aracter development

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arachnophobic but they never
encounter a spider, how does
that flaw effect the plot in any
way? How does that make your
character less perfect? You
also want to be able to spot
stereotypical or superfluous
character faults. Examples of
these include female characters
thinking they’re too fat, or male
characters with devil-may-care
attitudes. Overcoming these
particular faults has been done
so many times that it is no longer
a valid plot progression—it is an
after-school special. However,
using these attributes and
combining them with other faults
goes a long way to making your
character believable. No one
person has only one bad habit—
so no character should either.
Also be wary of creating exterior
solutions to internal problems.
Using a romantic relationship
to solve someone's self-esteem
issues doesn’t work in real-life,
so it shouldn’t work in written
form either.

It is important to note that
as a writer, or a reader, not all

characters have to be likeable.
One common myth floating
around the literary world is
that if you don’t like your
character, no one else will. This
is false—everyone loves a villain.
Characters created independent
of an author attempting to
make them likable are some
of the most dynamic. Some
of my favourite examples are
the Ripley series by Patricia
Highsmith, or the original
Millennium trilogy by Stieg
Larsson. There is some attempt
to make both Tom Ripley and
Lisbeth Salander—the main
protagonists of the above series,
respectively—sympathetic, but
they aren‘t people you’d want to
be BFFs with.

Faults are a tricky thing to get
a handle on, so if you're a writer,
start with what you know. Use
your own faults. Your personal
experience can go a long way
in making your character's
voice authentic and therefore
believable.

Authentic voice and internal
monologue are among my

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current struggles. It is important
to make a character whose
perspective you can inhabit,

but also to make sure they’re
not just you in written form—
unless that’s the goal. For me,
designing a character who |

see as different from myself is
what | want. Certain aspects of
personality can be self-reflective,
but ultimately, | want my
characters to be distinct. That
becomes difficult when you may
be unfamiliar with the narrative
precedent your characters will
set.

In an internal monologue,
or in first-person perspective,
the narrative needs to change
to reflect the character's voice.
For example, it seems as
though writers often struggle
to write characters of different
genders from themselves. This
has nothing to do with biology
and everything to do with how
gender norms are socialized.
A pertect example is Oryx and
Crake by Margaret Atwood.
The main character Snowman
is completely disinterested

in his own life, and he seems

to be only motivated by his
own sexuality and guilt over

not being strong enough.

This is a very stereotypically
“male” point-of-view—what

a woman might assume a

male internal monologue is

like. This deficiency can be
rectified, however. Reading up
and educating yourself on how
different people speak and
describe things can give you a
better grasp on how a similar
character may sound internally.
Keep in mind, this internal voice
shouldn't erase or overshadow
the story the author wants to tell.
It should only accent it.

Closing out, | want to
encourage everyone to take the
time to either create or examine
a character critically. Being
aware of how the characters are
written is often the first step in
determining if you'll enjoy the
narrative or not. As | said before,
if there's something wrong with
the characters, then there will
always be something off-putting
about the plot.