Writing Thoughts

Sometimes I wonder if everything I notice turns to writing thoughts. As an example, one of the local bus companies has a number of cartoon adverts on the back of their buses trying to persuade people to use public transport.

Most of these ads have a myth at the top and use a male and female couple in different conversations. As I wait for my bus a few of these adverts have caught my attention from a writing perspective. Here’s one of them:

Myth: Posh people don’t travel on public transport.

Male: People with names like mine don’t travel on the bus.’

Female: Oh poor you, Rupert.’

I don't know any men called Rupert, so I can't ask them if they've ever travelled by bus, but we do often make assumptions about people without knowing them well. In this post I wrote about selecting names for characters and the associations names may have for us.

A few weeks ago I spoke to a group of people about some aspects of writing, and I was asked whether I tried to select unusual names. The answer isn't straightforward. Sometimes a character arrives with exactly the right name, and on other occasions it can take a long time to come up with the perfect name for them. A few characters have been particularly troublesome and have ended up having their name changed several times - thank goodness for Find and Replace.

The protagonist of my current novel is Anna King, and in one scene she recalls it was easy to learn how to write her name at school as she only had five letters to master, half the number of her best friend, Corinne Jamieson.

Here is another of those bus adverts.

Male: How can we make the people on the North Shore realise it’s hip to travel on the bus.

Female: Don’t use the word hip for one thing.

Just as names give us an image of a person, so the words or phrases they use can have the same effect and help to deepen the reader’s image. For example, the character of Evelyn in Still Death is an older lady, and when I read my first draft, I realised I'd given her a speech tick where she called most people ‘dear’. I hope I used it enough to orient the reader it was her, but not enough to irritate.

Fitz (a minor character in Lives Interrupted) is Irish, and one of the speech ticks I’d noticed while in Ireland was the use of the word ‘yous’ when talking about either an individual or a group. Again I tried to use it judiciously so it wasn’t on every line, but used at least once in a scene where he was involved.

There’s nothing quite like listening to real conversation and picking up on people’s favourite words and phrases, especially when they're given an individual twist.

What's in a Name (again)

We’ve enjoyed glorious autumn weather this month, and that’s meant regular visits to the local beaches. I think I prefer spring and autumn weather as it’s still wonderfully warm, but without the humid element. One of my favourite beaches also has local stores one road back from the beach, which is very useful if you need to do the grocery shopping.

Last weekend, as I wandered along the street, a woman posed for a photo outside a clothes shop. It turned out that her name is Jean Jones, the same as the clothing store, hence the photo. Her husband added that his name is David Jones (the same name as a large department store in Australia). He joked that between them they had retail sewn up!

When starting a new piece of work, especially a novel, I find it important to get the right names for the characters. With some characters, the name comes very early in the process, and doesn't change. Other characters haven't been so fortunate, and go through several name changes before I find the right one for them.

I'm happy with the character's names in my current work in progress. However, I’ve been thinking about the next book, and toying with the idea of using a famous name. It’s made me wonder about the impact of having a well-known name, such as a character from a book. Imagine a shy female called Scarlett O’Hara, or a reticent male called James Bond. Using another slant, what would it be like having the name of a celebrity; perhaps a famous actor or a sports person? Would you be mistaken for them, get preferential treatment, or perhaps find yourself in trouble?

There are plenty of exciting possibilities.

What's in a Name?

Some time ago I took the little people to the zoo. As you can probably guess there were lots of other little people there as well. One of the things I found fascinating (besides the animals of course) were some of the children's names - impossible not to hear when Mums and Dads are yelling to and at their offspring.

As a writer I’m always interested in names. They tend to be a good indicator of fashion and age, but that day I realised I might have to revise my ideas of the relationship between age and names. I heard shouts of Charles, William, Harry (obviously some royalist fans at the zoo that day), but there was also an Archie and a Henry.

When naming characters I choose a name that suits their personality, but I also try to give an indication of age, which in turn should enhance the authenticity.

Later at home I did a quick Google search for actors and pop stars over the age of 60 and I found the following names: Justin, Sean, Alan, Richard, Warren, Peter, Clint, Robert, Martin, Ryan and Jeff.

I don’t think I’ve ever used one of these names for an older character, or perhaps it's just my perception of age and names. 

What impressions have you gained of a character from their name?

Themes

After finishing a novel recently I was delighted to find additional material at the end of the book in which the author wrote about his initial idea for the novel, and what had inspired him with the characters and plot.

As a reader I'm fascinated by these insights. I'm not sure whether it's because I'm a writer, or just nosy.

As a writer I'm also fascinated by the things that people see in my writing - some intentional and some that truly amaze me, as I'd never thought of them.

Sometimes I finish a book, put it down and don’t think much more about it, but other times the characters remain with me for longer and I think about character choices and actions.

Writers are often urged to consider the underlying theme in their work. To me this suggests we look for the theme once we’ve finished writing. I think this is the appropriate time, as writing with a theme in mind can lead to preachy writing or overdoing the emphasis. Themes need a light touch, rather like sprinkling fairy dust! Better that some readers miss it than being trampled underfoot by the lecture.

When I first started writing Lives Interrupted, I began with the idea of how people would deal with the aftermath and consequences of being involved in a major catastrophe that changed their lives. It was only while reading and editing a draft version of the novel that I saw the theme - the strength of friendship. This was shown in the stories of Rosa and Ellie, and Kate and Francine. It was also echoed in a plot line I removed in an early version. 

If you’ve read Lives Interrupted you may well have seen other themes and not noticed this one. It doesn’t really matter. Reading is a very individual activity. When I’ve discussed books or films with friends I often find that we have very different ideas of the theme, or alternatively the plot was so gripping we couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to even think about theme. We read to be entertained, and sometimes we don’t need to analyse what the author really meant. What do you think?

Great Expectations

Someone asked me what I'm working on at the moment. I’ve just published Lies of the Dead so I’m in the phase of deciding which bubbling idea to go with next. I have two quite different book ideas I’ve been considering, but one is definitely making all the running at the moment.

I love this part of the process, although it’s so nebulous it can hardly be called a process. I recall vividly sitting in a café on the coast somewhere between Sydney and Brisbane – okay I recall the moment and the café just not exactly where it was - reading a magazine article, when THE IDEA struck. 

As with the previous ideas that became books, at that point THE IDEA was just a premise with the main character appearing as little more than a silhouette.

She (the main character) is still nameless. I always take a long time with names before the correct one comes, but I know a lot more about her now than I did in that café. I know how she feels about some of the things that concern her and how she will react to situations. I know her family situation, her husband’s job (which is important to the plot), and with each piece of the puzzle she comes a little further out of the shadows.

The thing I love most about this part of the process is that there is all this possibility ahead of me before the internal critic gets to work and tells me I haven't quite captured the brilliance of my original idea!

On this subject my favourite philosopher (Winnie the Pooh) says, 'When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.'

Neil Gaiman said, ‘Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.’

So I’ll keep moving and in the meantime I’m enjoying the nebulous part of the process.

‘Words have meaning and names have power’

A lot of years ago I had a short-term work contract at a university in Wales. To be honest, I don’t actually remember much about the job, but what I do remember is the large database of student names.

The full name of each student was captured, and while there were some interesting first names, there were many more unusual middle names.

Names tell a lot about a person. They are generally a good pointer to age, famous celebrities of the time, and in the UK they are also an indicator of social status. They also say a lot about the parents.

A few of those names have stuck in my mind. One male student was named after several famous soccer players – his father was obviously an ardent Manchester United fan. Among the females was a Tamsin Tinuviel and another girl called Arwen, their parents would have been fans of Tolkein, or at least had read Lord of the Rings.

Before Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple, I knew a lady called Brie.

Choosing names for my characters is something that takes time, and the names are often changed several times as I get to know the characters.

In my current novel, Lies of the Dead, the names of the three main characters never changed. I think that is a first for me.

The oldest of the three siblings is Tom. He is pragmatic and reliable, and (to me) this name fits him well. I didn’t look up the origin or meaning of the name, so I may have it completely wrong, but for me it suited him totally.

Andi is the middle sibling, her name is Andrea but she shortened it to Andi as a child, hoping it would make her mother love her more. How sad is that!

Liam is the youngest of the three. He is always called that, though we discover early on his full name is William, which he hates.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says, ‘What’s in a name?’  I think the answer to that is everything.

‘Words have meaning and names have power.’ 

‘Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.’ W.H.Auden

Silence, Subtext and Unreliable Narrators

As I walked into a small shop a few days ago, I overheard part of a conversation between the store owner and a person at the counter. The customer asked about someone they were thinking of employing. 

The owner hesitated for the briefest of moments before giving a pleasant, but non-committal response.

The hesitation said everything. The polite words spoken without any enthusiasm merely confirmed my initial reaction. I wouldn't employ the person they were discussing.

As I came out of the shop I thought about that exchange as a writer. 

Dialogue is vital in writing. It should do at least one of the following things:

• Advance the plot
• Deepen understanding of the character
• Create or advance conflict and suspense. 

Silence, or a pause that is slightly longer than it should, can often tell us far more than conversation. Why is the character silent? Is it because they don't have an answer, or because they don't want to tell what they know? 

Is it a comfortable silence, or does the person act awkwardly and out of character? Does another character rush to fill the silence with chatter?  What questions would go unanswered, or be answered ambiguously or untruthfully?

Silence can also heighten tension, especially when it's obvious one character knows something, but isn't telling. Does the reader know the answer, or are they being kept in the dark as well?

If used well, silence can do the same job as dialogue in expanding plot, deepening character and creating suspense or questions. 

Subtext is the content hidden under dialogue, and is a good way to show the relationship between characters. For example, Sally and Jane have had a disagreement at work. They sit at adjacent desks, but have been working silently since the disagreement. Then Jane says she is going to buy coffee and a muffin from the cafe along the road, and asks Sally if she would like anything. Neither mentions the disagreement, but the offer of coffee and a muffin is subtext for an apology, or at least a request to forget the disagreement. Subtext is often used between people who know each other well, although a group of people may use it to laugh at someone outside of their group. 

Another way that dialogue can keep the reader guessing is by using an unreliable narrator. I recently finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and without giving away too much of the plot, as you read further into the book you begin to realise that what you are being told is not necessarily the whole truth. 

A narrator may be unreliable because they are deliberately misleading you, or it could be because they don't fully understand the situation. An excellent example of this is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime by Mark Haddon.  The narrator is fifteen-year old Christopher Boone, who has behavioral difficulties. Because of this and his age, there are scenes which he doesn't understand, but which the reader does. 

Christopher gets into trouble because he doesn't understand other people, or subtext. An example of the type of subtext he wouldn't get is, 'Can you open the window?' To Christopher this is a question about his abilities, but we know he is being asked to open the window.

Using an unreliable narrator isn't something you can decide to do halfway through a manuscript, at least not without a lot of rewriting, but it makes for an interesting read when used well. 

Set the Scene

In some books or films, the setting is so integral to the story that it feels like one of the characters. If the setting changed, the story would change.

As I thought about this an old Robert Redford film came to mind, (sorry but I can't remember the name). It's a cowboy film, and throughout the film the scenery is harsh desert giving a feeling of searing heat, and a decided lack of life.

In several of Daphne du Maurier's books setting plays an important role. Think of the gloomy threatening inn on Bodmin Moor (Jamaica Inn), and of the oppressive house, Manderley, in Rebecca. 

Heathcliffe is as wild as the Moors surrounding him. 

Lives Interrupted (for me) couldn't be set anywhere else but London. Kate has dreamed of living in London through her teenage years, and we see the city through her excited perspective. Whether it's the dingy arrivals area at Heathrow or the gloomy tube stations, she sees everything as new and exciting. Even having her bag stolen doesn't change her delight at living her dream. After the bombings, she views London in a very different way as she attempts to get back something of the person she was before.

My current book, Lies of the Dead, is set in a Cornish village called Poldrayth. The village is fictional, but based on a real place. The three main characters are two brothers and a sister. Tom, the older brother, is the only sibling who still lives in the village, and it has a strong influence on his character. He is steady, reliable and always there, just like the village. It has been the family home for generations, and Tom can't imagine living anywhere else. However, when his life is threatened there, it changes his view of the village.

The importance of place doesn't have to (and shouldn't) mean long paragraphs of description. The setting is seen through the characters, and affects their actions and the way they view the world. It makes them who they are. Someone who makes quick, rash decisions will view their surroundings differently to someone who is slower and methodical. A couple in love would enjoy a walk in a secluded setting, that same setting at night would have a totally different feel for a nervous person on their own.

Knowing our characters, and how they will react to their surroundings can have a huge impact on our story, indeed it can make the story. The whole basis of the film Crocodile Dundee is having the two main characters spend time in a vastly different setting to their usual one, and seeing how they react.

What is the setting of your book? If you changed the setting would if change the story? You don't have to change the setting of the entire book, but if you changed the setting of an important scene would it make a difference? It might move your story in a totally different direction.

If you're having difficulty with a scene, change the setting and see where it takes you.  I'd be interested to know if you've tried this and how it worked for you.

Character Motivations

The last few posts have been about characters, and their positive and negative traits. Negative traits are equally as important as positive ones, because no one likes a perfect protagonist, and even a positive trait can become negative if taken to an extreme.

One thing I haven't mentioned is physical description. When I'm reading I'm quite happy with my own visualisation of the character, and I've often got that firmly in my mind before reading a description, but there are some books where a description of a character is vital to the plot. Look through some magazines if you are having difficulties with picturing your character, or take the elements you like most in your favourite actors and make a composite of them - though thinking of police photo-fit pictures that might not be such a great idea!

Whatever our characters look like, their personality and temperament is far more important in making them believable. 

Once we have rounded our their character, using whatever tools we feel best, we must make sure they are true to those traits. One of the most annoying things when reading a book, or watching a film, is a person doing something totally out of character. Plot should not drive our characters. They need to act in character, or we should signal the reasons for change.

In Lives Interrupted, Kate has a happy, outgoing personality and thinks that life is a breeze. After she is nearly killed in a bomb explosion these traits change dramatically, but given the circumstances that is believable.

In my current work in progress (Lies of the Dead), Tom begins as someone who isn't keen on change and prefers to take his time making decisions. When his brother commits suicide, Tom needs to know why. As he discovers things about his brother, events and other characters don't allow him the luxury of time. This initiates changes in him, and so by the end of the book Tom makes choices he wouldn't have considered at the beginning, but they aren't irrational. We've moved with him and understand the changes.

Our characters need to have hopes and fears, as opposed to perfect skin and make-up. Okay maybe they can have perfect skin, but they also need the hopes and fears that make them believable.

They must make choices that are realistic for them, not because the plot demands it. Remember, they drive the plot and not the other way round. When they come up against a challenge, we have to consider their traits and motivations to know what they will choose to do.

What motivates your character? What has happened in their past that makes them act the way they do? This doesn't have to appear in your story, but you and the reader need to know enough about them to understand their motivations.

Character Trait Tools

I talked here and here about positive and negative character traits, and why our characters need both to be well-rounded and believable, as opposed to a protagonist who is perfect, or an antagonist who is totally evil.

Many of the personality tools break characteristics down into four main character types. These are given a variety of names depending on the book or tools you are looking at, but the four basic character types can be described as:

• Analytical
• Agreeable
• Communicator
• Determined

A character can have some, or all of those traits depending on the situation and who they are with, but usually they will be strongest in one, with some backup traits from another, while characteristics from the other two groups are much less apparent.

The interesting thing is that any trait taken to extreme can become negative.

The analytical character will be precise and methodical. They like systems and procedures, and are slow to make decisions, but their decisions will usually be sound. However, taken to extreme this could mean they are overly cautious and need a huge amount of information before making a decision. Can you see how this trait could irritate other characters and affect your plot?

The agreeable character is very people focused. They are dependable and friendly, but they may not like confrontation, or may not want to tell the protagonist the truth if it's going to hurt them.

The communicator has great ideas, but not necessarily the staying power to see them through to completion. They are outgoing and social with high energy levels. A quiet character could find this emotionally draining if we put them together in a conflict situation. 

The final of the four character types is the determined or strong-minded character. They are results oriented, intense and focused. These are good qualities in a leader, but if taken to an extreme could mean they are aggressive, or very rigid in their thinking - they are always right. Lots of potential there for conflict, which is what we want in our writing.

When I started my current work in progress I knew the basic personalities of the three main characters, but I wanted to round them out so they weren't just generic cardboard cut-outs.

The character types I've just mentioned are a good place to start, but there are other sources of inspiration.

One of the best known personality assessment tools is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This uses 4 preference types giving 16 possible type combinations. There are plenty of books and information on the internet on the combinations, and what the main preference types mean.

Natal or birth charts are another way of looking at the positive and negative sides of personality traits for our characters. If using this I've started with the basic birth sign I thought fitted their character, and then given them a birth date and time to see their personality makeup. 

The Enneagram Personality System works with nine personality types. Your protagonist or antagonist will be one of those types, and there is information on how these traits can be positive and negative.

I've found all these tools amazingly helpful in rounding out my characters, and I've also thought of other possible conflicts while looking at how a positive trait can be a negative, or at least perceived as negative.

I tend to be more of a planner, and prefer using these tools while I'm getting to know my characters, but they can be used at any time.

I'd love to hear from you, and find out if any of these helped with your planning or writing.

Working on Positive and Negative Character Traits

In job interviews the question I hate most is - tell us about your weaknesses.

Do you really want to know them? Can't I just tell you about my strengths?

The trick - according to me at least - is to describe a weakness that you're working on and can show progress, or (and this is my favourite) a weakness that could be considered a strength from a different perspective, and how you use it to best advantage.

I mentioned in an earlier post about putting off readers with super-hero characters who don't have any flaws. Most people can't relate to perfect characters, and therefore don't like or care about them. If we don't care about a character then we're not going to continue reading the book.

Very few people are all good or totally bad, and any characteristic taken to an extreme can turn into a negative. It depends on how we want to play it. 

For example, we might have an assertive character who is very vocal about everything, and who thinks the quiet character who doesn't like conflict is weak.  But we can turn this around if the non-conflict character quietly negotiates the terms they want. Quiet doesn't necessarily equate to weak.

A character trait isn't black or white, but can be any shade of grey (though that's a different book!). The trick is getting to know your characters, and understand what makes them act as they do.

In the book I'm working on at present, Tom, the main character, doesn't like making quick decisions.  This is a trait that annoys several of the other characters, and because he is also quiet rather than pushy, they come to the conclusion he is stupid.  Silly conclusion for them. 

Tom is the oldest son in the family, and though he is an adult he still feels this responsibility. This has shaped his character, and therefore his beliefs and actions. 

However, these traits and beliefs are also things that work against him, and form some of the change that occurs in his character.

A believable character makes decisions in keeping with what we know of them, or if they make an uncharacteristic decision we will see the reasons why they've acted in that way.  They move the plot forward because of their actions.

We need to know our characters better than we know ourselves - we often have blind spots about our own character traits!

Ask yourself questions such as:

* What events shaped your protagonist?

* What do they want?

* What drives them?

* How do they feel about themselves?

* How does this impact your story?

* What would surprise your protagonist? Not just the large events, but the smaller things that round them out as a person and add depth.

Ask yourself the same questions for your antagonist.

Next post I'll talk about some of the tools I've found useful in developing both the positive and negative sides of character traits.

Woman or Girl?

Rosa and Kate are two main characters in Lives Interrupted.  I didn't specify their ages in the book as their lives and problems should give enough clues, and I like to leave things up to the reader.  In my character outline Kate is early twenties, and Rosa in her early thirties.  Kate is single, while Rosa is married with a young son.

I struggled for a while over whether to call Kate a girl, or a woman.  I didn’t have the same problem with Rosa, as I felt she was definitely not a girl. Was this because of her age, or that she was married and a mother.  Rhetorical question really as I don't know, it was just how I felt about these two particular characters.  Obviously someone of Kate's age, or younger, can be married and a mother.  Would this change my conundrum of her being a girl or a woman?

I was reminded of this through a Twitter conversation I had earlier with a writer friend, and I asked her at what age she thought someone was no longer a girl.  She said eighteen, which sounds reasonable. What are your thoughts?

What Makes a Great Story?

My earliest memory is of a book.  I would have been about three or four as I remember my brother being in his pushchair.  A couple of years ago I mentioned this to my mother and described the book.  It was taller and narrower than average, and had eight small square pictures on each page - two across and four down, each with a sentence or two under the picture.  My mother said it sounded very like 'The Robber Foxes', which had been my favourite book as a toddler, and the one I always wanted my dad to read at bedtime.

What makes a great story?

For me the magic ingredient is that I need to care.  Care about the protagonist, and what happens to them.  I've started books that didn't make me care, but I don't usually finish them.  What is the point of reading to the end if I don't care whether the character lives or dies.

A character must have something that draws me in.  I don't mean they have to be the best at everything, that can be a real turn-off, but there must be something in their character that compels me to keep reading.  I don't have to agree with their choices, but I do need to understand what drives them and makes them act as they do.

Another thing I hate is when every little thing is pointed out to me, several times.  I can work things out myself from clues dropped enticingly along the way, and when I do, it pulls me deeper into the story.  

I listened to a good TED talk recently by Andrew Stanton (writer behind Toy Story, WALL-E).  He talks about giving people 2 + 2 and not 4 which is a great way of describing it. 

One of the things I learned as a trainer is that if you have an important piece of information, a statistic etc. that you want people to remember, then make them work for it. Don't drop it into the presentation among a lot of other information - ask them to guess the percentge of people who were…. Or the amount of…

We are far more likely to remember it, or become involved in the story when we are using our problem solving skills, and when we are involved with characters we care about.

Tears

Lives Interrupted shows how a group of people deal with the aftermath of a tube bombing. In the first draft there was trouble, trauma and tears. However, once I started editing I was determined to remove as many of the tears as possible. Not to get rid of any of the drama, but to deal with it in other ways.

There are occasions when we, or our protagonist will cry, but the strength of a character is shown in how they deal with adversity.  If a character cries at everything it gets boring.

Yes, there are tears in Lives Interrupted, but I reserved them for the toughest of experiences when tears could not be stopped. It's a good writing experience, and a test of how well you know your character, to see how they react to stress, pain and/or conflict.

As a writing exercise look at your latest WIP, or a short story that includes tears, and find another way of having your character cope with the disaster.

How to Annoy Your Readers

Last year, while I was in the UK, I heard a lot about a programme called Downton Abbey, although I didn't see it while I was there.  I've finally got around to watching some episodes on DVD, and so I was interested when I came across a review in The Huffington Post.  While the review is generally about the programme, Maureen Ryan makes some excellent points that apply equally to writing in general, and especially to the topic of plot, and mistakes to avoid.  

One of the main points that resonated with me was this: If a storyline can be removed entirely and it doesn't matter as it has no real effect on the characters, it's not a good story.' Following on from this were comments on silly storylines. I think here the two points are closely connected. The storylines were silly, or could be removed without effect, because they weren't fully explored.  We have two options for dealing with this: get rid of the storyline, or develop it so that it does become important.

The first draft is for getting our story written, not perfectly, but to give us the raw materials to craft into something much better. The first draft is where we are allowed the silly storylines that don't lead anywhere, or don't impact on the characters. Finding them is the first step. We then need to decide whether they should be developed into something that has a effect on the characters, or be deleted.

Something else to look for are plotlines that are concluded so fast they strain the reader's suspension of disbelief. Again this is fine for a first draft, but shouldn't remain that way.

Maureen Ryan also says. 'The point of the stories should be making the audience (reader) care about the people in the house (in your book). The point of every plot should be to shed light on who they are, what they want, why they want it and what compromises they'll have to make to get it.'

About halfway through the article (the paragraphs in italics) Maureen Ryan issues a plea to the creators of television (writers!) and these are good points for all of us to keep in mind.

Readers care about the characters - so don't mess them up for the sake of plot, have them act realistically. Even if the reader doesn't like them they should be compelled to find out what happens to them.

Don't come up with plot contrivances or coincidences just to fill space. Everything should matter and be there for a reason.

If there are larger events happening that lead to changes for our characters then let the reader see those reasonable changes, and how they impact on the characters.

All good advice - now to put it into action!

Imagination vs Reality

There is often a good debate to be had on whether to read a book first, or see the film, which is swiftly followed by a discussion on whether the film is as good as the book.

We use more imagination when reading than we do when watching a film, (which doesn't stop me watching films), and even if a writer describes the characters, we can still imagine them as we wish. I've often been surprised on a second reading of a book to see a detailed description of a character, when I've imagined them very differently. And I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been disappointed at the choice of an actor, when they don't look anything like the character I've imagined.

With this in mind I kept physical descriptions to a minimum when writing, and tried to use descriptions that added to character, rather than merely being a police-type description of height, hair and eye colour, build etc., though I think this does vary depending on genre.

How much, and what type of character description do you prefer when reading?

Positive and Negative Character Traits

When I started writing, my characters had to be the best – looks, habits, talents.  But in making them super-people they aren’t loveable, or even likeable characters, and certainly not believable.

A gorgeous looking, multi-talented character, is someone a reader will hate, or at best, find hard to relate to.  I knew this as a reader, but it took me longer to make that leap as a writer.

Generally speaking we are made up of positive and negative characteristics, and those can also depend on circumstances.  Push the wrong button and you may see something that surprises you.

Character traits are rarely all good or all bad.  A positive trait taken to an extreme can show negative attributes, and vice versa.

Last night I watched an old episode of CSI.  Hodges is an annoying character; he has an array of infuriating habits, and irritates most of the other people he comes into contact with - including me, and I'm just watching the show!  This particular episode had Hodges getting the other technicians together to come up with something new in the miniature murders case.

In one scene the technicians are profiling the miniature murderer, and as they list the characteristics it's obvious they could be describing Hodges.  Without looking up from what he is doing Hodges calmly says, (words to the effect), ‘How could it be me, I spend all my time in the lab.’

In that one sentence Hodges totally redeemed himself.  He took the joke, wasn’t annoyed, and showed he is self-aware.

Our protagonist should be human not superhuman, and that means they need a few flaws.  Our antagonist should have reasons for acting the way they do.  We may not agree with what they do, but at least we know why they act that way.