Character

I firmly believe that people always show you who they really are. Even liars eventually reveal their true selves in one way or another, more often than not through action.

Remember this: character is revealed through action.

Yes, of course physical description matters as do names, and I certainly want you to include these things in your writing, but I really want you to think about action, including scenes and dialogue as the building blocks of character.

Think about it: we know who people are because of what they do, how they behave, and how they react to circumstances. We build relationships over time through shared experiences. By doing things together, we become bonded.

This is also how we show who our characters are on the page.

In "Bird by Bird" Anne Lamott gives us a lot to think about in her chapter on Character (p 44-53), and that’s part of your reading for next week. “One line of dialogue that rings true reveals character in a way that pages of description can’t,” she argues on p. 47, after suggesting that “pages and pages of straight description . . . will probably wear us out.”

She also suggests that we ask a series of questions about our characters in order to help understand and listen to them, because “you need to find out as much as possible about the interior life of the people you are working with” (45). Some questions to consider about your characters:

*how do they stand?
*what do they carry in their pockets or purses?
*what happens in their faces and to their posture when they are thinking, or bored, or afraid?
*whom would they have voted for last time?
*why should we care about them anyway?
*what would be the first thing they’d stop doing if they found out they had six months to live? Would they start smoking again? Would they keep flossing?
*what do they look like?
*what sort of first impression do they make?
*what does each one care most about, want more than anything in the world?
*what are their secrets?
*how do they move?
*how do they smell?

“Everyone is walking around as an advertisement for who he or she is—so who is this person? Show us” (46).

Aha! There’s that word again. SHOW. Show more than you tell. That’s looping back to action rather than description. Of course we need both in prose.

In your journal, answer that list of questions about the person you’d like to write about. This can be a made-up person, a fictional character; it can be someone you know whom you’re trying to capture as accurately as possible; or it can be a hybrid of the two—or a fictional character based on many different traits culled from several people you actually know.

And here’s another exercise for your journal, though you’ll also be using it in your writing due for workshop next week Tuesday:

Character exercise: A little less conversation, a little more action

When you meet someone, you do not start by announcing your height, weight, hair, and eye color, so please do not introduce your character to readers like this. But how to avoid describing looks and physicality without chunks of exposition?

Consider this line from James Joyce’s "Ulysses": “He looked in Stephen's face as he spoke. A light wind passed his brow, fanning softly his fair uncombed hair and stirring silver points of anxiety in his eyes.”

Joyce takes advantage of a moment of action to shed light on Stephen’s looks and his anxious demeanor.

Try your hand at conveying your character through action by first writing a list of physical traits that apply to your character. Next, with that list at hand, write a scene where something is happening — whether it’s a conversation, laundry-folding, cooking, etc. Weave references to your character’s physicality into the action. Include this scene in your writing for workshop next week.

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In addition to reading the chapter on Character from "Bird by Bird", please also read the short story "Silver Water" by Amy Bloom from the "Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction" (p. 72-79 in my edition).

As you’re reading, take note of how characters are introduced and established. Who are the strongest, clearest characters in your mind after you finished reading and why? How do you know who the narrator is? Her sister Rose? Her mother? Her father? The doctors? How much of how we know them is revealed in description and how much in scene or through action and dialogue?

Literally take notes about what is shown and what is told. Then head over to MSTeams and respond to at least two of the questions I’ve raised in the Posts section. I’m hoping we can have a little bit of a discussion over there about the stories we’re reading as writers to help cultivate our understanding of craft together.

Then, for your writing due next week, write a piece of prose focused on a character of your creation. Include the physical description from the exercise above in which the physicality is woven into action. Also include some dialogue. Give the character something to react to. Yes, there can be other characters, too, and you’ll also have to keep in mind the narrator as a character as well. Lamott addresses narrator in her chapter on Character.

Most importantly, have fun creating the character in prose and sharing the writing with your workshop group. Let’s make it between 500 and 750 words.

So, to recap, here’s your to-do list for next week:

1.Read the chapter on Character from Bird by Bird as well as the short story Silver Water by Amy Bloom from the Scribner Anthology.
2.Go to the “Posts” section of our MSTeams site and reply to the questions I’ve posted there about character in the short story.
3.Do the writing exercises above in your journal (to be turned in with your final portfolio at the end of term), answering the list of questions drawn from Bird by Bird about your character and then crafting physicality in action.
4.Write a character sketch to turn in to your workshop group by next week Tuesday, May 12, at noon. It should be between 500 and 750 words and SHOW character in scene, perhaps with some dialogue, as well as physical description in action. Consider HOW you’re revealing who the person is to your reader and how much you’re revealing in action and how much you’re explaining through description. You need some of both, but try to rely more heavily on SHOWING in ACTION.
5.When you workshop each other’s writing, be especially responsive to how you know who the character is and how the writer has chosen to reveal detail in action.