Thinking About Characters
I’ve been pleased over the past week or so at the number of visits to the US and UK covers for Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three), both here and on the Supernatural Underground.
Their release, together with recent posts such as “Writing Epic Heroines” and “When Characters We Love Die”, has kept reflections on storytelling and the importance of world building and character creation uppermost in my mind.
Such reflections tend to focus on big name, main point-of-view characters (such as Malian and Klan in the Wall Of Night series) but as I observed in a Twitter conversation with reader, reviewer, and podcaster Paul Weimer last week:
““Sometimes I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”
I have talked about the importance of minor characters before, most recently in a July post Keeping Fantasy Fresh — & (With A Teaspoonful Of Luck!) Interesting where I observed that:
“To believe in the world, we first have to believe in the characters at an emotional level. Their hopes, dreams, and fears have to be real for us as readers. One way I strive to achieve that, as a writer, is to understand that no matter how large or small the part in the story, a character is always important to him or herself. Even the most minor of characters will have a history and a life that matters to them, and as the writer I have to convey a sense of that, even if the reader will only ever catch the most fleeting glimpse of the character on the page.”
I suppose it is like a lake or mountain in a natural landscape—however important or spectacular it may appear, it doesn’t exist in isolation. It is the surroundings, whether hills or forests framing a lake, or the rest of the mountain range providing ‘contrast’ with the high peak, that help highlight their prominence. (I think/hope that makes sense!)
So even if the main characters are well drawn, if the supporting characters are more in the nature of “cardboard cutouts”, or worse, caricatures, the story will often feel flat and unsatisfying. Stimulating ideas and fast-paced writing can provide compensation but ultimately a story is all about the characters, so a book where the secondary and minor characters are less than three-dimensional will always disappoint.
You can always tell a really great writer, in my humble opinion, by the effortless ease with which they bring their minor characters to life. For example, like Ursula Le Guin’s Lord and Lady Of O in A Wizard of Earthsea:
“That night the Lord of O was a guest of the school, himself a sorcerer of renown…With him was his lady, slender and young, bright as new copper, her black hair crowned with opals.”
Just a few lines, but it is enough to bring the Lady in particular to life for the less than two pages she figures in the story.
At any rate, because I believe minor characters play a vital part in making a story successful, I shall kick off my new About The Characters post series (starting this Thursday) by focusing initially on minor players from the Wall of Night series.
Looking forward to it!
Thanks, Paul.:)