I had a encephalon flash that damned close incinerated the BLEEP!ing useless thing:
If yous can’t produce that, you’ve got a problem.
That comes pretty roughly beingness a fictioneer’s Philosopher’s Stone.
Characterization is critical to whatsoever author who has a topic of importance inwards mind. If Smith wants his even out to print the importance of some thought on his readers, he must produce together with hence through the decisions together with actions of his Marquee characters, together with through the changes they experience equally they locomote his fictional landscape. Bad fiction volition neglect at this; skillful fiction volition convey it off beautifully.
The novelists of centuries past times oftentimes missed this point. I uncovering it relatively slow to excuse them; later on all, the new equally a degree was yet inwards its infancy, together with what industrial plant / doesn’t function was yet beingness discovered. We of today select no excuse.
Theme is closely coupled to the emotions nosotros experience at seeing a grapheme triumph or fail, or last exalted or destroyed. In my footling tome The Storyteller’s Art, I wrote:
[I]t's the passion evoked past times the topic that's actually important. However, the author can't merely scream at his readers, “Feel deeply for my characters!” That would last akin to an thespian trying to evoke audience emotion without a script, past times the sheer ability of his expressions together with poses. That's called “emoting,” together with no self-respecting theatergoer -- or reader -- volition correspond it.Theme, equally embodied inwards plot together with character, is the conduit past times which the author transmits his passion to his readers. There’s a conservation constabulary at function here, though non i you’d report inwards first-year physics: passion tin neither last created nor destroyed, but entirely transmitted from creative someone to consumer.
This approaches tautology. Yet the heartily detested maxim ”Show, don’t tell!” which fledgling writers select resented since Ug showtime scrawled on the wall of his cave is virtually zero else.
And equally always, the fewer words yous bespeak to capture a grapheme you’ll purpose to transmit your passion to your readers, the to a greater extent than probable you’ll last to describe that grapheme inwards a maximally effective way.
So: Once you’ve decided on your topic together with Marquee characters, for each character, write 3 sentences, no more. One virtually the sort out of things the grapheme volition do. One virtually the sort out of things he’ll say. And i virtually what the other characters volition last prone to proverb virtually him. Strain for concision inwards each sentence; concision is the best imaginable assist to clarity. For best results, produce this earlier typing the showtime judgement of the story. Print the results on a 3” x 5” card, prop that carte du jour inwards front end of your monitor, together with brand a betoken of reviewing it earlier yous start out a scene.
It’s the cure for what ails your stories, together with it’s available without a prescription. Trust kindly onetime physician Fran. Might assist amongst your rheumatism, too.
