Agatha's Guide to Character Writing

Lesson from an Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jnr Lesson #1

Now recently I read a book called ‘Breakfast of Champions’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jnr.  Whist the book was very confusing, and postmodernist Vonnegut proceeded to present a key theme, through his characters, that I believe is vital for character building.

The book does the small but very postmodernist convention of breaking the fourth wall, meaning the author or narrator has a direct conversation with the reader. With this in mind we must first examine the three main characters in Vonnegut’s novel. These include wealthy business man Dwayne Hoover, science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the omnipotent and omnipresent narrator. Basically the story goes that Hoover is influenced by one of Trout’s books, which is about a man who is the only man on earth with free will, Hoover believes he is this man. Trout, not wanting to seem rude goes along with this fantasy, which naturally leads Hoover on a violent rampage. By the end of the novel the narrator (who has been making comments throughout the novel) approaches Trout and gives him free will. Now after you’ve all been successfully been confused and read that a few more times I would like to say Vonnegut makes a good point.

Your characters have no free will.

There I said it, so please, please, please remember this when you write. Everything your character does or think is in your control. You are the omniscient narrator. Every action, situation, consequences, words…I don’t think you can bullshit this, in all seriousness. So think about your characters.

For Example this is a character I randomly made from the top of my head.

Name: Magnus Worthington

Status: Snobby, WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant)

Age: 17

Height: 175cm

School: Privately educated

Nickname: Floyd (homage to Pink Floyd’s song Money maybe?)

Motivations: Magnus has a hidden capitalist agenda, he sees money as the mover and shaker of life. Losing money to him, is like losing a child. He flaunts his cash because he has no true understanding of himself, he thinks money and power will make you friends. He’s insecure about himself as he doesn’t know the true meaning of friendship. This is a learned behaviour and can be seen in his family dynamic. His distant parents causing a rift and disdain for those content in family, of which he has no true value of.

Favourite saying: If I had a dollar for every time someone said I was a jerk, my capital would sky rocket.

Traits: Classic jerk/player status (only because of his relationship problems and due to him seeing sex as power and power as a value above all), manipulative, can have a sweet side (Beatles music is his favourite), hates the idea of poverty but doesn’t do anything to try and make the world a better place.

Relationships: Parents – rather bad, lack of communication, mother and father sacrifice money over family values e.g. didn’t come to his soccer games as a kid due to ‘work commitments’. Were in the financial position for children, but not emotionally ready, thinks money fixes everything which has been passed as a learned behaviour onto their son.

Girlfriend – slightly like the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (which I will address in a later chapter), seems childish and gives him the childhood that was stolen from him, in a sense. She has to have a darker side too, maybe she has bullying problems or is an abuser towards someone, you never know.

Siblings – same with parents, there is a great lack of understanding.

Events:

-          Family funeral, no one cares really about the dead person and inheritance issues.

-          Being mugged, psychological issues presented regarding Worthington thinking he is less of a man for being robbed or even emasculated because it was a loss of wealth.

-          Maybe he meets his girlfriend at the police station, but she won’t say why she’s there, she’s filling a report. Probably expand on this later

Now that, ladies and gentlemen is how I write out a character profile from the top of my head. Also if it’s in word I’ll just keep adding it. Already you can see just the situation forming and little events, even little reactions and little consequences but as the character builds and creates more depth the profile gets bigger, some of my character profiles are ten pages, it’s actually pretty insane.  

So in conclusion the lesson here is the issue of your characters free will, of which your character does not have. Once you keep that in mind I think it’s easier to write ideas and motivations for your character, as well as traits and other things. It also helps you think what you have to write. Like you have to write the reasoning behind Magnus’ love of money and power and what he thinks equates to power.

So I shall leave you with a quote from Breakfast of Champions about characters. (Keep in mind. I will discuss this quote in a later chapter).

"I thought Beatrice Keedsler had joined hands with other old-fashioned storytellers to make people believe that life had leading characters, minor characters, significant details, insignificant details, that it had lessons to be learned, tests to be passed, and a beginning, a middle, and an end.

As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen. And then I had come suddenly to pity them, for I understood how innocent and natural it was for them to behave so abominably, and with such abominable results: They were doing their best to live like people invented in story books. This was the reason Americans shot each other so often: It was a convenient literary device for ending short stories and books."

-Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions