When a reader picks up a novel (or fiction story) they expect
to read about made-up characters, made up settings and made-up events. Historical
novels will be based on factual events to an extent, but that will be more of
providing a setting and background. Your characters should be unique beings
with subtle or dramatic differences from each other. Each character in your
story needs their own “voice”, wants, needs, fears and quirks; even twins in a
story need to be treated as individuals.
It’s tempting for everyone to add an opinion, shout out warnings
when they see danger ahead, and react to situations based on personal
experience. Unless you are writing about an army of robots or the Stepford
Wives, your characters need to have their own personalities, different thought
processes, and different views of the world around them. As an author it is important that you keep your feelings and warnings to yourself.
Your characters need to be the ones who are SHOWING their
feelings and emotions. The reader needs to be allowed to see the action in the
story through a character’s eyes. It is possible in a story to present more
than one viewpoint, a POV, but readers need to see though ONE CHARACTER at a
time. If Jane playing the piano, Jim can hear her voice and see her smile and
believe she is happy BUT he can’t know it because only Jane knows if she is
happy or not. If Barry has been drinking heavily before heading home (walking
hopefully) and vomits in the street, the narrated action shouldn’t be describing
“the disgusting stench” — however it is perfectly acceptable to have a passing
character cover his nose and THINK that it smells disgusting.
If Marie goes into her daughter’s room while the child is
asleep, it is okay for Marie to notice movement behind her eyelids and ASSUME
she is dreaming, but there is no valid way (unless we are talking sci-fi and machines
that hook up to brains to SEE what the brain is thinking) that Marie can KNOW
her daughter is dreaming of playing with her dollhouse. And if Dan is driving
down a long winding road he won’t know about a disabled vehicle blocking the
lane around a blind curve so the reader shouldn’t be told little did Dan know
this would be the last time he’d ever grip the cushioned steering wheel.
Don’t tell the readers things the characters don’t know just
when the reader is absorbed in the story as if it were real because you will
only be shouting at them “This is fiction, it isn’t real, there is nothing to
be emotionally invested in.” As an author you need to remain IN the characters’
heads and POV as well as in the characters’ personal attitudes; don’t impose
your belief system unless it is the same as the character’s beliefs. If the aforementioned heavily drinking Barry gets into a car to drive home, this is not the time to preach about the hazards of drunk driving because,
realistically, that is not what Barry is going to be thinking; even if you
had an on-looking character pass judgment, it’s enough to say (or think) that
stupid a**hole, he’s going to kill someone or get himself killed BUT it is
highly unlikely that the on-looker will start telling the air in front of him
of the statistics of drunk driving fatalities and quoting laws and penalties.
Don’t preach.
There are always exceptions to every rule but it becomes very
tricky to pull them off successfully. In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye “speaks” to the
audience as he thinks up a dream sequence to make his wife agree to letting
their eldest daughter marry the local tailor. This theatrical technique is
called breaking the fourth wall – a traditional stage has three “solid” walls with
an invisible fourth wall where the audience gets to look in. Some writers use
this technique in books as well, but again you risk losing your audience/readers
as you take them out of the world you’ve tried to create.
Let your characters tell their own story and let your readers
hear and see it through the characters’ eyes.
Writing Exercise: With a pad of paper and a
writing implement in hand, go to each corner of the room you are in and make a
short list of what you can see from where you are standing; only write down
exactly what you can see, NOT what you know. Go to a different corner or
perspective and repeat the process. After you’ve done this about four times,
compare your lists. Your viewpoint should be different from each location,
maybe the arm of a chair blocked the throw pillow, or the lamp cast more light
on one end of the room. Your literal point-of-view changes and things will
appear different.
Writing Prompt:
Think about a place you saw as a child and then visited again years
later. Did you think it looked bigger then, or brighter? How did your
perspective and memories seem to change? Why?
Challenge Assignment: Write a short story (at least 1000 words) about
a controversial topic and include three to four characters with very different
viewpoints. Walk away from the completed story for an hour or two and then read
it as if you were an editor. Does each character keep his or her own
perspective and belief or do you (be honest) see YOUR beliefs creeping in and
overwhelming your characters? Edit out any of YOUR catchphrases and make sure
each character sounds consistent in their manner of speech and actions from
beginning to end.
