David J. Thirteen
That's a wonderful question and one I've been thinking a lot about recently. I think there really are two sides to this: main characters and minor characters.
With main characters there is lots of time to explore them and define them. There's a big tool box available. They interact with other characters, drive action, and react to events. As a writer, you can delve into the minutia of their psyche, flashback to their childhood, and display their inner thoughts. I find, the big trick with them is to not rely to heavily on narration--let events reveal their true character. This can be the big moments of the novel--how they deal with the major hardships of the plot or it can be almost subliminal. As an example: in Mr. 8, Denton very carefully avoid physical touch with everyone except his wife. It's not something I ever focus in on. It is just there in half a dozen little interactions throughout the book. My hope was that through repetition readers would feel it and feel closer to the character.
This also brings up another point I think is important with main characters: complexity. Foibles are a wonderfully humanizing thing. The saying is that nobody is perfect and readers sense when a character is too perfect. People identify with people with problems--people with quirks. They're a great way to add complexity.
With minor characters things are different. You don't have the same opportunities. You don't have very much time to define them. You have to make the first impression pop. This is something I'm just starting to understand. You almost have to introduce them and make the reader think they know them in a single breath, which is no easy task and one I can't say I fully understand how to do. One good method is to introduce a defining incident as early as possible. The character should do something which the narration can use to show how this is the heart of the character. I recently read a wonderful example of this in an Ian Rankin novel where he had a character react to something with a childish pout. In the following three sentences he related it to her entire life and revealed her to be sheltered and spoiled by her parents. It was about as masterful of a minor character definition as I've ever seen.
I hope this helps.
With main characters there is lots of time to explore them and define them. There's a big tool box available. They interact with other characters, drive action, and react to events. As a writer, you can delve into the minutia of their psyche, flashback to their childhood, and display their inner thoughts. I find, the big trick with them is to not rely to heavily on narration--let events reveal their true character. This can be the big moments of the novel--how they deal with the major hardships of the plot or it can be almost subliminal. As an example: in Mr. 8, Denton very carefully avoid physical touch with everyone except his wife. It's not something I ever focus in on. It is just there in half a dozen little interactions throughout the book. My hope was that through repetition readers would feel it and feel closer to the character.
This also brings up another point I think is important with main characters: complexity. Foibles are a wonderfully humanizing thing. The saying is that nobody is perfect and readers sense when a character is too perfect. People identify with people with problems--people with quirks. They're a great way to add complexity.
With minor characters things are different. You don't have the same opportunities. You don't have very much time to define them. You have to make the first impression pop. This is something I'm just starting to understand. You almost have to introduce them and make the reader think they know them in a single breath, which is no easy task and one I can't say I fully understand how to do. One good method is to introduce a defining incident as early as possible. The character should do something which the narration can use to show how this is the heart of the character. I recently read a wonderful example of this in an Ian Rankin novel where he had a character react to something with a childish pout. In the following three sentences he related it to her entire life and revealed her to be sheltered and spoiled by her parents. It was about as masterful of a minor character definition as I've ever seen.
I hope this helps.
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