The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 27 May 2009

Writer's Digest, December 2006, pages 97 and 98, have an article by Elaine Marien Alphin, with two sidebars, one by Tracey E. Dils and one by Nancy Lamb. The overall heading is Writing for Kids: Create Believable Characters. The main article has the title Thinking like a Kid.

Elaine reminds us that story characters come to life for children, and should be friends for the readers. "Potential story characters are all around you.... Believable characters are born from real people and revealed to readers through your writer's craft." You want the reader to identify with the main character, and feel their struggles and growth. So how do you do that?

1. Characters do things. Make sure your characters take action. And that the actions give us the right impression of the character. Kids pay attention to what other kids do. Seems simple, but that's the main way we figure out other people and characters. So use the actions of your characters to show the reader who they are.
2. Characters think. Often, characters have religious or philosophical beliefs or attitudes in the beginning of the story that may be challenged as part of the story. They may not say what they think, but you need to make sure that the characters' thoughts, hidden or spoken, contribute to the tension and drama of the story.
3. Characters feel. Sure, rational thinking is important, but people aren't always rational. Especially when things get tough. Make sure that your characters have emotions. Fear, anger, hatred, love, delight... all of the wonder of life. "While you can articulate your character's thoughts with words, emotions are more subtle. You can evoke them in your reader by using physical sensations that he'll recognize. But you need to find a unique, quirky way to express an emotion believably, and it should spring from the context of your character."
4. Characters speak. Actions, thoughts, feelings are only part of the expression of personality. Kids talk. What they say and how they say it reveals a lot. To make characters believable, though, you need to use language that fits the age and context of the youngsters. Use natural language that kids would use.

Tracey E. Dils has a short sidebar about Bring Your Character to Life. Six points for main characters:

1. Pick a name that reflects their personality
2. Make the names easy to pronounce and not too exotic
3. Make the names different. Similar names are confusing.
4. Habits help define characters. Chewing bubblegum, wearing purple socks, whatever fits.
5. Distinctive speech. Some catchphrase or verbal habit can help identify who's talking.
6. Mannerisms and twitches. Cracking knuckles, twirling hair, all can help.

Nancy Lamb has a short sidebar with the title Character Observations. Three guidelines:

1. Validate confusion. Every child gets confused when dealing with things. Your characters should get confused sometimes too. It adds emotional richness and social texture when the characters try to resolve their confusion and their ambiguous feelings.
2. Celebrate inconsistency. People who are always doing the same thing are boring. Add some contradictions, make your characters complex.
3. Ignore the truth. Sure, your model may be a real person. But for the story, ignore the facts. Build the essential truth of the character to support the inherent drama of the story. Just the story, ma'am.

I have to admit, for an article and two sidebars supposedly aimed at writing for kids, I think this is good advice for any writer. Make sure your characters do things, think, feel, and speak. Make the characters distinctive. And make the characters rich, real people who are bigger than life.

Watching the neighborhood kids playing on a nearby grassy slope out my window this spring afternoon, and remembering...