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writercises Original Posting 8/4/2019
Writer's Digest, April 1992, pages eight and 10 had an article by Nancy Kress under this title. The subtitle says "To make your characters and setting universal, make them specific."Nancy starts with a short anecdote about a student writer who says their story could be about anybody, so they haven't really decided who the person is. They want to represent the universal human condition!"It's not that a single character in a short story can't represent the universal human condition. Certainly he or she can. But the construction of fiction offers a paradox here: the more universal you try to be, the more particular you must be in terms of character. The way to universality of theme lies not through creating anybody, but only through creating a specific somebody. The only way to achieve Everyman is to create Particularman."Why? Well, basically readers are looking for identification. How much does your character resemble the reader. If the answer is not very much, readers shift to trying to understand a different life. However, those different characters don't represent universals. They don't represent you! On the other hand, when a reader does identify with the character, they become universal – at least there's the author, the character, and the reader… And then there's everybody else."If your reader can identify with your character, that character has at least a shot at representing universality of human truth to the reader."So when do readers identify with the character? It's not through a lack of individual characteristics. Vagueness does not create identification. No, bonds are best built through similarities between the reader and the character, through definite qualities. "That's why the well-drawn individual character will seem more universal than a vague, amorphous one." What the character does and says and believes are things the reader can predict because the people feel real, and the reader can imagine themselves sharing.Reader identification!But, wait a minute, sex, age, socioeconomic class, interests… Those are not likely to be the same as the reader? Well, yes, but while such attributes influence how the character thinks and acts, it's really character, personality, individual essence that let the reader identify the character. Emotions!Along the way, it's not just characters. Setting also needs to be specific, with details chosen to illuminate, to give a impression.So, clean up the fuzz! "Fuzzy characters in fuzzy settings do not add up to depictions of the universal human condition.… To create the universal, create the particular, and create it in such a way that you take us below the surface of both character and setting." Make us notice, make us care, and we will love the story.So there you go. If you're looking for an exercise, take something you're working on, and go through and look for the fuzzy places, the characters and settings that aren't really specific. Then add the details, make them pop into the reader's mind.
Writer's Digest, April 1992, pages eight and 10 had an article by Nancy Kress under this title. The subtitle says "To make your characters and setting universal, make them specific."Nancy starts with a short anecdote about a student writer who says their story could be about anybody, so they haven't really decided who the person is. They want to represent the universal human condition!"It's not that a single character in a short story can't represent the universal human condition. Certainly he or she can. But the construction of fiction offers a paradox here: the more universal you try to be, the more particular you must be in terms of character. The way to universality of theme lies not through creating anybody, but only through creating a specific somebody. The only way to achieve Everyman is to create Particularman."Why? Well, basically readers are looking for identification. How much does your character resemble the reader. If the answer is not very much, readers shift to trying to understand a different life. However, those different characters don't represent universals. They don't represent you! On the other hand, when a reader does identify with the character, they become universal – at least there's the author, the character, and the reader… And then there's everybody else."If your reader can identify with your character, that character has at least a shot at representing universality of human truth to the reader."So when do readers identify with the character? It's not through a lack of individual characteristics. Vagueness does not create identification. No, bonds are best built through similarities between the reader and the character, through definite qualities. "That's why the well-drawn individual character will seem more universal than a vague, amorphous one." What the character does and says and believes are things the reader can predict because the people feel real, and the reader can imagine themselves sharing.Reader identification!But, wait a minute, sex, age, socioeconomic class, interests… Those are not likely to be the same as the reader? Well, yes, but while such attributes influence how the character thinks and acts, it's really character, personality, individual essence that let the reader identify the character. Emotions!Along the way, it's not just characters. Setting also needs to be specific, with details chosen to illuminate, to give a impression.So, clean up the fuzz! "Fuzzy characters in fuzzy settings do not add up to depictions of the universal human condition.… To create the universal, create the particular, and create it in such a way that you take us below the surface of both character and setting." Make us notice, make us care, and we will love the story.So there you go. If you're looking for an exercise, take something you're working on, and go through and look for the fuzzy places, the characters and settings that aren't really specific. Then add the details, make them pop into the reader's mind.