We need characters to do things. The more dramatic and exciting and heart-breaking, the better. But make no mistake, a character can’t simply do willy-nilly. In years of writing, I’ve learned the hard way the highest rule of character development:
There’s always a reason.
Now don’t think the reason has to be logical. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your character must react in a way that many, if not even most, people would agree with. Which leads me to part two of this all-mighty rule:
The reason must be consistent with who the character is.
We’ve all read and seen it, in our own work and in others. We become so fixated on a character behaving in a certain way that we forget who he or she is at their core.
Sure, it would be wonderful if Girl accepts Boy’s proposal. We know he’s a nice fellow, and we like him, and heck, so does she. We know this! But we also know that Girl has major abandonment issues and is terrified of having her heart broken, so when she declines Boy’s proposal and ruins her best chance at love, we are angry, maybe even furious, but we understand that this is what she would do. This is consistent with who she is and who we have come to know her to be. If she ran off with him and lived happily ever after at this point we’d feel a bit, well, confused. And anytime a reader steps mentally and emotionally away from a character to question his or her motivations, the magic fades.
I have a little trick when it comes to this. I imagine that every time my character does or says or thinks something, I’ll be subjected to a pop quiz to explain why (this might have something to do with being married to a teacher). It works every time, and with every character.
Now your turns. Anyone else spend time with a pesky character who did the right thing, instead of the right-for-them thing?
Conversely, I have absolutely no reason at all for posting this picture of the cheese blintzes we had for breakfast this morning except that I’ve been noticing a distinct lack of food images on this blog and feeling badly for it. The blintzes are a family recipe and a favorite (What I’d serve if I had a restaurant). If anyone wants it, let me know. I’ll be more than happy to post.
I think it’s the matter of my novel (I plan to start querying agents in September): one of the protagonists does what’s good-for-him at the beginning and spends the rest of the novel running away from it! š
See what I mean, Barb? Parenting our characters, wanting to guide them accordingly, but knowing they are who they are at the end of the day…
Food for thought. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
The blintzes look fab and your rule is a good one. Must remember it.
Good one. We like puns around here. Thanks, Downith.
Great, great article. I agree with you 100% that there is always a reason! This article answers the problem I was having with my own characters. And this is actually the answer (although discovered a few months too late) to the big issue I was having with book one. The motivation behind my characters’ actions did not accord to their personalities. When my critique partner pointed this out to me, I realized I had known all along, but had been willfully blind to it. I just didn’t want to bother fixing it and was hoping no one would notice it. But she did. So I had to do something of a pop-quiz to get behind my characters’ psyche to understand what would REALLY make them do what they did.
So glad to hear it, June–it’s an amazing awakening of sorts, isn’t it? Suddenly issues in character development and plotting that seemed so daunting, become clear simply because you think–Yes! That’s what she’d do!
Great post!
‘m usually good at keeping actions in character, but my critique partners called me on a big error in a scene in my last novel. And they were right! We all liked the drama of the scene I’d written, but it was the result of a completely wrong-for-them character response.
Lost an “I” there somehow.
Oh, and I do want your recipe for cheese blintzes.
Hi Linda–Yet another example of how crit groups can be so enlightening–they see our character differently, maybe even more purely, than we can sometimes.
Okay, recipe time…
Cheese Blintzes
For the filling:
Blend: 3-4 oz. (1/2 package) cream cheese, softened
small carton of small curd cottage cheese
1 egg yolk
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp vanilla
For the crepes:
Beat together: 4 eggs
4 TBS vegetable oil
2 cups milk
Then whisk in: 1 1/2 flour
1 tsp salt
Heat up a good non-stick crepe pan with butter and pour in 1/4 to 1/3 cup of crepe batter at a time, turning the pan to spread the batter evenly, flip when edges are cooked and cook briefly on other side.
When you have a stack of cooked crepes, fill each one with a soup-spoon’s worth of filling, wrap like a burrito and heat again in butter till brown on both sides. (Did I mention this wasn’t a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-sugar food?)
Serve with applesauce and jam.
Great post Erika! I really donāt like reading a scene and say, ānow wait a minute, why did s/he do that?ā In real life we sometimes do things for no reason at all, in fiction however, there must always be a reason and that reason must be appropriate for our character.
Thanks, Lua! Now if only we were as analytical and considerate of our own choices as we are of our characters choices, right?:)
mmmmm, cheese blintzes. haven’t had good ones since my grandma passed. Funny but I too have been tempted to post about food…
anw, yes, sometimes I struggle with turning things the way i want them to be rather than how a character makes them. interesting how you quizz yourself – good idea!
Thanks, Jennifer. I always love the food pics…so glad you had some homemade blintzes in your life–do you ever make them for yourself using her recipe?
sadly, she refused to share all of her recipes – and she was such a great cook! so many things I long for ….
where did you get your recipe? maybe I’ll try it! my tummy’s going nuts thinking about it. lol
Jennifer–My recipe came from my mom who got it from my grandmother…I am fortunate to have it, indeed. (Though my thighs may not always agree…)
Those blintzes look lovely….and yes. Yes I have had that problem before and my solution? Make my characters really screwed up! Just kidding. But really, it’s difficult not to go totally one way or the other. Finding that medium, that perfect thing for your character can be difficult.
Hi Hannah, so glad you stopped in, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Let’s face it–if our characters were well-balanced and always did the right thing, we’d get quickly bored of writing them, let alone our readers of reading them! I’ve been amazed at the work in developing a character convincingly, in showing the process he/she goes through to grow into a someone who EVENTUALLY makes good choices (though not always.)
Hi, good article. I often get hung up on having my main character do all the right things.
Thanks so much–It is a temptation–I think we’re programmed to think that likable characters behave in a certain way. Let’s be honest: it can be challenging to feel for characters who make poor choices, even if the choices are consistent for who they are.
I get it. The blintz photo reaffirms your point that characters sometimes do the illogical.
Dave, err…not exactly. But now that you mention it…
There’s always a reason!