Help me describe my characters.

BlueLucario · Dec 5, 2007

Imagine a teenage couple sitting against a tree in a public park kissing and making love. Then a stranger girl(character 2) walks to them and tells them that their way of making love is incorrect. And the male is improperly holding the female and they are kissing too fast.

The girl asks, go away and mind your own business, C2 tells her that shes doing it all wrong. that she read it in a book. She shows them the book named "A young girls guide to catching the men" which gives them step by step directions on how to kiss. C2 say the man is supposed to grab her hips not the underarm. and the girl is supposed hold him by the shoulders.

Then C3 walks over to them and asks

C3: What the hell is your problem?! Can you just leave them alone?

C2: Mind your business!

C3: Why dont YOU mind your business, you nosy pedant! Have you even kissed a boy before

C2: No but-

C3: Then how would you know?

C2: It's in this book.

C3: (Grabbs the book and tears off pages) STOP READING YOUR DAMN BOOKS, WHY IS IT THAT EVERYTHING YOU LEARNED SOLELY COME FROM BOOKS. Has this stupid book ever kissed before

(Couple slowly backs away unnoticed.)

C1 sits on the bench just watching C2 and C3 fight, without seeming to care.

How would you decribe C1 2 and 3?

This is my character profiling.

KTC · Dec 5, 2007

It is up to the writer to figure out how to describe their characters.

maddythemad · Dec 5, 2007

Yeah, I'd have to agree with KTC. And I kind of got lost with which character was which, since they're all C1 and C2 and C3.

But it sounds like an interesting idea for a scene.

gp101 · Dec 5, 2007

BlueLucario said:
Imagine a teenage couple sitting against a tree in a public park kissing and making love.
How would you decribe C1 2 and 3?

You don't give time of day. Is it daytime? Then they are freaks, exhibitionists, or maybe even sluts, etc. Is it nighttime? Is it cold, warm, what? If nighttime, the teenage couple most likely think they have privacy and would be shocked to see others. I'm thinking either the boy gets violent or the couple high-tails it out of fear. And if there is question as to whether they are doing it right, they're probably very inexperienced, so they'd be very embarrassed, which might make them leave quickly or even apologize or something.

You leave too many variables. And really, you should put yourself in that situation, knowing what you already know about your characters and about your own experiences, and ask how they would realistically react. It should keep in line with the type of characters you're portraying. I don't think any of us could tell you better than you already know. At best (or maybe worst), you'll hear suggestions that change your characters or story.

You're robbing yourself of the fun of figuring this out yourself, IMO. Do you want to write the story, or do you want others to write it for you? Give it some time and some thought. I've no doubt your own answers will be ultimately more satisfying than 99% of the answers we give you. To quote the fab artsy thinker of our time Paula Abdul: make it your own.

maestrowork · Dec 5, 2007

Why do you ask us to imagine a teenage couple? Try imagining them yourselves, then tell us what they are like. There, you have your descriptions.

Bufty · Dec 5, 2007

You are a teenager, Blue - think about it.

BlueLucario · Dec 5, 2007

I can't do it. Describing the characters personality is way too hard. I just want you to describe them. What sort of info do you need.

Describing them and imagining situations like this is really difficult, if it were easy I wouldnt ask you.

I'm sorry my head really hurts.

Stew21 · Dec 5, 2007

we can't describe them, Blue. I don't konw what their personalities need them to do through the book. You are the only one who knows who they need to be and how they need to change.
maybe instead of doing character profiles, you need to just start writing and see if you can dig them out and polish them up.

CaroGirl · Dec 5, 2007

BlueLucario said:
I can't do it. Describing the characters personality is way too hard. I just want you to describe them. What sort of info do you need.

Describing them and imagining situations like this is really difficult, if it were easy I wouldnt ask you.

I'm sorry my head really hurts.

This is a defeatist attitude. What do you mean you can't? If you can't describe your characters, you'll struggle to write fiction that people care about. I care about characters, not stories. If you can't describe characters, you must learn how to. Read how your favourite authors describe characters.

If you really can't describe them, then show their personalities through their actions. How do they react when put into a particular situation? That says as much about a character as how they stand or whether they use their hands when they talk.

KTC · Dec 5, 2007

Blue,

You're either going to write or you're not. Only you can decide what your characters look act like. Asking others to describe them is just wrong on so many levels. You're their creator. If you have trouble watch some teenagers...take some traits from one, some from another...make an amalgamation. You have to do this yourself. If you are incapable, maybe it's time to just give up. (I'm not saying that to be mean...just to offer you a little wake up.)

Writers create their characters...they don't ask others to create their characters for them.

NeuroFizz · Dec 5, 2007

C1 is Olive Oyle (her partner is Popeye)
C2 is a female version of Dopey from the Seven Dwarfs
C3 is Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants

Get it? Pick a POV character and get inside her (his?) head and work the interaction from there. Let the emotions you write drive your vision of their appearance, but don't spell it out. Let the reader form his/her own mental images of their appearances, based on your word painting of their actions and reactions, and if anything a minimal direct description from you.

BlueLucario · Dec 5, 2007

CaroGirl said:
This is a defeatist attitude. What do you mean you can't? If you can't describe your characters, you'll struggle to write fiction that people care about.

I care about characters, not stories. If you can't describe characters, you must learn how to.

How?
.

Read how your favourite authors describe characters.

I can easily do that by reading the books, but it's hard to do it when you're writing stories.

If you really can't describe them, then show their personalities through their actions. How do they react when put into a particular situation? That says as much about a character as how they stand or whether they use their hands when they talk.

Oh. Good point

I made a mistake just writing the characters without thinking about what they are like, C2 in a story is wild and crazy at first but all of a sudden she's pedantic. Because I failed to profile each character before intoducing them. I can compare them to other characters in other stories, but I can't describe them eeither.

I'm really trying to find a word for them. And I thought the only way to dig out the personality of a character is from another reader. That's another reason why I'm posting this to see if they found the personality I'm looking for.

I'm sorry for being rude, but this stuff is really hard.

EDIT: To NeuroFizz :If anyone points out the personality opposite from what I intended, then I feel that something is wrong. If a reader thinks that the character is lazy and you intended them to be apathetic then something is wrong.

WendyNYC · Dec 5, 2007

BlueLucario said:
I made a mistake just writing the characters without thinking about what they are like, C2 in a story is wild and crazy at first but all of a sudden she's pedantic. Because I failed to profile each character before intoducing them. I can compare them to other characters in other stories, but I can't describe them eeither.

I'm really trying to find a word for them. And I thought the only way to dig out the personality of a character is from another reader. That's another reason why I'm posting this

This might be helpful

http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/106

johnnysannie · Dec 5, 2007

Blue

I'm puzzled and confused......I could not write a story without knowing the characters before I begin.....I create 'em and to me, they're all but living, breathing people. I know their general likes/dislikes, general appearance, history etc. before I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)

Like I tell kids when I give talks at the local schools about writing, if the story is a car, then the character is the driver. You've got the car and it is careening out of your control.

Stew21 · Dec 5, 2007

BlueLucario said:
I made a mistake just writing the characters without thinking about what they are like, C2 in a story is wild and crazy at first but all of a sudden she's pedantic. Because I failed to profile each character before intoducing them. I can compare them to other characters in other stories, but I can't describe them eeither.

I'm really trying to find a word for them. And I thought the only way to dig out the personality of a character is from another reader. That's another reason why I'm posting this to see if they found the personality I'm looking for.

I'm sorry for being rude, but this stuff is really hard.

EDIT: To NeuroFizz :If anyone points out the personality opposite from what I intended, then I feel that something is wrong. If a reader thinks that the character is lazy and you intended them to be apathetic then something is wrong.

Who they are and what they do are so tightly linked, that you shouldn't be able to do one without the other. Even with a plot, who the characters are and how they react is so integral to the plot, I couldn't possibly tell you anything about them that you don't tell me first.

Bufty · Dec 5, 2007

There! You've done it. You are more than half way there, Blue. :hooray:

Below are the highlighted characteristics of character 2. Now all you have to do is show me character 2 doing or saying something or things that prompt me to think - "Oh! That character is behaving a little crazy or wild or pedantic or whatever."

Don't tell me straight out they're crazy etc., -show me by their dialogue and actions or reactions. Let me make my mind up as to what the dialogue and actions mean. If it's clear, I should get the picture.
Got it?

BlueLucario said:
I made a mistake just writing the characters without thinking about what they are like, C2 in a story is wild and crazy at first but all of a sudden she's pedantic. Because I failed to profile each character before intoducing them. I can compare them to other characters in other stories, but I can't describe them eeither.

I'm really trying to find a word for them. And I thought the only way to dig out the personality of a character is from another reader. That's another reason why I'm posting this to see if they found the personality I'm looking for.

I'm sorry for being rude, but this stuff is really hard.

EDIT: To NeuroFizz :If anyone points out the personality opposite from what I intended, then I feel that something is wrong. If a reader thinks that the character is lazy and you intended them to be apathetic then something is wrong.

BlueLucario · Dec 5, 2007

thanks that helped a bit, that was one of the things i was looking for.

Bufty · Dec 5, 2007

Use the QUOTE box at the bottom right when responding, Blue, otherwise it's hard to link a response with a post when the responses are coming this fast. There are 4 responses above your acknowledgement.

BlueLucario said:
thanks that helped a bit, that was one of the things i was looking for.

Stew21 · Dec 5, 2007

if the character used to be crazy and wild, and now the character is pedantic and whatever else, perhaps it is a good characterization development opportunity to explain how she made that change, why, what caused it? What caused her to change her behavior?

go with it. you'll find out even more about her if you do.

chartreuse · Dec 5, 2007

The best advice I've ever read about characterization is to follow your characters around and watch what they do (I don't remember the source - sorry). In other words, what you find your characters doing in the scene TELLS you what they are like.

I'm one of those writers that starts with the story idea (and, as a reader, I tend towards books that have great concepts as their strongest point) so bringing my characters to life is hard for me as well. However, the above-advice really does help, and it's a fact (at least for me) that once I start writing, my characters often surprise me with what they will, or won't do. I get to know them through their choices.

I've actually got one book that started out as murder mystery but has been shelved for now because my MC (the detecive) sadly has no interest whatsoever in solving the murder (or any crime). I love my MC, and all of the people she's been interacting with (some of her old crowd, whom she hasn't seen for a couple of decades) but it's going to have to take place in a different framework, because she's let me know loud and clear that detective work just isn't for her.

BlueLucario · Dec 5, 2007

So are all of you are saying, don't worry about how to describe your character, let the reader discover that himself? I think thats the purpose of this whole post(ugh never mind). Don't worry about what the reader protrays the character? So just making you character "THIS" and "THAT", is just taking over the whole story, even if it's not what the reader thinks of him?

This is what your saying right?

should I have to worry about trying to make the character a snob and the reader protrays them as nice?

NeuroFizz · Dec 5, 2007

Actually you want to portray your characters by their actions and reactions in your scenes so you develop three-dimensional personalities for those characters. If you also pepper this characterization with a few details of their appearance, the reader will fill in the blanks, although even if you provide no anatomical clues, the reader will do just fine as long as you have created interesting characters and put them in unusual or interesting situations. But you have to really develop the characters as they "walk" through your story.

eodmatt · Dec 5, 2007

Spike Milligan's description of one of the characters in his book "Puckoon" included: "His thoughts, few that they were, lay silent in the privacy of his head".

BlueLucario · Dec 5, 2007

eodmatt said:
Spike Milligan's description of one of the characters in his book "Puckoon" included: "His thoughts, few that they were, lay silent in the privacy of his head".

What exactly do you mean?

Stew21 · Dec 5, 2007

one of my character's only physical descriptions were that he needed a haircut and a shave and that when he was younger and more confident he appeared to be taller than he really was.

of that younger version he was bronze from sun and "there was no need to find one for him because he wore his metaphor rolled up in his sleeve, save one tucked behind his left ear."

I never describe him physically again outside of action.

let the characters' actions be their descriptions. Trust your readers to "see" them.

Help me describe my characters.

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