What do we mean by characterization?

[JGittes]

I received a thoughtful, positive comment on my most recent story. It had one sentence that started me thinking; 'Character development was a wee bit thin.' It wasn't an anonymous comment, so I could ask directly (and may in time.) However, I realized we always talk about characterization v. plot and thought I would get a broader view of what characterization means to Lit authors.

The story, 'I Like to Watch,' is from the 1st POV of a 60-year-old woman artist and nurse who tries to get her nephew to model for her life drawing class at a community college. It's straightforward, without many plot points, with three primary and three minor characters. At 30k words, I cut over half the original length for a consistent tone and the elimination of backstory narration. From my perspective, everything that remains is essentially characterization and is revealed by the actions and thoughts of the characters, not by being told a character has certain qualities.

Anyway. I'm not asking anyone to read the story and tell me if I succeeded with the characters in the story. I'd like to hear your thoughts on what constitutes successful characterization.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Characters that come to life with a personality of their own, something unique, memorable, something that separates them from other characters in your writing.

I've asked my editor/beta reader the same question - how do I distinguish between my different protagonists? Her answer is informative, but I wish I knew how I actually do it. I do manage it, but it's not a conscious thing on my part - I just write who my characters are. It's as if my job as a writer is to keep up with my characters, as if they come first and I am merely their diarist.

 

[SimonDoom]

I did not read the story, but you scored a 4.76, so my guess is most of your readers are happy with the characterization. My perception at Literotica is that there is a positive correlation between a high score and decent character development.

My quick thoughts about character development in an erotic story:

There's no magic formula, and you don't have to do that much. A little goes a long way if it's deftly done. The two keys, I think, are, first, that a character should be developed enough that the character seems real and somewhat interesting, so one can imagine the character having a life beyond the confines of the story. You don't need a ton of backstory--just a few glimpses into the character's likes and dislikes, temper, mood, and, most of all, motivation.

The second key element is that last word: motivation. In a good story character and plot tie together. The plot of the story is pushed forward by the character's personality and motivation. Internal conflict is often helpful in an erotic story. An erotic story may be more exciting if the main character is somewhat reluctant to get involved in the erotic activity than if the main character has no reservations about getting involved in it.

Keep this in mind: there's no way to please everyone with your characters. Some of my readers love my characters, and some tell me they hated them or they thought they were totally unbelievable. You can't please everyone.

 

[NotWise]

Writers' ideas on what constitutes good characterization vary widely, and I imagine readers' ideas do, too. Exploring your commenter's thoughts might be worthwhile -- provided they're willing to engage.

To me, good characterization lets the reader feel that they understand the character. There are social barriers so that all readers will probably not understand all characters. I hope to tunnel through some of the barriers so that readers can grasp motivation and maybe even predict reactions. That doesn't always work.

In a long-ago writing class I was given examples of characterization in short stories that managed to create an impression of the character in just a few words. The short characterizations leaned on stereotypes and, more generally, showed how the character acted or reacted in common situations. Those examples depend on a common social background, so they won't work for all readers.

Much more recently I recalled a five-way classification of literary conflict and went to the net looking to see if my memory was right. It was, more-or-less. One article offered the idea that the conflict element in a story is an important tool in characterization. It lets readers understand characters through the way they deal with conflict. If your story is short on conflict, then you're missing important opportunities for characterization.

Characterization isn't really a stand-alone element. All of the story elements (setting, characters, plot, etc, etc) are interrelated, and they depend on each other to tell a story well.

 

[JGittes]

In my original post, I thought about including some of the Lit writers who provide excellent examples of characterizations (not every story, but most), and I decided to hold back. I feel honored that three of the seven I would have mentioned have responded at length. We all have different plot, language, and tone styles, and it is heartening to hear that my favorite contributors to Lit strive to develop fully rounded, complex human characters. And their characters like to fuck.

 

[yowser]

Thoughtful comments, cannot disagree with any of what others have offered.

A couple extra points: yes, often doesn't need to be much, hints work better than long interpolations, but it is best if the character qualities are unique, specific and particular. It is like those artworks done by AI which look too perfect; all the surfaces shouldn't be too smooth, there ought to be some wrinkles, quirks in the character, ones that are unusual but recognisable.

And absolutely conflict or tension can tease out the mindset of the character, you can learn a lot by how a character responds to something unexpected or at a decision point.

All of this can be (and often best done) economically. One of the special arts of good writing and storytelling.

 

[Carnevil9]

The late great Roger Zelazny would sometimes deepen his characters for a novel by writing a short story about each of then, with no intention of ever publishing the short. He just wanted to spend time with the characters "off line" so to speak, getting used to how they do things and making them more real in his own understanding of them. Then he would sit down and write the novel.

Personally, I like to think of someone I know in real life and base my character on them. How would they react to things, how would they phrase their speech, how would they dress, etc. Then if I find my character in an unexpected situation, I just have to think how my real person would react and (hopefully) it comes across as realistic.

 

[Voboy]

I aim to write characters I'd be interested in meeting, and I try to give enough information about them (explicit as well as implicit) that the reader gets a sense of who they are. I want them to appear to be real people. I certainly think of them that way, and I tend to get possessive about them.

 

[tenyari]

As a general comment over something I've seen even great writers do, and have as a problem in some of my current inworks as well, is introducing a character with a name and maybe even description, and then not coming back to give that character an arc that develops them.

Unless a character is quickly disposed of and moved out of the story - be careful about adding cast members who are under utilized. Your characters are not subject to Screen Actors Guild rules where if they say more than X-words you have to pay them union rates. So don't treat them like so many minor characters on TV and commercials get treated.

In one of my inworks, I've got 5 Alien women landing on Earth, and one of them is my protagonist. After I introduced all five of them, at least 2 or 3 of them barely get any lines. Before that story goes live, I need to fix that. I need to ask myself why I put 5 of them in there, If I'm not using them fully. I do have a complete mental image of them all in my head, but I didn't show that to my readers.

Instead my readers got some names, what they look like, and a few lines for each near the beginning. Shortly after being introduced several of them get backgrounded, even though the way I introduced them would make a reader feel they should have more.

By contrast I have several local human characters that I also introduce as the story goes on. Several of them get names and descriptions and then cycle out. The way I introduced them relayed that they were not meant as notable characters, so I think I can get away with this.

But those first five - that's an area where if I don't fix it, I expect a reader would call me out on characterization. Because the setup when I threw them in there made them come across as major pieces of the protagonist's story, and then I dropped the ball on a few of them.

Thankfully I'm aware of this before the story has been finished.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Anyway. I'm not asking anyone to read the story and tell me if I succeeded with the characters in the story. I'd like to hear your thoughts on what constitutes successful characterization.

I read the story - partly to see if I could see what the issue was but mainly because I'm in the early stages of my own story which will I estimated will be about 30k and wanted to look at similar examples.

I received a thoughtful, positive comment on my most recent story. It had one sentence that started me thinking; 'Character development was a wee bit thin.' It wasn't an anonymous comment, so I could ask directly (and may in time.) However, I realized we always talk about characterization v. plot and thought I would get a broader view of what characterization means to Lit authors.

As Simon mentions, the score on the story is high and the comments are mostly very positive, so the vast majority of the readers clearly enjoyed what was there. Having read through it, I think the main issue with the characters is that there is very little internal or external conflict and very little drama outside of the sex scenes. I'll expand on that in a moment, but its important to repeat again - the majority of readers were fine with this and I think this is a feature of Incest writing where many of the readers do like the characters to be on the same page emotionally throughout the story.

The main issue I thought I saw with it was that none of the characters ever disagree with each other. They need a nude model and the teacher agrees to let the inexperienced boy do it, the mother agrees to let her son do it and John himself agrees quickly. Then they sit down and solve a series of problems together to allow the modelling to happen. Everybody is very open with their problems and emotions, everyone talks about sex openly and nobody is troubled by the concept of incest. Characters quickly dial into their relatives emotional states and deal with them sensitively and effectively. Even when explaining concepts about art or sex, one character will talk and the other person will say 'I understand' at the end without questioning or offering alternative theories. Because everythings so focused on problem solving, it sometimes feels a bit like it doesn't matter whose talking - a solution is offered and the story moves on. So in that sense the characters could be seen as being a little thin. The stakes are also pretty low - the readers are there for the public incest modelling session of course - but there's no real sense that it matters if John doesn't model successfully, apart from some disappointment and a slight disruption for the class.

 

[Mal_Bey]

Characterization is one of things I discovered I think I am fairly good at. As a young writer, I am operating more on intuition than experience, but here is what I have learned. First, everybody is good at something. It can be important to the story, or it can be something that only you and your notebook know. Conversely, everybody is bad at something. It can be something small, or a glaring personal fault. It is working these little details into the story that give those hints of characterization. And feel free to allow things to be contradictory. A poor woman whose only luxury is she likes quality undergarments. A bride who thinks she knows how to cook because she can grill burgers, make Kraft Dinner, and bake brownies. Allow appropriate regionalisms. For example, saying 'Kraft Dinner' instead of Mac and Cheese is a fine way to color a character Canadian without saying that detail.

 

[Carnevil9]

.......First, everybody is good at something. It can be important to the story, or it can be something that only you and your notebook know. Conversely, everybody is bad at something. It can be something small, or a glaring personal fault......

Wow, that is a really brilliant observation. And a great way to differentiate your characters and give them a unique personality. Thank you!

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Aside from their actions, dialogue is one of the most powerful tools we have to show the reader who our characters are.

I’ve got a story that I’ll be submitting soon. A beta reader commented, about a supporting character, “I would go to war for her.” This character has little to do but talk in the story, so I knew she needed one hell of a voice if she was going to bring something to the story beyond what she does to move the plot forward. So I gave her a lot of moments like this:

“I’m glad she’s got someone good on her side for once.”

“Ha! I don’t know about good, but it felt nice being a stone cold bitch in the service of a righteous cause.”

So, why did I give her that line? In 22 words, we find out that she’s not entirely comfortable with praise, she loves the image she projects as a hardass, and in spite of her protestations, she is in fact a good person.

I could have gone into a long and ultimately distracting and irrelevant backstory to give the reader the same information, but to my eyes at least, little moments like this are much more elegant.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Aside from their actions, dialogue is one of the most powerful tools we have to show the reader who our characters are.

I put a lot of thought into how my characters talk. I'm not sure how much of that my readers pick up on directly, but even if they don't notice it, asking myself "how would this person talk?" is helpful in getting into their head.

Anjali speaks in very correct and somewhat old-fashioned English. That's related to her being autistic and having difficulty gauging what level of formality is appropriate, and having spent a lot of time in the library. Occasionally she gets overwhelmed and that shows up in her dialogue: "I'm sorry, it's stupid. I got a cold and I was trying to prepare for a review but Professor Cheng's away at a conference and he's not answering his emails and I found a nice flat but I didn't have my ID with me and by the time I got it somebody else had already -"

Nadja is quite an insecure person who doesn't want to show any hint of fear or weakness. She went to a very expensive English boarding school and is quite capable of speaking it perfectly when she makes the effort, but most of the time she's very casual because it's part of the don't-fuck-with-me aura she tries to project: "I am too important to bother with rules of your stupid language". When she does make the effort to send an email in formal, correct English, it's because she knows she fucked up and "being polite" is about as close as she gets to apologising.

Outside dialogue, something I look for in characterisation is conflict. Not that everybody has to be a ball of self-hate! But most people want more than just one thing out of life, and when the things they want are in conflict with one another that can make a great story.

 

[SimonDoom]

Outside dialogue, something I look for in characterisation is conflict. Not that everybody has to be a ball of self-hate! But most people want more than just one thing out of life, and when the things they want are in conflict with one another that can make a great story.

Another way of looking at conflict as a way of developing character is that the character wants more than one thing, and that makes a character interesting. Most of us want more than one thing, and the things we want don't always fit together well, and that creates interest.

In an erotic story, a character typically has an erotic itch. Like, to have sex for the first time. Or to have anal sex. Or to get naked in public.

But the character may also be motivated to be a stand-up citizen, or a good Christian, or someone for whom maintaining appearances and setting a conservative example is important. The person may be worried about holding on to a job, or maintaining friends or a marriage, while also exploring erotic boundaries. The interplay between different motives makes the character interesting.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Another way of looking at conflict as a way of developing character is that the character wants more than one thing, and that makes a character interesting. Most of us want more than one thing, and the things we want don't always fit together well, and that creates interest.

In an erotic story, a character typically has an erotic itch. Like, to have sex for the first time. Or to have anal sex. Or to get naked in public.

But the character may also be motivated to be a stand-up citizen, or a good Christian, or someone for whom maintaining appearances and setting a conservative example is important. The person may be worried about holding on to a job, or maintaining friends or a marriage, while also exploring erotic boundaries. The interplay between different motives makes the character interesting.

Another trick I like to use is conflict. A character can want multiple, opposing things at the same time, or need one thing but want something else. It's very powerful.

 

[Pureotica]

Character development is different in short fiction than in long form works. Novels are about change over time, and usually have full character arcs. A one off short story might focus on a single significant choice or revelation. A lot of smut involves situations, rather than stories. A situation doesn't necessarily resolve a character arc. That's okay for at least a portion of the smut audience. Stroke material doesn't always need to resolve a moral quandary.

I'm here to develop and practice story craft, but I'm okay with plain old smut if it's basically well written.