As writers, we are all tasked to create 'believable' characters...even when they allegedly have ice-water in their veins. Your dialog is based on the characters inner compass. From there we encounter the first obstacle and that is how well do YOU read people? Can you channel your inner wimp or are your characters all over the map? (Let's not to lose sight of the fact that many stories 'track' a character's development but this is another factor entirely! I'm pointing at question 'are your characters multi-dimensional or are they monochrome reflections of one another?')
With that in mind, have you noticed the trend in 'unbelievable' characters populating screens both large and small? Or have you? (I once again allude to the tendency to simply absorb what the screen feeds us rather than thinking about what we're witnessing.)
This isn't so much a critique of an industry that has minimal time to develop and effectively transmit plot devices, we all laugh at sitcoms precisely because we don't personally know anybody who behaves like that! Perhaps it's funny because we all know someone we suspect would act like, that given a similar situation.
In writing your 'customer' only has a mental picture of the characters you create, their personality comes across through their words and deeds.
How effectively you flesh out the character is demonstrated in how 'memorable' they are in the reader's mind.
Some would opine that keeping your characters 'real' minimizes their memorability but to that I leave you with something to chew upon (al-la Kaiser Sozay) "The Devils greatest achievement is convincing everyone it is he and not they, themselves who are the embodiment of all evil!"
Thanks for letting me inside your head!
With that in mind, have you noticed the trend in 'unbelievable' characters populating screens both large and small? Or have you? (I once again allude to the tendency to simply absorb what the screen feeds us rather than thinking about what we're witnessing.)
This isn't so much a critique of an industry that has minimal time to develop and effectively transmit plot devices, we all laugh at sitcoms precisely because we don't personally know anybody who behaves like that! Perhaps it's funny because we all know someone we suspect would act like, that given a similar situation.
In writing your 'customer' only has a mental picture of the characters you create, their personality comes across through their words and deeds.
How effectively you flesh out the character is demonstrated in how 'memorable' they are in the reader's mind.
Some would opine that keeping your characters 'real' minimizes their memorability but to that I leave you with something to chew upon (al-la Kaiser Sozay) "The Devils greatest achievement is convincing everyone it is he and not they, themselves who are the embodiment of all evil!"
Thanks for letting me inside your head!
No comments:
Post a Comment