How do you flesh out your characters? How do you go deeper?
Well, just as we don’t know people in one pass, we can’t know our characters in our stories fully in our early drafts, including when the main character is us, or anytime we’re basing characters on real people.
We come to know our characters (and by extension, ourselves) more and more deeply as we continue to write and revise.
In this episode, we’ll explore 4 ways to deepen characters that you may not have yet considered – elements most writers miss.
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Episode at a glance:
[03:55] Setting
Setting is one of those things many writers take for granted. But sometimes writers will just put setting in for the sake of having a place for their characters to be without considering how place and character are intertwined. Sometimes there’s not enough setting, and most often, setting is separate from the character. Setting is intimately tied to your character.
[13:08] Character Age
Sometimes writers are very direct. They’ll write something like Jordan, 77 years old, lived in an A frame house. But it’s far more absorbing to suggest a character’s age, or dramatize it as the character moves through the scene.
[18:19] Work
So much of our identity is wrapped up in work. Exploring how your character makes a living is a great way to harvest details of language, point of view, socio economic status, and setting. Even if work isn’t central to the plot, it’s still plays a hand in shaping how your character moves through the world.
[24:19] Small Details
Life is in the details. And they’re the lifeblood of story. The smallest details tell us more about a character than straight-up telling.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Episode 81: Story Details: What To Leave In, What To Leave Out
Best New American Voices 2005: Garden City by Frances Hwang
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Working by Studs Terkel
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
A Crime In The Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
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