Wednesday's Writer's Tip - More on Showing Characterization #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Showing the character in action is important and there are many ways to do this. Last week 4 were mentioned. Today here are four more.

Give the character a tag that can be used to show what kind of person is or she is. She always bites her lower lip when she's nervous and she's nervous a number of times. Another character observing this will know what's happening. He stammers when he can't think of what to say. There are dozens of these tags you can give to show the character, One thing is to pick only one for a character and don't give that tag to others in the story.

re a way to show a character. He towers over everyone. She has piercing blue eyes, His hair is worn in a pony tail. There are many ways to make a physical attribute belong to a character. Here again if you're going to choose one of these to show your characters, chose the one that gives the most mileage. In the first description, you can use more than one of these tags but later, keep to the one. In a book I'm writing one of the characters has wintery eyes. They are cold and gray. Using other words for cold and gray his eyes characterize him.

There are other ways to tag a character ala mannerisms and habits.

For minor characters give them a dominant character type. I have a character in a book who speaks in dialect. You know immediately that she's speaking.

Contrasting characteris is also another way to characterize. One character is brash and bold. Another is shy and sweet. The contrast doesn't have to be blatant. Take two people who are loyal. One could go about showing this in a quiet way and the other be in everyone's face.

Names are another way to characterize. Many people think of a name such as Jane often put together with plain. Think of using the names to show a depth of character or for other reasons. I'm working on fantasy story where one character in each book is related to the others but don't know it. Ari, Larana and Arton. Using the Ar to show the relationship.