First Chapter

Getting into Character

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

Personalizing

Actor's Technique:

As no two human beings are exactly alike, so every role is unique-a soul to be created that is distinctive and individual. Attributing mere general mannerisms to characters based on their age and social class will produce cutout dolls that may just as well be moved from play to play. Through discovering the inner character and from observing real life-how one person holds his head, how another walks or uses her hands-the actor must pull together a composite of mannerisms that creates the unique character being portrayed.

Novelist's Adaptation:

The technique of personalizing each character is just as important in writing fiction as in acting. Without personalizing, we face the pitfalls of clichéd characters such as the "old man" or the "young woman." Our adaptation of personalizing focuses not on hair color and body type, but on the discovery of a character's inner values, which give rise to unique traits and mannerisms that will become an integral part of the story.

The Importance of Personalizing

"You can dress him up but you can't take him out."

"All dressed up and no place to go."

Ever heard those phrases? Their meaning is a little different, but they share a common thread. Both imply that outeraccoutrements are less important than inner character and motivation.

Personalizing is absolutely critical for a novel. Yet many writers, especially new ones, have particular trouble with the concept of developing full-fledged characters. As noted in the Novelist's Adaptation, personalizing focuses not on physical attributes but rather on a character's inner values, which lead to traits and mannerisms. When we speak of "traits," we mean the general attitudes of your character, such as patience, arrogance, humility, selfishness. Traits define the basic personality of your character, just as we use traits to define people in real life. When we speak of "mannerisms," we mean specific movements of a character: the way he holds his head, the way she walks or talks, his facial expressions, and so on.

But how do we go about personalizing? And what can we learn from Method actors? The Method actor's secret to personalizing is based upon this principle:

Personalized characters are built from the inside out

In Building a Character, Stanislavsky notes that the most talented actors don't just assign traits and mannerisms to a character based on general facts about the person. Instead, these actors allow traits and mannerisms to grow of their own accord by first discovering the character's "right inner values." These inner values are the core truths of the character. They define the person's worldview; they drive his or her desires and actions.

For most novelists, Stanislavsky's approach is a radical idea. Instead of allowing ourselves to discover our characters' inner values, we have a tendency to characterize them on the outside-merely dressing the mannequin, so to speak-hoping somewhere along the way to discover a few inner truths about them. But too often, we don't go deep enough.

The trouble is, no matter how exciting our plot, how intriguing the action, or how great the danger, readers will fail to be caught up in the story unless they connect in some way with the characters. This connection is not superficial in the least; it links the reader's innermost being to the very soul of a character.

Two years ago, while I was on vacation at a lakeside resort, a mental image of a character popped into my head. I was minding my own business, ogling all the large boats along the docks, when this character invaded my thoughts. He was a young boy of about ten, a runaway, hungry and very alone. I "saw" him standing on the dock, head tilted back, watching a small group of people on a huge boat preparing to go out on the water. The longing this boy felt overwhelmed me until my own chest nearly burst from it. More than anything in the world, more than money in his pocket or food in his stomach, he wanted to be on the boat with those people. Only a few feet separated him from that boat, yet the distance may as well have been a canyon. He wanted to be up there not because his presence on that boat would convey access to wealth, but because he simply wanted to belong. Wanted it, yearned for it with all his might and strength. So close to people laughing and enjoying each other, yet so very far. So utterly alone.

This little boy caught my heart. We connected on a very deep level. Two years later I still wonder who he is and when he will fully reveal himself to me. To this day I couldn't tell you his traits or mannerisms. I'm not even certain what he looks like. These things aren't yet important. What is important is my knowledge of the inner value that most shapes this boy: belonging is more important to him than anything else in the world.

I must admit this is the only time such a vision of a character has happened to me. Usually I approach a novel with a basic plot and then discover the characters. Still, somewhere along the course of writing, they'll inevitably do something I hadn't planned. How exciting when that happens! But whether you start with a character or a plot in mind, ultimately it's the characters who will drive your story.

Unfortunately, not all our characters are as open about their inner values as this young boy was with me. Many at first tell us nothing but their physical appearance. That's okay; take whatever they'll give you. If a character shows herself to you, and she clearly stands five feet four inches tall with brown hair and green eyes, don't dismiss her. Welcome her, in fact. Invite her to curl up on the couch, tell you who she is. Only then will you begin to truly connect. Her appearance may attract you, but her inner values are what will make her compelling.

Now, let's search for those intriguing inner values of your character and see how they can give rise to a unique, personalized set of traits and mannerisms.

The Personalizing Process

Naturally, you'll have to begin at the beginning: learning the basic facts about your character. One of the ways authors do this is to "interview" the character.

Some authors have a very structured way of interviewing their characters, using a long list of questions regarding age, gender, likes, dislikes, background, education, family relationships, and so on. That's fine. Making a checklist of details is a good entry into the personalizing process and will dovetail with what we are trying to accomplish. In a moment we'll talk about where such an interview list will fit into the technique of personalizing.

Authors at the other end of the scale use a free-form method to get to know their characters, making notes as facts about them come to mind. Still other authors use techniques somewhere between the free-form and the structured interview. Whatever your method, you do need to discover the highlights of your character's background and experiences, for these will color the person's view of the world. But for true personalizing, remember this: these facts about your character will not be ends in themselves. In fact, they will be merely the beginning.

In a nutshell, here are the steps to the secret of personalizing. We'll go through each one to fully explain the process.

Step 1. Begin a line of questioning with your character and pursue it until you "hit bottom." Hitting bottom means you arrive at the "So what?"-or logical conclusion-of that line of questioning.

Step 2. The final "So what?" question will reveal a core truth or "inner value" about your character.

Step 3. In turn, this inner value will give rise to a trait.

Step 4. Then pursue this line of questioning even further to see if you can hit bottom a second time.

Step 5. If you can hit bottom again, you will discover a specific mannerism based on the inner value.

Now, how to start this questioning process?

If Stanislavsky were alive today and willing to teach us novelists, his questioning process would most likely be based on the three levels of characterization that he describes in Building a Character. At each of these levels a deeper probing of the character gives rise to more personalized traits, which in turn reveal specific mannerisms. Stanislavsky's disappointment lay in the fact that, amazingly, many actors stopped at Level A, and many others made it only to B. Yet only at Level C is true individualization reached.

All too often, novelists, like actors, tend to stop at Level B. We have understandable reason for doing so. Levels A and B aren't very difficult. We have one or two main characters in mind and a story to go with them, or perhaps we start with a story and figure out a couple of characters. Within the process of discovering our stories, we tend naturally to reach Level B. And then we think we have enough. The problem is, in this personalizing process, you will not conclude Step 1 and hit bottom with a line of questioning until you reach Level C. If you stop too soon, you'll miss discovering those valuable core truths about your character.

Level A: Division of characters into general categories such as socioeconomic level, age, gender, and career

Imagine the quick introduction of a game show contestant, and you've got Level A. "An English professor from Omaha with three children" or "A retired dog trainer who loves to fish." Getting your character to answer Level A's basic question of "Who are you?" is easy enough. Your character is a military man, a beautiful and wealthy woman, a homeless person, or an elderly gentleman. Any such category automatically brings to mind an array of potential mannerisms. In walking, for example, someone in the military may tend to march, while a beautiful and rich woman may strut, a homeless person listlessly amble, and an elderly gentleman shuffle. Or in eating, the military man may clear his plate with a quick deliberateness while the rich woman revels in the ambiance of fine food and etiquette. This level of characterization is of course necessary, and it's true that major divisions such as career and socioeconomic status begin to define a person. But we can easily imagine the stereotypical disasters we'll create by stopping here:

an abused, abandoned romantic heroine = fearful, feels unworthy
a detective who's clawed his way out of the slums = chip on his shoulder
an elderly man with unrealized dreams = bitter, sour-faced

Let me hasten to add that the above aren't bad in themselves. Your detective from the slums may indeed have a chip on his shoulder. The question is how to move him from mere stereotype to a unique persona.

Level B: Moving toward specifics

At this level we can begin to imagine some distinctions within a main category as we further define the character and how he or she fits into our story. You most likely will already know the answers to basic questions in Level B. For example, is your military man a private, a major, a general? Or is he in a specialized unit such as the Navy SEALs? Is the homeless person new to the streets or someone who's lived there a long time? In his working days, was the elderly gentleman employed in a factory or was he a high-level executive?

Answers to these queries will lead you to numerous lines of specific questioning. Let's say your story involving the military is about a young man who has just enlisted in the Marines. Perhaps he is following in the footsteps of both his father and grandfather. How will his family history affect his attitude toward the rigorous demands of the Marine Corps? Obviously, this young man's actions and outlook will not be based on the years of military training inherent to a general. But what if his grandfather was a general? After growing up hearing his grandfather's stories and learning at the old man's knee, might your character think he knows more than other new recruits? Might he approach his peers with a bit of a cocky attitude? Or might he have placed his grandfather on such a pedestal that he feels he can never begin to measure up?

Or let's say your character is that beautiful and wealthy woman. Is she newly rich or was she born into money? A character with newfound wealth may harbor a different attitude toward money than a woman who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. If your story is about the homeless man, exactly how long has he been homeless? A man who's recently lost his job won't view the streets with the familiarity of a person who's been homeless for years.

Although at this level we are beginning to see some of the attitudes of our characters, the questioning up to this point only begins to scratch the surface. Therefore, any mannerisms or traits attached now will remain too generic. But it's just so doggone tempting to stop here. We figure we know the basic information about our characters, some of their perceptions of life, and we know the story or at least have a general idea of the story. Time to assign a few personality quirks and gestures and get on with the writing.

Not so fast. The fun begins at Level C.

Level #C: Personalizing of the character

At this level you will conclude Step 1 and move on to Steps 2 through 5 of the personalizing process. The character will become a unique person, with inner values and a resulting set of traits and mannerisms not duplicated in anyone else. If you employ an interview list, this is the level at which to ask the deeper questions that move you toward the core of your character. Obviously the answers to the first questions on your list-name, age, position, and so on-will already have been answered in Levels A and B. Your Level C list might include items such as: Was your childhood happy? Unhappy? Why? What are some defining moments in your life? What do you think of when you hear the word "mother"? How about "father"?

If you don't use a set list of interview questions for your characters, that's fine, too. You can still get to know your character by asking questions that naturally follow the answers you've received in Levels A and B. This is akin to the give-and-take conversation in making a new acquaintance in real life. That person tells you something; you respond with a question for more detail. You're told more, and you respond with yet another question.

For example, let's return to one of the characters mentioned above-the newly rich woman.

Continues...

---

Excerpted from Getting into Character by Brandilyn Collins Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---