FICTION DEPENDS ON GREAT CHARACTERS

Here are four points to consider when creating fictional characters:

1. Spend less time describing characters’ appearances. Show their actions, especially if their actions put them in conflict with the norms of their worlds. another example of show not tell.

2. Use two or more real people as models for characters. Then your character will have a blend of interesting features, and you won’t be liable for defaming anyone.

3. If you usually write novels, experiment with short stories. When I started writing short stories eight years ago, I was forced to identify and demonstrate the key features of characters more quickly and succinctly than in a novel.

4. One trick for displaying unforgettable characters is to select the narrator of your tale carefully. Before I wrote short stories, I interviewed dozens of acquaintances about their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. In several cases, I listened to tales about the same person from siblings or spouses. I also knew several of the women described. I quickly recognized that reality depended on the eyes of the beholder. The point of view is important.

Then I wrote vignettes with surprising plot twists about mothers in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s (The Good Old Days?) and modern women (Other People’s Mothers). The women in each story made choices. The narrators of the stories often didn’t understand the basis of the decisions because of incomplete information or personal biases. Accordingly, they warped the portraits of the women, and I could develop the characters to be more memorable.

How do you develop characters in your fiction?

My collections of short stories are available in paperback and Kindle format at Amazon.

The Good Old Days?: http://www.amzn.com/dp/1537743813

Other People’s Mothers: https://www.amzn.com/dp/1544895011

Great Fiction Depends on Great Characters

We all know character development is important, but most of us are tired of the standard advice: Avoid stereotypes. Model your characters on real people with foibles. 

Maybe these three points will start you thinking about character development.

1. Spend less time describing characters’ appearances and more time showing their actions, especially if their actions put them in conflict with the norms of their worlds.

2. If you usually write novels, experiment with short stories. They force you to identify and demonstrate the key features of characters more quickly and succinctly. Also, you're more apt to rewrite a character that you haven't become attached to after a hundred pages.

3. One trick for displaying unforgettable characters is to select the narrator (point of view) of your tale carefully. Before I started writing short stories, I interviewed dozens of acquaintances about their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. In several cases, I listened to tales about the same person from siblings or spouses. I also knew several of the women described. I quickly recognized that reality depended on the eyes of the beholder.

Then I wrote vignettes with surprising plot twists about mothers in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s (The Good Old Days?) and modern women (Other People’s Mothers). The women in each story made choices. The narrators of the stories often didn’t understand the basis of the decisions because of incomplete information or personal biases. Accordingly, they warped the portraits of the women, and I could develop the characters to be more memorable.

How do you develop characters in your fiction?

My collections of short stories are available in paperback and Kindle format at Amazon.

The Good Old Days?: http://amzn.com/1537743813

Other People’s Mothers: https://www.amzn.com/dp/1544895011

MOTHERS IN FICITON

Over two-thirds of the women in the United States are mothers. Yet, much of the fiction written about them emphasizes their romances and careers. I thought the topic of mothers in fiction was a good topic for spring.

The writers of the TV series, The Brady Bunch and Leave It to Beaver, sold us a bill of goods. No mother is as perfect as perfect as Carol Brady or June Cleaver. Unfortunately, most of us wanted mothers like the ones we saw on television - pretty, funny, seldom tired or cross, and always wise enough to make fair decisions. Thank goodness, Roseanne Connor in Roseanne and Peg Bundy in Married with Children came along on TV.

However, it’s not fair to blame television programs for our unrealistic expectations of mothers and family life. Experts, like Sigmund Freud and Benjamin Spock, and authors, such as the children of several famous actresses, have stoked our tendencies to either glamorize or villainize mothers. Even Tolstoy over simplified the roles of families and mothers at the beginning of Anna Karenina. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

In practice, no family is always happy, and no mother is perfect. Perhaps that’s good. Much of the diversity we treasure in others reflects the quirks of their mothers’ personalities. Think how boring life and literary fiction would be if we all had perfect mothers.

When I started to write short stories about mothers, I interviewed dozens of acquaintances about their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. In several cases, I listened to stories about the same person from siblings or spouses. I also knew several of the women described. I quickly recognized that reality depended on the eyes of the beholder.

Then I wrote The Good Old Days? It’s a collection of stories about mothers in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. My second collection of stories about more modern women is called Other People’s Mothers.

The women in these vignettes made choices. The narrators of the stories often didn’t understand the basis of the decisions because of incomplete information or personal biases. Accordingly, they warped the portraits of the mothers. 

Accordingly, these tales are about the narrator as well as the mother. Think about it: Isn't that true for all fiction?

I hope you’ll read these stories. They’re short ten to fifteen pages (great bed time reading). The stories might encourage you to:

• think about mothers in fiction,
• take a fresh look at your mother, and
• gain a more realistic understanding of yourself.  Most of us are more like our mothers than we care to admit.

Other People’s Mothers or The Good Old Days? would make great Easter or Mother’s Day gifts for relative or friends.