Here are some notes on a great panel at Life the Universe and Everything SF/F symposium. The topic from a lecture of writing a memorable character. The presenter is by Lima Todd. She provides some excellent information and presented in a well-constructed manner. In accurate info is the result of Melva’s bad note taking.
- You want to make a character’s goal as noble. The goal of the book can be specific or abstract. One example of this is in the TV series walking dead. There is a couple who devoted to each other through in the fourth season and are separated from one another. So the four seasons dedicated than it back together again, and the motivations of the female character influence the actions of the group. She’s where in the hope that she can return back to the place which he thinks her companion will be.
- Power of suggestion. A sympathetic character: readers can relate to characters when we see that they have, to the same emotions and attitudes that we have. We want to find a part of ourselves in each character. You can achieve this through the power of suggestion. For example, by putting in details of seeing of maybe ocean waves washing against the feet are dying from a high Cliff and all the emotions and sensory details of those events can help the reader relate to the character.
- Sympathetic character: You’ll want to put obstacles in the way of the character to achieve their goal. The character needs in a conflict as well as the conference presented in the plot of the story. You Cantonese respond to the events in a realistic manner. For example, if they experience a car crash, not only with every the sensory details and emotions of the car crash, but they were an observer, they would have emotions after the car crash and do some form of action.React: When you show emotions or present an obstacle. You need to have the level of the character’s reaction match to the situation. You need to make effort to keep the character realistic in their behavior. The character needs to feel pain, but be careful to avoid self pitying and whining us.
- Be strong. Beginning characters need room to grow. That means they need to be a different individual at the end of the story, compared to who they were at the beginning. Do you know their inner conflict, beside the outside conflict of the plot? They may be afraid inside back brave on the outside. Two samples of strong characters of the still sympathetic is Harry Potter and endor Wiggins (Endor’s Game).
- Do characters have to be good? Two well-defined bad characters are Baltor of Battle Star Galactica and Loki, the brother of Thor.
- Note from Melva: Another bad character. I think of is Prof. Snape of Harry Potter.
- Check out the book. Save the cat by Blake slander
- Your character needs to care about someone or something. Think about someone who you like. Are they funny, witty, very intelligent, or the deceptive? Think of these traits and put some of those traits in your characters. They don’t have to be all nice. This’ll give us characters that would relate to
- A complex character: You might want to give your characters quirk or two in the characters to add more dimension to the character, such as biting nails, always touching the nose, or tugging their hair. That might be something physically unique, such as a patch of white in a normally dark beard.
- Tell show think: is bad to show a character doing something than to tell that the characters doing something. But the case will also need to think about the situation that there in. This can be illustrated by how they interact with people around them, or who they have relationships with the dialogue is a great way to show characterization.
- Have them afraid. Characters may not always be brave, but can be scared. It’s important to have your character with imperfections and to make mistakes.
- Growth: a character changes throughout a book. Don’t be afraid to hurt your character. It makes them change. There may be a series master arc in your book, but they will also be arcs in the different chapters and scenes. When the character undergoes a change. It should be slow and usually occurs from an external event. They might try to resist the change and to stop the event, or they might reach retreat a step and then step forward two steps. The ending event by show that the character has changed how the character reacts to a situation leads to the next event of the story. For example, in hunger games, the protagonist volunteers to be the chair, but in an effort to save her sister, but be consistent to make changes believable.
- There are a few exceptions were characters don’t change when the story is more upon the plot when the character. Two examples are Indiana Jones and James Bond.
Have something to add? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.
