Image Credits:-
Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. AI images avoided. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.
I love those moments in any fiction where a character stands out. They say or do something which has resonance and, if at the same time, this can provide a laugh, even better.
One of my favourite moments in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is where Mr Darcy comments on fine eyes in a pretty woman’s face, Caroline Bingley looks at him clearing expecting him to mean her, only for her to turn to see he is looking at Elizabeth Bennet. It was an early introduction to irony in fiction for me and it still makes me smile.
It often is the characters readers remember. If I mention Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses, are you picturing the famous scene where he falls through an open bar or another scene where he and Rodney burst in dressed as Batman and Robin?
Moments matter and they can be used by writers to tell us so much about their characters without necessarily using too many words. Naturally that is something I like given I work in the shorter forms of fiction. But it also saves unnecessary description which can slow a book down.
The days of having to explain everything (as Dickens had to for his readership) are gone. Readers now have other references (TV, film etc) to help them make sense of a scene without necessarily having to know every little thing about it. So writers can make the most of that to convey what does matter – the characters and what they do and say and the impact of these things.
What Makes Your Character Special Enough For You To Want to Write About Them?
This is a good question. The first person the character has to stand out for is you, their creator. Now this is where personal tastes in character types come into play. I like spirited characters. I like those not afraid to speak their mind. I also love characters who know when they’ve got it wrong and want to make amends. So I write those kinds of character.
Characters like these will have plenty of stand out moments. You just know they are going to say or do something which will trigger something else and then there will be consequences from that which in turn will need resolving.
Plenty of drama and tension going on here. And those stand out moments can be funny, tragic, whatever you want them to be, but you do need to know your character would genuinely come out with or do whatever it is you are going to make them say or do. It has to feel true for the reader to believe it.
It is a great irony of fiction that for something which is made up, there has to be truth behind it to make it plausible for readers to willingly suspend their disbelief to read your stories.
Using Your Own Love of Stories and Characters
Every writer is inspired by the books and stories they love. We all build on what has gone before. Why not write a short list of your favourite characters, say no more than five? These can come from film, TV and radio as well as from books. Now look at the elements these characters have in common. You will spot links. Examples of mine below:-
Five Favourite Characters – Allison’s Choice
Sam Gamgee – The Lord of the Rings.
Elizabeth Bennet – Pride and Prejudice.
Inspector Alan Grant – The Daughter of Time
Hercule Poirot – across all of the books and stories Agatha Christie wrote with him as the lead but I would say Murder on the Orient Express and The ABC Murders are stand out stories for me here.
Miss Jane Marple – Similar to Poirot but I would select Nemesis, 4.50 From Paddington, and A Pocket Full of Rye as stand out tales.
What Have Allison’s Choice of Characters Have in Common?
They all show courage and loyalty at various points.
They stand up for what they know to be right.
They don’t give up easily. In Elizabeth Bennet’s case, there was a willingness to accept she was wrong about Mr Darcy and was happy to say so. Honesty like that is rare enough (and something Darcy appreciated too). For Inspector Alan Grant, he didn’t let being confined to a hospital bed stop him, with some assistance, from getting on with a theoretical investigation into the Princes in the Tower and what happened to them.
All of the characters have been misunderstood and/or looked down on by others at various points. Poirot especially faced racism for being Belgian, especially in the early Christie books. All of the characters rose above this and proved their critics wrong.
They see something through to the end, though they know the outcomes are almost certainly not going to be welcomed by all. I doubt if Miss Caroline Bingley would have been that happy knowing Elizabeth Bennet was going to marry Mr Darcy after all. Lady Catherine de Bourgh certainly wasn’t happy about it.
Now in compiling those lists, I am already thinking of several stand out moments these characters have had. Naturally, we want to be able to think of our characters as standing out for our readers. So they need to have qualities which will appeal to readers and flaws so they are believable.
Nobody trusts an out and out goodie goodie. I know I’m waiting for a “reveal” here someone isn’t as nice as they’re making themselves out to be as that so often does turn out to be the case. Characters showing a willingness to learn also stand out partly because it means they would have made mistakes they need to learn from.
What Character Moments Mean For Their Author
I love it when I get to the point where I know what my characters would say and do and why. It shows me my characters have “come to life” for me so they should do so for readers. Funnily enough, knowing what they wouldn’t say or do can also be helpful here because it shows you have thought the characters through well enough to justify having that stance.
I also find when I know my characters well enough I can more easily picture the kind of things which would happen to them and this makes those scenes far easier to write. I can almost see my characters “acting” these scenes out in my head. Yes, the writer’s imagination can be a strange place to be in at times and I imagine this would be even truer for those who write horror and/or crime.
All of this confirms having a character outline, even if it is a very rough one, is a great aid for me as I prepare my stories. I have to think about what my characters would be like and why. From that, you can get back story, some of which could come out in another tale. In my forthcoming book, Seeing The Other Side, there are some linked flash stories where a character from one story ends up in another one. They may be a lead character in the first story and a secondary one in the next tale. But as those tales go on you find out with each tale a bit more about that character.
Conclusion
Writing should be fun, at least most of the time. I love creating characters and situations to put them in. And when characters have their moments, almost like actors having their star turn on the stage, that is when I know those creations have come to life and it is a special moment for me too.
Although I create many characters for my short work, I want each of them to be memorable in their own way and that is a constant, but fun challenge for me.
If you do think back to the stories you love, so much of that will be down to the characters you love to root for and you can draw on the reasons why you love them to create fascinating characters of your own.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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