Presenting Characters -- No Whine, Just...

Eight Ways to present a character in fiction according to Walter S. Campbell in Writing: Advice and Devices

1. By actions of character

2. By speech of character

3. By effect of the character on other story people

4. By characters reactions to other story people and circumstances

5. By what other story people say about the character

6. By explaining traits and motives of the character

7. By description of the character

8. By analyzing the psychological processes of the character

As always, any topic that will help us improve our writing is fair game in these discussions, so feel free to bring up any of your writing concerns.

Let's talk.

The group No Whine, Just Champagne will meet here at this article for a live discussion about writing and the writing life on Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 9:00pm ET (8pm CT, 7pm MT, 6pm PT). Hope to see you, but if you can't make it then, the discussion will continue during the days afterward, so please stop by and tell us what you think.

Comments: 57

Angela A. Mar 1, 2012, 11:42am UTC

Mainly I love having characters being introduced by their actions and inner thoughts.

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Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 9:06pm UTC

It seems as if this list is in order of importance. The very least important way of presenting characters is analyzing them since the readers are supposed to have enough information to make the analysis themselves.

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L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 9:13pm UTC

It just goes to show, it's not just what a character says and does on the face of the story, it's also how they interact with their world and little things they do that build the character.

Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 9:19pm UTC

Yes -- that how you end up with a well-rounded character, and how you can start out with just a vague idea of a character and end up with one who seems real. I just realized there is another way of presenting a character -- by the decisions they make. (Though I suppose that could fall under the category of actions.)

L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 9:34pm UTC

My characters almost always start with nothing more than a vague feeling of the person. From there who they are builds and evolves as the story does.

Funny, my stories pretty much do the same.

Except one - I started a childrens story, probably will be a chapter book, about a little girl who lies a lot and goes on an adventure. That one is inspired completely by my youngest.

Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 9:48pm UTC

Sounds like a fun book to write.

L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 9:52pm UTC

I have to rewrite what I did, but it was fun so far. A little girl who is incapable of telling the truth (omg, that is so my kid!), the kids tease her, even bully her a little for it. She ends up running away to help a kid circus elephant who just wants to find her mom because when she finally does tell the truth no one will believe her.

Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 9:57pm UTC

I wonder if your kid ending up hating you for writing the story of if she will be thrilled with it.

L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 10:16pm UTC

With her I think it will depend on her mood at the time.

As it is, even though I bend over backward for them, do everything for them (including forcing them to do things for themselves even though it would be sooooo much easier to just do it myself), one minutes she hates me and the next she gives me a hug and kiss out of the blue and says its for being such a wonderful mom. Unfortunately the hate moments seem to be much more frequent. At just turned 7, I think she's already a teenager.

Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 10:34pm UTC

I don't envy you her teenage years. On the other hand, I think she'll give you much fodder for books!

L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 10:42pm UTC

I honestly don't know which one will give us more of a run for our money.

The younger, who is tough and has to do everything herself and her way, or the older one who, at only 8, is trying so hard to be a teenager and is full of wicked moods, is overly sensitive, and seems so badly to one-up the world even though she's shy and introverted.

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Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 9:17pm UTC

Dialogue is a good way of getting to know characters. In Daughter Am I, where all the characters were together most of the time, their different ways of talking and their different focuses of topics helped keep them from all melding in together.

L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 9:20pm UTC

I find myself moving towards other methods and having to go back and try to put dialogue in. I have trouble with dialogue. It never seems to feel natural.

L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 9:36pm UTC

It just feels awkward for me. I don't know what to have them say. It's like being stuck in that awkward moment when you are face to face with someone, know you have to say something, feel like you probably look stupid, and have no idea what to say.

Describing a scene and actions just flow naturally, but I struggle with the dialogue.

Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 9:39pm UTC

Funny . . . for me, dialogue just races along. It's everything else that I get stuck on. Maybe I should be writing screenplays.

L V Gaudet Mar 1, 2012, 9:54pm UTC

The only way I manage the dialogue is to put what the character is thinking and then go back and rewrite those sentences with dialogue. Even then it still feels like that awkward moment when you are left to talk to someone with no idea what to say.

Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 10:00pm UTC

Yes, that's a good way of putting it -- that it's an abridged way of talking. You leave out the ums and uhs and repetitions and stammering, the hellos and good-byes and other inanities, and go directly to the heart of the speech.

More than that, dialogue is an artificial construct, to make it seem as if the speech were spontaneous, individual, and natural.

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Pat Bertram Mar 1, 2012, 11:05pm UTC

Thank you L.V. and P.W. for a wonderful discussion!! It was a joy, as always. See you next week.

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Presenting Characters -- No Whine, Just Champagne Writing Discussion #179

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