WRITING TIPS to Hook your Reader and Keep them Hooked.

Ch 6 - The Best Techniques for getting to know your characters

CHAPTER 6: THE BEST TECHNIQUES FOR GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS

In Chapter 5, I talked about a two-sided technique for making your characters more believable to your reader. The technique is something you can use while writing a scene. But what about before you start writing? Some authors choose to embark on a first draft knowing only the vaguest things about their main character. They may only know the inciting incident that will propel their character to action and what their character wants. And they'll probably have an idea of their character's strengths and weakness' and their background. Other writers will have pages and pages of character charts, back-story and interviews, before they set pen to page.

These are the most talked about/ popular methods for working on, or getting to know your character.

The Character Diamond

The Character Interview

The Character Back-story summarized.

I think two and three are fairly self-explanatory. The first method - the character Diamond - I'll explain briefly. For further information and details, check out the links at the end of the explanation.

Romance writer Connie K. Flynn is often credited and cited concerning the Character Diamond or what she's also been known to call the Character Triangle. (I don't know whether she 'invented' it.)

Flynn says all characters need four main traits, and you can imagine these traits forming the shape of a diamond. At the top of the diamond is the "Spine." On one side of the diamond is the "Fatal Flaw", on the other the "Supporting Trait". And at the bottom you have what Flynn calls the "Shadow".

Here's an explanation of each of those:

1. Spine - Defines how the character operates. It's the trait which she normally displays, such as warm, caretaker, reserved, logical, warrior, outgoing, leader, etc. Think snappy, descriptive nouns or adjectives. This is an admirable trait and it makes the character distinctive and likeable to your audience (or in case of the villain, despicable). It is the most visible part of the personality, both in life and in stories.

2. Fatal Flaw - This trait brings the protagonist down, and is the villain's strength. In all cases, the fatal flaw is a positive trait carried to extreme (thrifty vs. miserly; courageous vs. reckless, protective vs. overbearing). The character is blind to this trait or considers it a virtue. Stories revolve around how the character deals with the fatal flaw.

3. Shadow - A secret yearning. The protagonist actively suppresses this trait or is unaware he has it, or believes it's a quality he lacks. Mostly it is invisible to the character and to the world. It is not an evil trait as is commonly supposed. It is suppressed because it doesn't harmonize well with the other three traits. Generally the shadow is in direct opposition to the primary characteristic and fatal flaw. The individual believes that allowing it to emerge would destroy the integrity of the personality while, in truth, this is the trait that completes the personality and allows the character to defeat the fatal flaw.

In the explanation of the Character Diamond (as opposed to triangle) Flynn also defines the Supporting Trait.

Supporting Trait - A supporting trait is consistent with the spine. "This can be a value, a preference, or a method of expressing oneself. Devoted to family, loves the outdoors, bouncy and outgoing are examples of what can be used," says Flynn.

You can find Flynn's whole article here:

http://www.connieflynn.com/char-triangle.pdf

Many writers find the Character Diamond a great method for brainstorming ideas about their characters, for ensuring the characters are dynamic and full of internal conflict and to help ensure their characters are coherent. It's something I've used in the past, but more and more over time, I've grown wary of pushing traits onto my characters that may seem logical but haven't actually grown from the character.

This is why my current favorite method of getting to know my main characters, is seeing them in action before the story begins. (I began using this method when I was working on edits for my first published book, The Glimpse, two years ago). I go back a month, or a year, or six years to events that have marked them, or that I think may have made them the way they are. I write scenes to see what really happened between people...

Maybe you have a character who you know is scarred by the loss of their father. Well if your character was a 'real' person, they would have thousands of memories associated with the days and months surrounding that loss. Smells, conversations, other people's attitudes, their own numbness or anger or shock. What they were doing the moment they found out about the accident - what was playing on the radio, who told them, how they told them. By living through what my character has lived through, and seeing how they think and react to these circumstances, I start to feel like I know them.

Scenes always play out in unexpected ways - your character will surprise you, intrigue you, make you wonder. They'll show you things you'd never have found otherwise.

Ninety-eight percent of this will probably not be in your book. But salient, specific images - like Lena in Lauren Oliver's Delirium, peeling an orange and it reminding her of her mother's funeral - will rise to the surface, making your character's reactions and memories unique, real and layered. And later on, when your book is published, you'll have extra material to interest your fans, to include in bog tours, or to offer as a separate novella.