Copyright © 2014 Jerry Dunne
It is difficult enough to bring character to life in a novel, but a short story offers an even trickier challenge. Many writers need time to build their character and give it energy. They can’t just slap down a few details on paper and watch it jump into life. They build it slowly and thoughtfully in the set-up stage of the story and then through plot movement. They do this by using a combination of exposition and active description. Exposition is where the writer tells you things directly about the character, such as where they were born and grew up. This is the easiest way of giving information about character. But a character really only comes to life through the concept of ‘SHOW, not tell’. Here the writer will actively describe their habits, fears, etc., for example, and often through the plot-related action of the scene and often without actually telling you these things directly. But, really, character has no alternative other than to come to life through the plot arc of the story. This is the way of fully catching the attention of your reader. And because in a short story we have little time to spare in building character, we must be ready right from the beginning to spark our characters into life and immediately start their development through the action of the scene.
Fair enough! But how does knowing this help us bring character to life as quickly as possible for the short story? Well, obviously, it must be through some sort of plot related action. Okay, then, let our emphasis be on this. Let’s start off creating a plot-related single action or series of short actions that will immediately spark up our character.
What we can do here is develop a single aspect of character related solely to our short story’s idea first and foremost (the idea which made you sit down and start planning it all out) before doing any further character building. This has to be one of the most focussed and quickest ways of sparking up character and infusing it with energy through plot-related direction. By doing it this way, we may also unconsciously help spark up at least one other plot-focussed character.
This will almost certainly mean we need to concentrate on expressing a select part of the inner workings of character first, and that will revolve around the character’s plot-related want, desire or need, which will be motivated by a particular love, fear, ambition, prejudice, anxiety, and so on. But I always think of the word attitude first when dealing with a character’s inner mechanisms in this particular way.
For an example of how to advance practically in this way, let’s work with the idea behind one of my children’s short stories Paddy’s Beard.
You have an image in your mind of a ten-year-old boy with a beautiful beard and think you might somehow develop a short story out of this image. Some writers will start creating the character of the boy with a description of him and his beard, then his interests, family background, etc. But this is an unfocussed way of working for our purpose. A ten-year-old boy with a beard is the inspiration here. It is the idea for the short story.
So, rather than worry about lots of external factors at this point, let’s spark up this character out of this single idea. Ask yourself: What is this boy’s attitude to his beard? Out of that question come these sorts of questions: how much does he like it? How has life been different for him with his beard? How would he feel about losing it? Would he miss it? How far would he be prepared to go to keep it? Now we have got straight to the heart of the matter and, no doubt, the plot, too. Now the character can easily spring into life through the force of his attitude.
To simplify! Boy has a beard. Let’s say he loves it and he’d do a lot to keep it if he was threatened with its loss. (Or what else is the heart of the story going to be about?) This doesn’t sound like much but it is a good start. Wait and see!
But now we’ve almost got ourselves an antagonist here.
But who? Obviously, he’s a new baddie in town who will try and force this boy to part with his beard. Look how easily we have just created the beginnings of two major characters, and also the potential for great conflict in the story. This baddie will be a new teacher to the school who is hairless because he hates hair (what else?). Paddy’s beard will be a red rag to a bull for him. Can’t you already feel the two characters champing at the bit to get the story underway, especially the teacher who will give us the inciting incident and kick the plot fully into gear?
Now that we have the protagonist and his attitude to his beard and also the antagonist and his attitude to Paddy’s beard, we can speedily spark up Paddy’s character because the plot arc of the story revolve only around the beard. As the plot twists and turns, Paddy’s attitude to his beard will become more and more apparent and therefore we will see his character develop out of this attitude – due to the decisions and actions the boy takes in his struggle to try and keep his beard.
In practical terms, and, in general, in order to spark up the character, it is better first to create that part of the scene which involves the inciting incident of the story. Here the antagonist is going to throw down the gauntlet to the protagonist in some way. Of course, this sketch we write to spark up our character must involve action on the part of both protagonist and antagonist. We must see them clash with one another and the consequences of the reaction to that clash must in some plot-related way continue on into the following scenes.
It doesn’t have to be the inciting incident; it is just the ideal one to do. You can make up a situation entirely or better still sketch out one that you know is coming later in the plot. So, with our example, we could write out the first time the teacher sets eyes on the boy, which will also be the inciting incident. Obviously, this will be in his classroom because this is where he has the most power over the boy and so therefore can apply the most pressure on him. After the new teacher introduces himself to the class, he tells them how much he hates hair and how they had better not put a hair out of place in his class, or else… and then at some point he sees Paddy sitting there at the back of the room, proudly wearing his fully grown beard. Now the sparks are about to fly as the characters spark into life in this single clash.
Now you have one good scene with the boy and his antagonist in the plot arc. And now your character/s is sparked up, you can write any other scene you fancy that you know is coming. But the next scene along here will probably be between the boy and his mother where he explains to her what happened, that the teacher wants him to get rid of the beard. This scene is going to be much easier to write now as your sparked-up character is ‘overflowing’ from the previous one where the action was tense and emotional.
Of course, the above is an upfront clash with almost comic-like characters. But the principle holds firm. Even if the exchange is based on subtle emotional undercurrents expressed through subtext, if you stick to using plot-related conflict and crisis, you will still get your characters to come instantly to life just as strongly. This must happen as character always comes alive through the action of the piece.
Superfluous details about the boy actually tell us nothing about his attitude to his beard, the basic idea behind the story. But SHOWING his attitude to the beardwill give him energy and bring him quickly to life, his hair colour or the clothes he wears or his attitude toward school or reading or maths won’t in any way that really matters. If I left out every other physical attribute or non-essential personality attribute about this boy in the story, except the one of the beard and his attitude toward it, his character would still be strong and focussed because his plot-relatedactions would still reflect this attitude toward the beard (they could not help but do so) and therefore would build the essentials of his overall character out of those actions. That doesn’t mean you don’t need other physical and character attributes; it just means they are not the most important thing in bringing a character to life for the plot movement. Even if Paddy is just standing there on the page proudly stroking his beard (which isn’t technically in and of itself a plot-related action), well, that, in fact, still immediately starts to bring his character to the foreground in a relevant way because the beard and his love of the beard are what the heart of the story is all about. Then, once any sort of plot-related action follows this beard stroking, his character will jump immediately into life - in a way that counts.
Summary
If you feel your character is not coming to life, no matter how much attention to detail you have used, ask yourself whether it is detail relevant to the character’s plot-related attitude which in turn is relevant to the story’s original idea. And if it is not, then sit down and attempt to write out some sort of sketch (ideally the inciting incident) where your protagonist and antagonist are clashing, and which revolves around this attitude, and while using plot-related conflict and a crisis in the writing, of course. This ought to spark up the characters straightaway.
Remember! Character – attitude – basic idea – plot. All closely interlinked.
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This article is a reedited piece from a chapter in Jerry Dunne’s book How To Write Children’s Short Stories (for the middle reader).
Links:
Exercises for sparking up character in the short story
From stereotype to rounded character with speed and ease
The story’s 3-act plot arc structure
Emotion and the story’s plot arc
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