Characterization

USING DESCRIPTION FOR CHARACTERIZATION

by Linda Gordon

The tap of heels on tile alternated with the slap of the mules against feet. Silk swirled against the wall as she entered the doorway, and settled softly down her legs. Heavy tassels hung from the tie that divided her hourglass figure into a.m. and p.m. Steam rose from cappuccino in a china mug, and she set it down on the Duncan Phyffe table she used as her computer desk. Her work day began with style and elegance, and segued into romance, tears and laughter.

She is a Romance writer.

Terrycloth slippers shuffled on the carpet, occasionally encountering a plastic toy or dust bunny. Ratty sweatpants bagged at the knee, and a sweatshirt suggesting she "Just Do It" slid off one shoulder. The smell of coffee pulled her into the kitchen, and sent up heavenly fragrance once in the mug with vanilla creamer. She sat at the counter with a yellow legal pad in front of her. The window by the table overlooked a garden flourishing with weeds. Her thoughts were consumed by a man, tall, dark, and Alpha--what would he do, when would passion bloom?

She is a Romance writer.

Common. Universal. Specific.

Use the common experience, the universal emotion, the specific detail, to give your characters texture.

How do you use the common experience? I'm not a mother, but I spent eight weeks with my sister after her third child was bom. Melissa was 4, Jodie 2 1/2, and Emma three weeks old when I first went to St. Louis. The only thing I didn't do was nurse Emma; all other Mommy duties were up for grabs for whoever was available to do them.

I've held a crying Emma in my left arm, while I fixed a bottle with my right hand. I've changed poopy diapers and wished I had a gas mask. I've been thrown up on and peed on, in the space of 20 minutes. I've had days when 5:00 p.m. (Meriot time) couldn't come fast enough. I've felt the rush when a small body thuds against me, looking for comfort.

All common experiences if you've spent time around kids, whether you're a mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandmother or grandfather. Use your memory to cull the specific detail that pulls your reader into that experience in your story. Let the universal emotion bond your reader to your character, so when the fiction takes over, the reader goes along. Yes, it's fiction, but using common experience, universal emotion and specific details will enhance the fiction and make it believable.

What other common experiences can you use? Go through a day, a week, a month --- what do you do? If you do it, so do most people. Wake up, shower, dress, eat breakfast, go to work, lunch, home, housework, dinner, kids, homework.

What universal emotions can you use? You've fallen in love, fallen out of love, been heartbroken. You know passion, romance, friendship, love, hate, envy. So maybe you've never boiled a bunny in someone's pasta pot, but tweak the emotions you have experienced, and take them to an extreme you haven't gone to. Can you imagine a jealousy that strong? Use it. Have you loved someone with a passion that surprised you? Use it.

Live vicariously through your characters. Be bolder, brassiere sexier, primmer (more prim?), more successful, less successful, married, single, wealthier, poorer, more settled, less settled--explore what you've always wanted to do but were afraid to try, through your characters. Let them take the risk, say what's on their mind, wear the outrageous outfit, spend more, save more, make the grand gesture--you can always change it later, right? Write what you know, what you know now that you wish you knew then, what you'd like to know and will find out. You've had the common experience, the universal emotion, use the specific detail to convey them.

Weave the details of your characters through the story, don't just do a data dump in Chapter One and let the information sit there. Drop bits and pieces throughout, and describe how they look, what they do, where they do it. Look back at how your favorite authors do this. Learn from them. If your characters learn something about themselves in Chapter 12, why should all the motivation be in Chapter 1? Learning is gradual, so too should the evolution of the story.

Now that I've recovered from my broken heart, I'm off to fluff the maribou on my mules, sip my cappuccino, and write the story of my characters lives--what could have been my life? We'll see.