Wisniewski

Source: The Writer, June 1994 v107 n6 p18(4).

Title: The vital element: are your characters breathing?

Author: Mark Wisniewski

Abstract: Editors reject fiction manuscripts for many reason, but one reason may be that the characters do not seem to be be 'breathing.' The use of character dossiers is a recommended way to give characters depth prior to writing. This and other character development techniques are discussed.

Subjects: Fiction - Methods

Characters and characteristics in literature - Planning

Magazine Collection: 73J0345

Electronic Collection: A15263583

RN: A15263583

SUBMITTING FICTION FOR PUBLICATION is a series of offers and acceptances - or denials -- regarding emotion, diction, values, and, yes, even sometimes politics. You, the fiction writer, capture these elements in your work and send it to an editor. On a good day, you connect: You find an editor who appreciates your characters and believes they will give readers emotional or intellectual stimulation -- and you receive an acceptance letter. On a bad day, your main character reminds an editor of his or her worst enemy, and you receive a rejection slip. On a so-so day, an editor admires your work but returns it, probably without telling you why, possibly without realizing why, often because the characters didn't seem to be breathing.

These so-so days should concern you as you create characters for your next fiction piece. Your good days, obviously, have taken care of themselves. And as for the bad days, you cannot control an editor's dislikes, family experiences, political views, hatreds, and loves. In fact, if your characters have drawn a strong reaction, you've probably characterized well. Perhaps what you need is better targeting -- finding an editor who appreciates the way your characters think.

How do you avoid the so-so days? Three suggestions might help. First, study what made your good days good. Second, don't let your bad days get the best of you. Finally, don't underestimate important advice you've previously ignored: Do not write your next piece without creating character dossiers.

To begin, reread the passages about the characters in your successful fiction as if you were a satisfied editor. Why did your characters sparkle? How did you describe them specifically and portray their desires? Did you use spontaneous yet precise dialogue? What thoughts did your characters have that were fresh, appealing, and engaging?

To answer these questions completely, reread not only the final draft of your successful story; study your rough and middle drafts as well, then try to teach yourself to repeat your success. Remember that you are developing your voice and vision, not Hemingway's or Woolf's -- and that failure awaits writers who try to replicate the voices of legendary authors. The editor appreciated you at your best, so figure out what you did well and work to repeat that performance -- with a new twist -- in your next story. This advice might seem obvious, but for some reason, writers rarely practice it. So get ahead of the game by doing again what has worked before.

The second way to fight so-so days is by getting rid of your fear of portraying "unlikable" characters. To begin this process, consider the following proposition: Editors who label characters as "unlikable" are only saying, "I didn't like those people." This simply means that if you send these characters elsewhere, a different editor might find them engaging. Once you become shy and defensive about your characters -- once you begin making them evasive or unwilling to behave in a distinctive way or speak boldly about what's on their minds -- they will lose their vitality and uniqueness.

Vitality should be your goal when you create characters. Vitality is more difficult to create than popularity. It takes more thought, revision, trial-and-error, drafts, insight into the human condition, work, speculation, hope, and willingness to ignore the conventions and traditions that prescribe that "good" people speak and think in a particular manner. Vital characters, however, capture your readers' interest and attention, and help produce a dramatic plot. They humor and stimulate readers and impress editors who might otherwise admire your writing but nevertheless reject your work.

A third way to prevent so-so days depends on your giving character development priority in your writing. Aristotle believed that plot was paramount - that it should be conceived before other story elements -- but many contemporary fiction writers would disagree, arguing that the most important element of a story is character. You can mesh Aristotle's wisdom with contemporary literary opinion by proceeding in your fiction writing on the presumption that in a good story, plot and character are intertwined.

What's important for people blocked in their efforts to write fiction is that this intertwining begin. To give characters priority in your writing, create your main characters first. then let them struggle to make their way into the action. Forget about writing a first sentence: instead. make a character dossier.

A dossier is a list of attributes that a particular character might have. It involves physical descriptions as well as likes, dislikes, habits, family history, recurring dreams, failed dates, unwise friendships and relationships, worries, bad memories, hopes, favorite foods, speeding tickets, and, most crucially, desires. It should not read as factually as a personals ad or a resume; it should include inconsistencies and offer surprises and quirks - as do most interesting people.

Character dossiers take time to develop, but they save time in the long run because they help you create characters who have stories behind them, which means less painstaking revision and fewer rejections. If you have a resistance to writing dossiers, try to have fun with them. Remember, you don't have to include everything from them in the fiction you ultimately write. And, if having to write a dossier for each of your characters makes you want to reduce the number of characters in your story or novel, do so. If you don't care enough about a character to write a dossier about him or her, that character probably doesn't belong in your story.

To begin to create a dossier, write a possible name for the character at the top of a blank sheet of paper (or computer screen), then list as quickly as possible words or phrases that might describe the character. Don't worry about spelling or elegance; and don't erase, cross out, or delete. Personalities, remember, are sloppy. Surrender to the momentum of listing, and save your concerns about form for later. If you write ten entries and don't like them, don't worry. Keep listing and you will eventually be satisfied. If you get stuck, glance at the name at the top or the list you've already made; they'll spark related words or phrases. If you're still stuck, think of yourself as a creator putting together a spiral of DNA. Enjoy the freedom of random selection and the power of building complication.

As an example, here's a section of a 100-entry list conceived in less than ten minutes:

Herman Contrarian

1) hates his name

2) wears five silver rings on left hand

*3) loves salsa

4) only child

5) tolerates war

6) black hair dyed red

7) uses shampoos marked for dry, lifeless hair

8) 28 years old

9) hates to put on socks

*10) wants to invent something useful and expensive

11) met main character a year before story began

12) born in Anchorage, Alaska

13) has never had a physical

14) coughs a lot

*15) mail-orders $50 worth of vitamins a month

16) can't stand sweet pickles

17) is a vegetarian

18) reddish mole on left earlobe

19) sleeps until 11:00 AM

20) works as bartender on M Street

21) detests sports except for hockey

22) mother had three miscarriages before he was born

*23) still loves Anna Belle, whom he knew in high school

24) has had four dates in life

The asterisks highlight this character's desires, which will create reader sympathy and spark plot-complicating action. Use asterisks to make sure your character has at least five significant desires.

IF THE above theory about character development leaves you blocked as you begin your next fiction piece, try these practical tips:

1) Don't write about yourself. You know yourself too well -- and sometimes not well enough -- to portray yourself artfully. As an author, you should love your characters though they are unlike you -- and know them even better than you know yourself

2) If you feel you are so fascinating that you belong in your fiction, make yourself a minor character. Then fictionalize at least half the details on that character's dossier.

3) Study famous people. Notice that many are both strongly liked and disliked. Ask yourself what this tells you about character "likability."

4) Accept the fact that a dossier is necessary for you to write publishable fiction. Don't make the mistake of most writers who are "stuck" in their careers: Don't tell yourself that dossiers are for beginners only.

5) Rather than making a 100-entry dossier, try one with 1,000 entries, and revise it by crossing out and rewording entries -- even changing the character's name at the top. Take advantage of the fact that dossiers list potential characteristics, and that characters, like people, are alive and therefore subject to change.

6) If a plot, or a scene, or even an interesting fictional event, occurs to you while you're writing a dossier, work it into your list somehow, then consider taking a time-out to jot it down in your journal. This time-out might remove you from the momentum of listing, but when you return to your dossier, you'll have a stronger momentum, fueled by notions of what will happen. If events begin dominating your list but you don't want to quit listing, so be it: Any writing that does more than one thing at the same time is probably darned good writing.

7) Don't ever throw away a character dossier. And don't tell yourself any dossier is "finished." Adding to your list while you are writing a rough draft -- or a second draft, or a third -- can only help your fiction. Some writers add to dossiers even after work about those characters has been published. That's what you call love of character. And sometimes that's how novels and trilogies -- and movie sequels -- develop.

8) Once you've conceived a character, portray him or her from the point of view of someone who is extremely different from you -- perhaps that of your worst enemy. Always keep in mind that the best fiction illuminates similarities between people who are commonly thought of as different.

9) Revise by making a minor character major.

10) Write an imaginary conversation between you and your characters.

11) Give your main character a political agenda, and let him or her speak about it for a page of free writing. Consider revising the result and submitting it as a letter to the editor. Then, in order to let your characters show their quirkiest qualities, force them to promise never to let that agenda surface in your work.

12) Indicate on your dossier which details about your character arise from his or her inner voice (thoughts) and which arise from his or her outer voice (dialogue). Note the differences between these voices, and highlight those differences as you write and revise your text.

13) Above all, take advantage of the fact that by studying successful characters, by forgetting "bad days," and by creating dossiers, serious fiction writers are creating a love for characters who will enthuse them to write and revise. This enthusiasm results not only in sharply drawn characters, but also in final drafts of stories and novels with compelling sentences, dialogue, drama, suspense, and plot. Love of character is contagious: If the writer has it, it will affect his or her work, and eventually, at least one editor.

Mark Wisniewski's short stories have been published in a variety of magazines, including The Missouri Review, Fiction International, Beloit Fiction Journal, Sycamore Review, Kansas Quarterly, Confrontation, The New Press Literary Quarterly, and many others. His fiction has also received wide recognition: He was a finalist for the Drue Heinz Literature Prize; a semi-finalist for the Iowa Short Fiction Award; and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He was the recipient of a National Society of Arts and Letters Career Award in Fiction and a Kansas State Arts Commission Award.

Formerly Fiction Editor of California Quarterly, he has worked closely with many writers in revising their work to the point of publication; taught in the writing program of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and has run workshops at the University of California at Davis. He designed and teaches the correspondence course, "Writing and Revising the Short Story," for the University of California Extension program, for which he wrote the textbook.

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