Tue, May 11 2010

Making characters uncomfortable

I didn't have a good topic to connect to writing until I began watching someone in a situation where they were out of their element. This happened to be someone on TV, but it could as well been someone in a store or at a meeting. They were being asked some questions they seemed uncomfortable addressing and that fact was evident in their speech, their gestures and their general body language. They were trying to deflect attention to someone near them. They leaned away from the questioner and then leaned in, as if physically off-balance. When someone else approached them unexpectedly from a new direction they moved like a startled horse, suddenly stomping to one side, almost as though they were trying to prevent being closed into a confined space. It was fascinating and pitiful at the same time. I thought of how other people I've known in real life have reacted during tense confrontations. Some get loud and get in the questioner's face. Some physically shrink back from the situation. Some find an excuse to bolt and run away. Some cry. Some accuse the questioner in order to gain the upper hand.

One of the things the characters in your fiction have to do is go through situations in which they're not in their element. How would your main character react if he broke his grandmother's favorite antique vase while he'd been angry and careless? How would your main character respond if she was an animal lover and she hit and killed a beautiful mountain lion with her car? The very heart of fiction involves conflict and the overcoming of, or at least the reaction to, conflict. Imagining your characters out of their element in more than one situation will give you a clue as to how they will react during major conflict points of the story. It's worth taking some time to think about.

posted at: 16:18 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry