Part 3 on tips for character building :)
Showing and not telling is very important to keep your audience reading, but another thing you need to remember is that your character's personality is more important then their looks. You don't really need to go on about how the hero's love has a perfect muscular body, perfect fiery orange hair, perfect tanned skin blah blah blah... Just let their quirks come through.
Use actions and dialogue to define your character not their looks. Where are they from? Do they have an accent? Can they not pronounce certain words? I know I couldn't say diagonally when I was younger and thought chimney was chimley ;) Does your character walk with a limb (or 'swag' ;D)?
Does he twitch his head when he smells something awful? Does he blink too often?
All of this will make the character unique and appear real. Of course it's good to describe a little about the looks of characters, but only in small doses like 'I pulled a strand of blonde hair from my face' or 'My nose always seemed to get in the way of my sight' and stuff like that :)
I hope that was interesting :) I've read lots of stories, including my own, that state a lot of things outright, resulting in a huge information overload on the reader. So, when re-reading that old draft, try showing and not telling every little detail and don't forget to let your character's quirks have the spotlight. :)
Talking of back-stories, does your character have one? How about asking them some questions? Stay logged in for the next post on 'Character Questions' to help you :)
~White Ravens~
No comments:
Post a Comment