Characters vs. Caricatures

[Live2Write]

I've been thinking alot about the characters in the novel that I'm working on. It's my first so I have questions about making a character come to life versus having them end up in the background as a type of two-dimensional cartoon.

See, my main characters have depth. My secondary characters have some depth and my tertiary characters have less and so on.

There is just this one poor sap, Gary, who needs to be there and now matter how hard I try to draw him out he's a caricature of a stereotypical southern hic.

(No offense to any of those south of the Mason Dixon line. ;))

Has this ever happened to you?

A character that was more cliche than real although he or she was necessary and you couldn't cut them out of the story?

How did you rectify it?

Thanks!

Live2Write

(Who is currently up to Chapter 27 in her first draft.)

[WildScribe]

Write a short story featuring Gary. Let him come out of his shell and get to know you. You'll find that he has a new depth when you include him in your main work. Maybe you can even use your short somewhere later as a standalone.

[inanna]

I don't have an precise formula for this - I tend to do this stuff intuitively - but try and think of something like a habit, opinion, hobby, or quality that would surprise you in a southern hic, something unexpected and against type. Then play around with it from there and brainstorm a bit. The smaller and more subtle the detail the better, IMHO, since this sort of thing can easily result in another set of cliches if painted with too broad a brush.

That's all I got - hope it helps a little :)

[Maprilynne]

I had a problem just like that when I was first writing my villain . . . uh, I mean that he was a caricature villain, not that he was a hick. :) I sat down with my hubby and talked about his childhood, his motivation for his evil deeds. You know what happened? A childhood best friend surfaced. One who drastically affected the way he turned out. I was amazed at how much that deceased friend suddenly turned up in my writing. It ended up becoming an important plot point and gave him so much more depth. Then when my agent got ahold of him she made me answer a ton more questions about him and then instead of just letting the reader see the result of him falling in love, she had me go back and write the scenes showing him falling in love. And og my goodness, this tortured soul I hadn't realized was there emerged. What an incredible thing that was! He's still a black-hearted a**hole, but now he has a reason and bit of humanity.
I really liked WildScribe's suggestion that you get more into the character outside of the story. But I would suggest you go even a bit further. Get into his life, find out what he did as a kid, the friends he had, the women he loved, the bullies that picked on him, his heroes, his enemies. Something will appear that you can use to anchor his character more firmly in reality.
Good Luck with that. It really can be a hard thing to do.

Maprilynne

[PeeDee]

I never really have this problem. My characters just show up and talk and become interesting, or they are only in the story for one scene anyway.

If I had a consistent character like your Gary, I suspect I'd find a way to get rid of him, unless I had something to say with him. Whichcase, if I can't get his dialogue to sound non-hick, I would probably not let him speak.

[WriterInChains]

WildScribe's idea is exactly what I was going to say. Once you get into Gary's world & get to know him better, that'll come through in your writing.

Also, you might try journaling as Gary. It helps to have a question in mind, but even if it's just the kind of truck he drives (or secretly wishes he drove) it'll be a springboard to get to his personality. This might sound like work, but I think it's fun. And you never know what your characters will tell you until you give 'em a chance -- just like in r/l, the quiet ones can be the most surprising. :)

[Gabriel]

I have what might be called a typical bad guy (Minus twirling mustache and revealing evil plans) in the sense he doesn't other much motivation other than the drive to destroy those he sees as inferior and gather power to himself. Some of him I think originated from Iago, that manipulative devil from Othello. I wonder if this is a bad thing or not, I did it mainly because he refused to give me a reason for being evil and I didn't want anyone to empathise or understand him, he's not that kind of guy I suppose.

[KiraOnWhite]

Observe the people around you, pick out their generic yet quirky characteristic traits and think if that applies to Gary. 'Cliched' doesn't mean it have to be your same old predictable character, just the 'cliched' person under different circumstances.

[Inkdaub]

I sat down with my hubby and talked about his childhood, his motivation for his evil deeds.


:eek:

[Maprilynne]

*Laugh* Not my husband's childhood. *laughing even harder!* I sat down with my husband and talked about my villain's childhood.

Oh gosh, LMFAO!!!!

Maprilynne

[Judg]

If it's a very minor character, I'm not sure that it matters much. It depends on how minor. But if he hangs around enough to get noticed, I'd go with some of the advice given here, it's been great. It might not be worth investing the same effort as Maprilynne did; after all, that was an important character in her book. But at least find some surprising quirk to give the guy - a taste for classical music, an aversion to guns, a secret desire to be a writer... Even if it doesn't get mentioned in the story, you'll look at him differently and that would probably help pull him out of caricature mode. As part of my rethinking-my-WIP process, I'm going to evaluate each character that's more than wallpaper and make sure there's at least one thing about each of them that breaks stereotypes.

I'm also seriously considering making up a kind of character bank. Everybody I know in real life to any depth at all has at least one character trait that seems a bit surprising. They'd be great resources for future stories. Something along the lines of "hypercritical and extremely irritable, yet sentimental and generous". "mathematical genius with huge smile, warm laugh, messy house and a firm eye for the bottom line." Age, gender, ethnicity totally unimportant at this stage. I'm not trying to put people I know in my stories, just some of their characteristics to build my own characters around. Make sense?

[jdparadise]

One thing I've gotten into lately for my characters is looking at the characteristics that live in the character: things like "feels love" and "shows emotion" and "is a positive thinker".

I take three views of that: what the reality is, what the character thinks s/he shows, and what other folks tend to think s/he shows.

Where there's a difference, and where there's an extreme, there's usually some neat stuff to work with.

Frex, I have a character (written about elsewhere, so I'll make this shorter) who's highly just and very fair, but who doesn't exhibit much love for those around him. That, combined with my milieu and the story idea, suggested a backstory that brought him to that place in life.

So perhaps you could try picking a trait or three that wouldn't ordinarily apply to a character in the position your character occupies in the story, randomly determining what the reality, external perception, and internal perception of the character are for each trait, and seeing how they play together with the writing.

[IrishScribbler]

Something I've done is set up an interview with a character you need to know more about (Gary, for example). Lay out questions that will help you get to know him, then answer as though you're Gary. The more you do this, the more realistic Gary's answers will become, and the richer he, as a character, will become.

[Mud Dauber]

I'm also seriously considering making up a kind of character bank. Everybody I know in real life to any depth at all has at least one character trait that seems a bit surprising. They'd be great resources for future stories. Something along the lines of "hypercritical and extremely irritable, yet sentimental and generous". "mathematical genius with huge smile, warm laugh, messy house and a firm eye for the bottom line." Age, gender, ethnicity totally unimportant at this stage. I'm not trying to put people I know in my stories, just some of their characteristics to build my own characters around. Make sense?
You have some great advice. I really like your idea of the character bank.:Thumbs:If done well, and 'deposited' in on a regular basis... what a resource to pull from, the next time a character begins to feel flat.

[Mud Dauber]

I never really have this problem. My characters just show up and talk and become interesting

I hate you.


;)


ETA... Kidding, PeeDee! Just kidding!

[BlueTexas]

I'm also seriously considering making up a kind of character bank. Everybody I know in real life to any depth at all has at least one character trait that seems a bit surprising. They'd be great resources for future stories. Something along the lines of "hypercritical and extremely irritable, yet sentimental and generous". "mathematical genius with huge smile, warm laugh, messy house and a firm eye for the bottom line." Age, gender, ethnicity totally unimportant at this stage. I'm not trying to put people I know in my stories, just some of their characteristics to build my own characters around. Make sense?

I have done this for years and I highly reccomend it. If nothing else, it forces you to see facets of a personality, which for me anyway, changed the way I defined personality in my own mind.

[Judg]

I have done this for years and I highly reccomend it. If nothing else, it forces you to see facets of a personality, which for me anyway, changed the way I defined personality in my own mind.
BT, how much detail do you go into? What would a typical entry in your "bank" look like?

[Inkdaub]

*Laugh* Not my husband's childhood. *laughing even harder!* I sat down with my husband and talked about my villain's childhood.

Oh gosh, LMFAO!!!!

Maprilynne

Hehehe...

[BlueTexas]

BT, how much detail do you go into? What would a typical entry in your "bank" look like?

The best I can describe it is as a meandering essay about memory. He was this, he was that. I remember when she did this, I felt that. When she did this, she looked like that. Lots of sensory details and lots of wondering why he did this or that. I started doing it as writing exercises, you know, like you had to do in high school - observation exercises I guess.

[Live2Write]

Thanks guys,

The more I look at this character, the more I realize he really is developing. He had a major role at the end of the book so he's not as "cartoonish" as I originally thought.

Great advice though. Getting into Gary's head has definately helped.

Live2Write