by Katherine Reay, @Katherine_Reay
Last month I talked about “bleeding on the page.” It’s topic worth revisiting – so let’s chat a little bit more about drawing out vulnerability and emotion from within our characters.
Specifically, let’s talk about writing 3D Characters…
These are the kind of characters we all want to write. Characters that are so real and alive a reader can almost start a conversation with them. Now – before we all panic about making every cameo character rich and vibrant– there are times when we need a good unchanging 2D character too. Such a backboard serves a vital purpose in a story – but that backboard/canvas only works if it’s the oddity. A 2D character only works if, in comparison to that character’s truculent sameness, everyone else is multifaceted and layered.
But how do we write those rich multifaceted characters?
I say we reach them by passing by the easy and the obvious. When you think about the emotion one feels when betrayed, you may reach for anger. Or maybe shock. Don’t convey those. They are expected and the reader has already supplied them for you. Readers interact with our stories and bring to them their own emotions – so shock and anger are already there.
What about regret? That’s an interesting emotion… Dig into that one. Or does your character feel a yearning for what was? Vindication? Surprise? Derision? If truly betrayed by a friend of loved one, we will feel a series of emotions crashing across one another at any given moment. I say play with that cacophony within your character and see what new emotional avenues and even plot twists emerge. I often find that a character’s unexpected emotional reaction to something drives the story in and new and exciting direction.
So next time you write a great conflict scene or any scene in which your character is doing, thinking, changing… And, hint-hint, that should be close to every scene – dig a little deeper into his or her emotional landscape and have some fun. Explore. Find a twist deep in that character’s psyche. It’s often that unexpected feeling (that twinge of vindication upon being betrayed – how intriguing…) that sparks your character to life.
Have fun! And thanks for spending a moment here with me today – my birthday!
The Printed Letter Bookshop
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Katherine Reay is the national bestselling and award-winning author of Dear Mr. Knightley, Lizzy & Jane, The Bronte Plot, A Portrait of Emily Price, and The Austen Escape. Her next novel, The Printed Letter Bookshop, will release May 2019. All Katherine’s novels are contemporary stories with a bit of classical flair. Her first nonfiction work will release December 2019. Katherine holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University, and is a wife, mother, former marketer, and avid chocolate consumer. After living all across the country and a few stops in Europe, Katherine now happily resides outside Chicago, IL. You can meet her at www.katherinereay.com or on Facebook: KatherineReayBooks, Twitter: @katherine_reay or Instagram: @katherinereay.