How to Make the Write Money Two

Character

Arnold Bennett said “the foundation of good fiction is character- creating and nothing else.”

Ask yourself, or ask someone else who is honest enough to give you a straight answer; do the characters live, do they come alive with the unfolding of the story? Have they got identifiable traits?

Try to endow them with something essentially their own. Ways of speaking…certain mannerisms…phrasing…idiosyncrasies. Bravery, cowardice.

Have you given the reader enough information to enable him to picture the characters in his own mind? Again, do the characters live?

Protagonist and antagonist must come together often enough to keep the story moving and interest high. In short fiction there is neither space nor time to let the story slump. Every paragraph, every sentence, must be carefully constructed with nothing wasted.

This is why characterisation is extremely important. It must be established quickly and clearly, very early on in the story because they are almost immediately involved in your plot.

Let the reader see in his or her mind the reaction of your characters to happenings and incidents, for this helps enormously in building your characters – and they must all be clearly defined.

There are four basic types, or temperaments, that the creative fiction writer should familiarise themselves with;

SANGUINE – cheerful, confident, optimistic.

MELANCHOLIC – despondent, doleful, downcast.

PHLEGMATIC – stolid, stoical, sluggish.

CHOLERIC – hasty, hot tempered, irascible.

Of course, each person has their own individual temperaments, but usually one these four predominates. These short sketches will help you to recognise these types.

Joe the Choleric. Short and stocky with a self confident air about him. Used to getting his own way and welcomes conflict with others, and wants to be master of the situation. He can become impatient with others but is usually self controlled. Is highly enthusiastic over subjects that interest him and often takes on too much.

Mrs.Brown the Melancholic. A dark, heavily built woman with a pale skin and a downturn to the corners of her mouth, and a dissatisfied expression in her eyes. She likes to talk about her operation, or any depressing subject. Has few visitors because they know she will quickly turn their mood of optimism into depression.

Jean the Sanguine. In her twenties, tall and slim, with fair hair, blue eyes and a clear complexion. Talks and smiles a lot and gets on well with others. Likes modern clothes and parties, and falls easily in and out of love.

Harold the Phlegmatic. Heavily built, walks in a slow and ponderous manner. He is reserved and has a certain dullness in his eyes. He will tolerate anything in his marriage for the sake of peace quiet. He has a job without much responsibility, which suits him, for he does not care to take the initiative, and is not for making quick decisions. You could say he has an inferiority complex.

To summarise;

The Sanguine is emotional, changeable, strongly attracted to anything new or novel. Lively, carefree and charming.

The Melancholic is gloomy, dwells on the dark side of life and is self pitying, and looks for sympathy.

The Phlegmatic type will tend to shun anything new and prefers to live within himself. Makes a reliable, patient – and dull – husband

The Choleric is an active, strong willed character with a tendency towards the tyrannical. A born leader.

These are the four basic characteristics with regard to temperament. Taking this on to the next logical stage we have four main types of story characters;

The Simple Character, usually a main character.

The Complex Character, used in psychological stories where the hero has powerfully conflicting characteristics.

The Minor Character, a reliable but almost bland person with no outstanding traits.

The Background Character, the butler, gardener, the chauffeur.

You will now need to endow all the members of your stories with their own personalities, an essential part of characterisation, and the most valuable teaching aid you could ever hope for is absolutely free…life, observation. Study all life around you; in supermarkets, parks, theatres, football stadiums, etc. etc. Observe, make notes of all the different types of people you see and try to define their temperaments, write down descriptions, and compose mini-sketches around them in little fictional situations.

All this information will go into your “bank”, your information file, to be drawn upon when seeking ideas – and people – to launch your ext story. In fact, Sir Walter Scott wrote that a story “examines and embodies human character and human passion.” Indeed, there are those that would advise that you plot from character, as many best selling authors do.

Try to avoid clichés, they are anathema to editors and publishers readers, but basically, there is nothing wrong with clichés IF they are presented in a fresh new way, with a different slant. What you must not do is pepper your text or dialogue with them…’cross that bridge when we get to it’, “don”t count your chickens before they are hatched.’

It is easy to fall into the cliché trap when presenting emotion, for instance when describing how fear manifests itself.

His body became rigid (with fear).

He broke out in a cold sweat.

Her lips began to tremble.

Her cheeks became drained of colour.

And the classic “his breath came in short pants!”

Actually, it is permissible to use these phrases; they are used daily, but use them in some novel, individual way that gives the reader the idea that you do put some effort into your composition.

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There is only one trait that marks the writer. He is always watching. It is a kind of trick of the mind and he is born with it. Morley Callaghan

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Dialogue

The dialogue should clearly define the speaker. It should be related to the story, and is the best way to tell a story where it contains essentially characters, rather than direct exposition. Well yes, of course there are times when it is expedient to use direct exposition, in fact is often quite necessary in short fiction.

It may be used in the opening of a story in order to;

1. give a brief character sketch of the main character
2. to evoke a setting vividly
3. establish some persistent problem in the main character’s life

Otherwise, in the remainder of a fiction, the only other excuse for using direct exposition “occasionally” is, to quote L.A.G.Strong, “for the sake of economy.”

Dialogue should move briskly, tightly, and be free from ponderous phrases or unlikely light repartee. It is always a good idea to speak your dialogue out loud, or get someone to do it for you to make sure it sounds natural Dialogue can be used to inject atmosphere and emotion into the settings; anger, happiness, tension, tenderness, fear, and many other moods and flavours.

Dickens warned against telling the narrative in your own person…’the characters should tell it and act it for themselves.’

The technique of putting the spoken word into print is not quite so simple as first might be assumed. There must not be anything superfluous in it, or any subject of irrelevancy or triviality. Therefore, some care must be taken in the preparation.

Generally speaking, although like most “rules” this can be treated in a very flexible manner, dialogue should be introduced if it serves one or more of the following purposes;

1. To convey information quickly
2. To argue a problem in a story
3. At an emotional crisis
4. Revealing the speaker’s character
5. To provide dramatic effect
6. To portray “movement” or tension
7. If it helps to avoid direct exposition

Arnold Bennett had two rules of dialogue that were both practical and filled with common sense; “It is better to use too little dialogue than too much. When a conversation has served its purpose stop it instantly.”

Your dialogue must be examined carefully before allowing it into your final draft. Pose these questions.

Does it heighten the dramatic conflict?

Does it reveal a character trait?

Is it in keeping with the character?

Does it hinder or expedite the story?

Does it explain something to help the reader to grasp the plot?

Epigrams are only generally produced after a great deal of revision and careful thought.

Most important, the make-up of the dialogue must be studied and prepared in such a manner as to make the conversation yield the greatest natural value. Avoid long speeches. In short fiction especially avoid them, because with this type of writing the action and events must move along smoothly and swiftly to a satisfactory conclusion.

If the dialogue can be split naturally into sections then the effect of the speech on other characters can be shown, and by introducing little snippets of descriptive matter, gesture, intonation etc., then the dialogue can be rendered more lifelike that if it were just a stream of sentences being bandied non stop between the characaters.

It is the clever – and competent – writer who can introduce odd, but completely relevant sections of speech into the action, reserving the longer passages for the more crucial parts of the story.

One major difference between the accomplished craftsman and the obvious amateur is that the latter is often prone to slipping in time worn phrases such as “she was beautiful beyond compare” or, “if looks could kill I would be stone dead.”

All very well you might say, but rather taking a short cut isn’t it? You must aim to give the reader value for money, after all, he paid to read your story , usually.

Some of the masters of fiction offer the following advice. Trollop pointed out that the ordinary talk of people is carried out in short, expressive sentences. He further laid down the rule that no character should say much more than a dozen words in a speech, unless justified by special circumstances. He also made the point that the writers task was “the creation of human beings in whose existence one is forced to believe.”

As a rule then, you should try to avoid long passages recounting his thoughts. Readers prefer him to reveal his character by means of his speech and actions, and there is hardly a more vivid expression of it than in his way of talking.

It is strongly indicative of his upbringing, his way of life, his occupation, his emotional reactions. For example, an actor or a lawyer is typically professional in his speech; a charwoman chatty and confidential, a schoolgirl enthusiastic and slangy.

A well educated person will tend to use longer, more complex sentences, whereas a nervous not-so-educated person will tend to use shorter, choppier ones.

The character’s emotion at the time of speaking should be apparent in the actual words he uses. You may occasionally refer to the tone of his voice in order to indicate this emotion. When gloomy his is likely to speak slowly, if scornful his tone will tend to become nasal, when secretive his voice will become a sibilant whisper.

NOTE: In striving to reproduce true-to-life dialogue, guard against the too frequent use of the introductory “well,” and remember…SHOW DON’T TELL!

Everyone who works in the domain of fiction is a bit crazy. The problem is to render this craziness interesting. Francois Truffaut..