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Short Story Group Writing: Characterization

Have You Fully Introduced Your Main Character?
Long passages of flowery description aren't necessary, but make sure you've given your readers something to go on. The internal qualities of your protagonist may not need overt description, but his or her physical qualities should be described, even briefly. Obviously this influences things like the kinds of people your character knows, the words she uses to communicate with them, and the way she feels about a host of things in her external world.
 * Is she short, thin, tall, fat, dark, or blonde?
 * Is he confident or indecisive? Active or passive?
 * Is your character consistent?
 * If he or she changes, is it a result of events in the story, or of your own changed conception of the character?
 * Where is your character from?
 * In a similar vein, where did your character's life begin? Did she grow up running around the woods in a small Southern town, or learning to conjugate Latin verbs in a London boarding school?

How old is your character?
Though this might seem like an obvious question, it's important to make a clear decision about this before you begin writing -- otherwise, it's impossible to get the details right. For instance: Establish your character and his/her mindset by answering these questions.
 * Would your character have a cell phone, a land line, or both?
 * Does your character drink martinis or cheap beer?
 * Still get money from his parents, or worry about what will happen to his parents as they get old?

What is your character called?
Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? According to novelist Elinor Lipman, absolutely not: "Names have subtext and identity. If your main characters are Marellas, you've got yourself an Italian novel, and if your hero is Smedley Winthrop III, you've given him a trust fund. Nomenclature done right contributes to characterization." Your character's name provides a lot of information -- not only about ethnicity -- but about your character's age, background, and social class.

What kind of childhood did he or she have?
As with real people, many things about your character's personality will be determined by his background. Did his parents have a good marriage? Was she raised by a single mom? How your character interacts with other people -- whether he's defensive or confident, stable or rootless -- may be influenced by his past.

How does your character deal with conflict and change?
Most stories involve some element of conflict and change -- they're part of what makes a story a story.
 * Is your character passive or active?
 * If someone confronts her, does she change the subject, stalk off, or do a deep-breathing exercise?
 * When someone insults him, is he more likely to take it, come up with a retort, or excuse himself to find someone else to talk to?

Who else is in your character's life?
=Relationships -- how people interact with others -- reveal character. They're also excuses for dialogue, which break up exposition, offering another way of providing necessary information. Think about who will best help you convey this information, and what kinds of people would realistically be in your character's world in the first place. = = What is your character's goal or motivation in this story or scene? = In longer stories or novels, you will have to ask this question repeatedly. Many of your character's actions will result from the intersection of what she's trying to achieve and her personality, which is composed of everything you've invented in answering the above questions. When in doubt about how your character should behave, ask yourself what your character wants from the situation, and think about the answers you've given to all of the above.

Has Change Occurred in Your Protagonist?
In other words, is your protagonist a round character, as opposed to a flat character? In much contemporary fiction -- especially short fiction -- this is hard to evaluate. But your readers want to feel that something has happened in the course of the story, even if it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it was.