In Writing Tip #5 I wrote about how you can develop your characters whether they come to you as visions when you are having a bath or occur naturally as part of your story.
So, what happens next?
Your character must appear in your writing naturally as part of the story and not stop the story dead in its tracks like a train grinding to a halt at a station. Your character must flow with the story. No one wants to read a one-page info dump about Mrs Smith. They want to find out about her through the story.
The first thing I think about is who the character is psychologically and what descriptions you can drop into the story to show your reader who Mrs Smith really is?
The first writing clue one is one of appearance, creating a portrait of your character for your reader.
If Mrs Smith has her hair scraped up in a tight bun that indicates a woman who is prim and proper like an old-fashioned schoolteacher, Professor McGonagall. While a messy bun with wayward strands invokes more of a sexy, cute younger image. The same thing goes with facial hair in men. A rash of rough stubble is often used to describe a hot, handsome, athletic protagonist. However, a fuller beard with perhaps a small Viking plait can indicate a more dangerous, antihero biker type dude. While a shaggy beard mountain on the face such as Hagrid’s gives your character an aura of gruff manliness. So, a brief description of hair can go along way to building your character in the eyes of your reader, for example, ‘She opened the door wearing a messy bun and a negligée,’ – tells you a lot about the character in a very few words.
The same can be said for other facial features.
If the eyes of your character are set close together like those of a fox or lion you are describing a natural hunter or predator. A dominant person who may have untrustworthy or selfish goals. While if your character has widely spaced eyes like rabbits, they are the prey – vulnerable and at the mercy of the predators.
Lip shape can also be used to denote personality traits.
In literature thin lips are a sign of a mean-spirited character with a logical and analytical approach or an evil villain.
Whereas full lips are used to denote honest, open, and attractive people. When Robert Burns wrote, ‘Her lips are like the cherries ripe,’ you are able to imagine the woman he is writing about just from the description of her lips.
When writing about your characters’ appearance, less often conveys a lot more.
For example, here is the first meeting of two characters from ‘Welcome To Witherleigh.’
Can you work out their characters from this brief paragraph?
‘Richard whispered, ‘I can do this,’ two times. Then climbed from his car and walked tentatively over to the centre. A thin, heavily made-up, middle-aged woman blocked the doorway.
‘Welcome to our little village,’ Mrs Ashcroft smiled, surveying Richard slowly.
Richard blushed and quickly tucked the rumpled white shirt into his jeans and smoothed the crinkles from his faded blue sweatshirt. The corner of the woman’s lip curled upwards. She stared down at him and watched his unease with satisfaction.
An awkward silence descended.’ Welcome To Witherleigh (2019)
Who do you think is the protagonist/ antagonist in this paragraph? And why?
Therefore, when you are writing your characters remember your readers can build them up from your writing clues and less is often more!
Happy Writing!
PJ
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