Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Characterization Tips #MFRWauthor #Amwriting

Finding ways to show the reader your characters can sometimes be difficult. The easy way is to tell them about the character but that doesn't make the character come alive. What you must do is show the character. There are manyways to do this. Today, let's look at four of these ways.

Put your character in conflict with his environment. He wants to escape where he lives, or he wants to change the place where he lives. Bringing this conflict into the open can give the reader ways to learn the character. I think of one of my stories where the main character is a nurse. She takes over a poorly run hospital unit. She is in conflict with what she sees. She doesn't want to leave she wants to change the environment. This is jsut one of her conflicts in the story. In another story oneof the main characters whats to leave his environment. Sometimes he seems to be beating at stone walls. Does he manage to leave? Maybe or maybe not. He might need to change,

Show your character in action. Not just doing something but show him thinking about what he must do and why he must do this specific action. Much about how he will act in a situation will show bits of his character. I'm working on a story right now and the villain is showing his nature with the actions he takes against the hero and the heroine. Shows a lot about his character but also shows a bit about the other characters.

Allow the character to have a bit of learning about himself. What does he learn from the action? This can reveal what kind of character he is. Give him a test of a kind. How does he react? What discovery about his own nature is shown both by his action and my his inner dialogue.

All characters have motivation that carries through the story. Even the smallest actions can have a reason for the character to act in a certain way. This may or may not be part of the character's motivation to reach the goal at the end of the story. The motivation to act in a single incident may be different from the character's main motivation. Think of the murderer who saves the life of a dog or even a child. The motivation for this may be different how he acts during the entire story.