Fiction Craft: Unmasking Characters

by Robert L Ferrier

As in real life, story people never reveal true character until they're stressed. Peril strips away masks.

However, characters will only perform as you wish if you've constructed them from the inside out. You must have the courage to use personal experience, blending your personality with borrowed traits from real and imagined people.

Following are techniques to build and stress characters at key points in the story.

Build the Character's Resume

Personal Facts

Construct a resume for each major character. Begin with personal facts -- name, birth date, physical description and occupation. Include descriptions of parents and siblings.

Dominant First Impression

Choose a two- or three-word description of the character's first impression. Examples: "Child Wizard," "Sage Mentor," "Reluctant Warrior, "High Priest," "Loyal Colleague," "Backstabber," "Soul Mate."

Personality

Emphasize traits (positive and negative) that differentiate the character. Choose one major flaw: Vanity? Low self esteem? Inflated ego? Highlight this flaw during conflicts.

Relationships

Describe relationships with family, friends and associates. Write one sentence "Bookend Statements": 1) five friends each describe one of the character's strengths, and 2) five enemies each describe a fault.

Tags

Imagine that you and the character stand on one side of an opaque pane of glass. Readers on the other side see a blurred image. Therefore you must paint the character with broad brush strokes. Include physical tags such as a limp, braces, tobacco stains or bright clothing.

Attitude traits add to the picture. Is the character pushy? Courageous? Devious? Kind?

Use mannerisms. Characters chew their fingernails. "Talk" with their hands. Stutter. Smoke. Play with their jewelry.

Backstory

In the resume, write past events that shaped the character's childhood. Did she suffer from an abusive father? Survive a life-threatening disease? Such events imprint a character and cause them to behave a certain way under pressure.

Backstory can have occurred unknown to the character. As a result, catastrophic events may happen now for no apparent reason. Only as the story unfolds does the character (and the reader) begin to solve the puzzle.

Unmask Characters by Stressing Them

Beginning of Story

All stories begin with change threatening the character. Before writing Chapter One, prepare a Starting Lineup like this one for Tolkien's Lord of the Rings:

1. Situation As assailants close in on the Shire,

2. Character Frodo Baggins

3. Objective must flee with the One Ring to destroy it in Mount
Doom.

But can he escape the forces of

4. Opponent Sauron, the Dark Lord,

5. Disaster who try to kill him at every turn in his quest?

All five components (situation, character, objective, opponent, disaster) must be in place. Test your Starting Lineup against Georges Polti's book, The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Strengthen weak components before beginning Chapter One.

Having prepared the character's resume and the story's Starting Lineup, assign a Story Equation to each major character. This implied equation will consist of a "right" trait versus a "wrong" trait. Place the character under immediate pressure to choose a path at the beginning of the story. For example, Frodo Baggins's Story Equation could be Duty vs. Fear. Frodo can either accept the quest or try to hide and save himself.

In the classic western High Noon, Gary Cooper faces a choice of Duty vs. Love. (Love is rarely a "wrong" trait -- except against Duty.) Grace Kelly, his pacifist bride, must choose between Love vs. Religious Pride. The villains face Honor vs. Greed.

Middle of the Story

Scene and sequel stress characters through the middle of the story. Both techniques occur in viewpoint. Each scene (scene goal, conflict, disaster) forces the character to take immediate action against increasing risks, and each scene results in a setback or complication.

In sequels (emotion, dilemma, analysis, decision, new scene goal) the character reacts to the previous scene's disaster. As the character rises to fight again, we know them better.

Climax of the Story

1. Decision Point

The middle of the story has forced the hero into a choice between the story goal and his personal well being. Review the character's story equation. The hero chooses the "right" side of the equation and seemingly sacrifices himself in an ultimate display of courage. This action strips away the final part of the mask and reveals hero's true character.

2. Reversal

This technique allows the hero to survive the final conflict with the villain while still achieving the story goal. Previously introduced plot material allows a reversal of expectation following the sacrificial action. For example, in High Noon, Grace Kelly chooses Love over Religious Pride. In a totally unexpected act, she kills the villain just before he shoots Gary Cooper in the back.

3. Story Goal

At this point the hero has achieved the story goal while retaining life and honor. In High Noon, Gary Cooper throws his badge at the feet of cowards who refused to help him. Then he walks off with his bride. This dynamic of Decision Point, Sacrificial Act and Reversal holds true in all forms of well-written commercial fiction.

In summary, build characters by constructing a detailed resume of their physical characteristics, personality, relationships and backstory. Use scene and sequel to force the character into a decision point. Reveal true character in a sacrificial act, saving the character and story goal through reversal.

Suggested Reading

Polti, Georges. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1977.

Swain, Dwight V. Techniques of the Selling Writer. Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.

Novelist and poet Robert Ferrier has three books published by SyngerEBooks (THE VIRTUAL GUARD, THE WITCHERY WAY and DEAR MR. KAPPS.) His fiction craft articles have been published worldwide. He lives in Oklahoma with his wife and daughter.

Copyright 2002 Robert Ferrier