Alessia Brio
Eroticist
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2005
- Posts
- 1,364
I recently attended the La Jolla Writers' Conference. As I sift through my notes, I hope to capture some of the tidbits I found interesting/helpful. (Kudos to the AH, though. Based on what was reinforced there by agents and best-selling authors, I can attest that we have one hell of an exceptional resource here.) Anyway, the following is from a session presented by Doug Lyle:
Characters are defined how they fit into several arenas or domains: emotions, life skills, creativity, intellect, sociability, work ethic, morality, and spirituality.
Within each arena, a character fits somewhere along a spectrum between two poles:
EMOTIONS:........TOUGH GUY ......................................................... WHINER
LIFE SKILLS:......TEAM PLAYER ....................................................... REBEL
CREATIVITY:......DOER .................................................................. DREAMER
INTELLECT:........SMART ................................................................ DUMB
SOCIABILITY:....OUTGOING .......................................................... WALL FLOWER
WORK ETHIC:....GRINDER ............................................................. LAZY
MORALITY:........GOOD GUY ........................................................... BAD GUY
SPIRITUALITY:...BELIEVER ............................................................ DOUBTER
A character will, to varying degrees, tend toward one pole or the other. The opposite polarity will be his "shadow side," which is what gives him depth and credibility. Without a "shadow side," the character will seem flat/one-dimensional.
Character arc is the shift from one pole toward the other. It is usually most pronounced with your protagonist. The antagonist is the "pole around which everyone else dances." The plot applies stressors to the characters and pushes them off balance, and in the process of rebalancing, the characters arc.
To demonstrate, he plotted a couple of well-known characters along the continuum between each pole at the beginning of the book/movie and again at the end -- showing how they changed (and thereby made the story more interesting/engaging): Clarice from Silence of the Lambs and Sarah Connor from Terminator.
He said that the problem with serial characters (James Patterson's Alex Cross, for example) is that they can only arc so much before they appear wishy-washy to the reader.
Characters are defined how they fit into several arenas or domains: emotions, life skills, creativity, intellect, sociability, work ethic, morality, and spirituality.
Within each arena, a character fits somewhere along a spectrum between two poles:
EMOTIONS:........TOUGH GUY ......................................................... WHINER
LIFE SKILLS:......TEAM PLAYER ....................................................... REBEL
CREATIVITY:......DOER .................................................................. DREAMER
INTELLECT:........SMART ................................................................ DUMB
SOCIABILITY:....OUTGOING .......................................................... WALL FLOWER
WORK ETHIC:....GRINDER ............................................................. LAZY
MORALITY:........GOOD GUY ........................................................... BAD GUY
SPIRITUALITY:...BELIEVER ............................................................ DOUBTER
A character will, to varying degrees, tend toward one pole or the other. The opposite polarity will be his "shadow side," which is what gives him depth and credibility. Without a "shadow side," the character will seem flat/one-dimensional.
Character arc is the shift from one pole toward the other. It is usually most pronounced with your protagonist. The antagonist is the "pole around which everyone else dances." The plot applies stressors to the characters and pushes them off balance, and in the process of rebalancing, the characters arc.
To demonstrate, he plotted a couple of well-known characters along the continuum between each pole at the beginning of the book/movie and again at the end -- showing how they changed (and thereby made the story more interesting/engaging): Clarice from Silence of the Lambs and Sarah Connor from Terminator.
He said that the problem with serial characters (James Patterson's Alex Cross, for example) is that they can only arc so much before they appear wishy-washy to the reader.
