Friday, 29 January 2010
Today's topic is going to be character tags - those turns of phrase or little quirks that make your character more than a name and a set of physical statistics acting out his predetermined role in your story. All characters have them, some of them more successful and memorable than others. They're not major parts of the character's basic personality - like Rodney McKay's crankiness or Sherlock Holmes' intellect, but rather small details that make you remember them, especially useful if they're new to your audience or they're going to be 'off-screen' for a while - like John Sheppard's wristband or Homes' violin playing or Gibbs' habit of slapping the back of Tony's head when he's annoyed at him (or the fact that he doesn't do it to Kate or Ziva).
Obviously television and film characters can show theirs visually and they can often be something just slipped in, almost unconsciously, by an actor rather than planned out. As an author you have to show yours in writing and that means you need to think what they're going to be, although if you write about the same character a lot then others will probably grow more organically as you write.
Most characters have more than one tag or quirk that identifies them, but don't go overboard or your characters will end up looking neurotic and/or annoying as hell. Let's take a few examples of famous characters, hopefully you'll know at least one of these, and see what quirks they have that let us identify them.
Sherlock Holmes - violin playing, pipe smoking, deer stalker wearing, "Elementary".
Professor Severus Snape - dramatic sweeping movements, mellifluous voice, lank hair, sneer.
Commander Spock - "Illogical", solitary raised eyebrow, "Fascinating".
Detective Columbo - battered raincoat, "Just one more thing".
Abby Sciuto - Caf-Pow, Goth clothing, Bert the Hippo.
Tags allow people to remember your characters and they also identify the characters without you having to name them every time. If Watson hears violin music floating from the window of Baker Street or smells the scent of pipe tobacco wafting down the stairs, the readers know Holmes is considering a problem in the confines of his room. If someone sneers, 'Mr Potter', from behind our hero, we know Snape has arrived. If the suspect hears 'Oh, there was just one more thing...' we don't need it to be followed by a name to know who's speaking.
You could write a genius consulting detective, but without the violin and the pipe and the turns of phrase, he wouldn't be Holmes. Equally there are hundreds of detectives on television, it's quirks like the sunglasses going back on just before the culprit is revealed or mention of 'ze little grey cells' or a knitted sweater and a mention of one of her myriad nephews that tell us who is going to solve this particular case.
The key is for the tags to be used often enough to be an identifying feature, but not so often that you're treating your readers like they have the memory of a goldfish. Caine's sunglasses are a major character tag, but they're noticeable maybe half a dozen times at most in an episode, and they're on the line between memorable and annoying. Columbo rarely says 'just one more thing' more than twice in a show, and that's a good minimum in my opinion.
If, like me, you have a bad memory for names, then tags are especially important. For the first book or so in a series, more if it's a minor character, I really do remember people as 'the one with the moustache' or 'the one with the accent' or whatever. It saves me having to flick back twenty pages to figure out who the character is and why I need to know.
I'd love to give you a links section here, but I can't think of anything relevant! So instead, how about an assignment? People watch. Strangers, friends, fictional characters. Just watch and make a list, in your head or on paper, of the various mannerisms and turns of phrase that stand out and make them individuals and maybe you'll get an idea for a character of your own.
Obviously television and film characters can show theirs visually and they can often be something just slipped in, almost unconsciously, by an actor rather than planned out. As an author you have to show yours in writing and that means you need to think what they're going to be, although if you write about the same character a lot then others will probably grow more organically as you write.
Most characters have more than one tag or quirk that identifies them, but don't go overboard or your characters will end up looking neurotic and/or annoying as hell. Let's take a few examples of famous characters, hopefully you'll know at least one of these, and see what quirks they have that let us identify them.
Sherlock Holmes - violin playing, pipe smoking, deer stalker wearing, "Elementary".
Professor Severus Snape - dramatic sweeping movements, mellifluous voice, lank hair, sneer.
Commander Spock - "Illogical", solitary raised eyebrow, "Fascinating".
Detective Columbo - battered raincoat, "Just one more thing".
Abby Sciuto - Caf-Pow, Goth clothing, Bert the Hippo.
Tags allow people to remember your characters and they also identify the characters without you having to name them every time. If Watson hears violin music floating from the window of Baker Street or smells the scent of pipe tobacco wafting down the stairs, the readers know Holmes is considering a problem in the confines of his room. If someone sneers, 'Mr Potter', from behind our hero, we know Snape has arrived. If the suspect hears 'Oh, there was just one more thing...' we don't need it to be followed by a name to know who's speaking.
You could write a genius consulting detective, but without the violin and the pipe and the turns of phrase, he wouldn't be Holmes. Equally there are hundreds of detectives on television, it's quirks like the sunglasses going back on just before the culprit is revealed or mention of 'ze little grey cells' or a knitted sweater and a mention of one of her myriad nephews that tell us who is going to solve this particular case.
The key is for the tags to be used often enough to be an identifying feature, but not so often that you're treating your readers like they have the memory of a goldfish. Caine's sunglasses are a major character tag, but they're noticeable maybe half a dozen times at most in an episode, and they're on the line between memorable and annoying. Columbo rarely says 'just one more thing' more than twice in a show, and that's a good minimum in my opinion.
If, like me, you have a bad memory for names, then tags are especially important. For the first book or so in a series, more if it's a minor character, I really do remember people as 'the one with the moustache' or 'the one with the accent' or whatever. It saves me having to flick back twenty pages to figure out who the character is and why I need to know.
I'd love to give you a links section here, but I can't think of anything relevant! So instead, how about an assignment? People watch. Strangers, friends, fictional characters. Just watch and make a list, in your head or on paper, of the various mannerisms and turns of phrase that stand out and make them individuals and maybe you'll get an idea for a character of your own.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment