“It’s entirely possible that the act of writing serves as an incantation, beckoning the Muse” p. 7, The Art of Character by David Corbett
Most fiction writers will tell you their characters, at least in some sense, are real. The first sentence in David Corbett’s The Art of Character talks about Michelangelo’s process of “liberating his sculptures from the marble.”
“Whether one calls the realm the psyche or the Collective Unconscious or Valhalla, what we think of as characters in our stories, if sufficiently meaningful and profound, seemingly glimmer with the aura of that otherworld.” — David Corbett, The Art of Character
Do we connect with another realm and find our characters there, do we create them, or is it something in between? Regardless of our philosophical belief in a Collective Unconscious, the goal of the writer is the keep our readers believing in our characters, even though we all know they are imaginary, or otherworldly. How do you make someone believe in something they know isn’t real? What makes readers turn pages?
“The heart of all good stories is character.” — David Corbett, back cover of The Art of Character
David Corbett’s book aims to help us create memorable characters that are compelling and vivid. Characters that will stay with us, like Katniss Everdeen and Bella Swan and Harry Potter. How can we write characters that hold their reader’s attention? It is what writers need to know if they’re trying to avoid creating plot puppets (we’ll talk about plot puppets in chapter 2).
“Your scent is like a drug to me like my own personal brand of heroin.”―Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
As writers, we hear a lot about ‘the hook’, but what hooks us? When I first started writing, a week or so ago, meeting my characters was a euphoric rush. And it still is. It is like a drug. A feeling akin to falling in love, or finding God, or Valhalla, or Big Macs, if that’s your thing. In other words, our characters make us feel something. Doesn’t that make them real? It does for me. But how do you pass that feeling on to your reader?
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Gandalf to Frodo — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of The Ring
Gandalf with his bushy eyebrows that stuck out beyond the brim of his pointed blue hat knew the time afforded characters is short. That every word tell. Have you ever been writing a scene and your character resists? She just says nope, not gonna happen, no way. That’s your creative intuition speaking. Our otherworldly characters are chatting us up from the collective unconscious, or realm of the psyche, or human imagination. Isn’t that just fucking beautiful?
That’s what David Corbett is teaching us in chapter one of his book. Both how to listen to our creative intuition, and how to make it create if it’s resisting. How to make our characters tap their heels together and say “I’m going on an adventure,” and our readers will go anywhere with them.
“Action defines character.” p. 9
Okay, so how do we create characters that jump off the page? If our imaginary characters are real, shouldn’t we get to know them before we start telling everyone their life story? That’s the premise behind chapter one. Learn about your characters by writing about your characters. Put them into awkward situations, and see what they do. Challenge them. Force them into spaces they do not fit. Ask them why? Ask them how? Ask them again.
“You become a writer by writing, there is no other way.” — Margaret Atwood’s Masterclass
Exercise 1: Tracking the Arc
Each chapter in The Art of Character provides exercises and/or prompts to practice the lessons therein. The first exercise in chapter one suggests selecting two characters from your work in progress and jotting down your impression of them at the end of each working day.
Doing the exercise gave me some unexpected insights into the inner psyche’s of my characters. It’s a more organic method than the character interview. The question ‘what is your impression?’ is open ended. A little more tell me who you are at this moment than what’s your favourite colour? If you’re nurturing your book, the answer grows and changes each time you ask, like a real friggin person (chills!). As an added bonus, the exercise provides a summary of a character’s arc by the end of your first draft. How cool is that?
I am not affiliated with the author or the book or the publisher. This blog is for entertainment. If you want to buy The Art of Character, and I think you should, check with your local bookseller. If you can’t find a copy locally, it’s on Goodreads.
