Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Building the Perfect Beast: Character

I saw something quite humorous the other day and through the hilarious moments critiquing the Phantom Menace, I marvelled at the moments discussing what should have been done. Very good primer on basic storytelling magic. The analysis on Character especially.

It made me ponder the idea of, Can I describe my own characters without resorting to what they look like or what they do for a living. What is their true character-what is their core?

I came away pondering if my characters could be recognized outside of appearance and at least for myself (and I am biased) think I have accomplished that. Stereotypes with that most useful human twist-great flaws always help development throughout a book.

Can all of you writers out there say the same about your Prota-Gonists?

If you are sensitive to language or absurdity, skip this. If not enjoy it is pretty funny while giving a good lesson in the meantime.

7 comments:

Melanie Goldmund said...

Hilarious -- and so true!

Voidwalker said...

Once again, I'll check it out later :)

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Melanie-I have friend coming to Stuttgart in a few weeks-he'll get you my book (in theory)

Hey Void-I think you'll like it and laugh.

Charles Gramlich said...

I think I can agree with this.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Yeah Charles, its a bit strange but a the same time pretty funny and covers key points on what makes us like a story as opposed to just throwimg a lot of eye candy on screen.

Paul R. McNamee said...

The Ambien pills over the dull Jedis' faces was hilarious!

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Hey Paul, thanks for dropping in. When I first heard about it I resisted watching but once I did had a good laugh and thought a lot more about good craft-and I watched all 7 parts too.