Mozart's Brain, Too - Number 2.5 Page 2

competitive?

  What social settings might make them uncomfortable, and why?

  How might they react to encountering people who are either well below them - or way above them - in social standing? Or in accomplishments and success?

  By painting something of their own circumstances - the ‘what they have’ dimension - you further define them, the way they are, and their possible responses in different circumstances, as well as their avenues for personal growth. And this last is important, especially if you are writing literary fiction.

  Now for the third dimension…

  What they think and feel. We began to spill into this from the second dimension above.

  This is where you build their personality more fully. And as you’ll see, once you’ve begun to put these other pieces in place, it will be easier to add more characteristics and to make them consistent with your actor’s psyche and self-image.

  You know what ‘thought balloons’ are, right? In comic strips, they are the ‘speech balloons’ with the dotted lines around them, not solid lines. It was a visual convention which worked well for a very long time. Maybe it’s still in use. I don’t know, because I don’t read comic strips anymore. Pity…

  Today, we use something like them for little ways of showing what a character is thinking about something or someone. In my novels, I use a kind of ‘thought balloon’, for which I’ve been criticized more than once. But I like it and am not going to change. At least not yet…

  In Microsoft Word, I change the typeface to Italic from the usual Regular – like this. I can ‘show’ what a character is thinking in this way, rather than describing it more clumsily as an All-Seeing Author from on high. (See what I did two paragraphs above, talking about not reading comic strips anymore?...)

  Be in no doubt, I do use the All-Seeing Author approach sometimes, where I think it fits the context. But I prefer the thought balloon as cleaner and more of a ‘living thing’ than a dry recitation.

  I also use facial or gesture-based forms of expression to reflect the emotions a character is experiencing at a moment in an exchange, or when they might be having an emerging insight, or are just then being struck by a sudden lightning bolt of realization. Any of these are helpful, if they’re consistent with your character’s nature, and if they add value to the story.

  Now, I’ve likely strained your patience and good will in this broadsheet, kind readers, so I’ll bring it to an end.

  Remember Jackie Gleason, of TV’s ‘Honeymooners’ fame in the ‘50’s? His philosophy was simple: ‘If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing to excess!...’

  I know you realize how richly you can create characters and their settings and personalities, their fears and aspirations, their likes and dislikes, their strengths and weaknesses, and their little foibles and quirks. So I’ll mention one or two more things I’ve learned.

  When I’m writing, I keep a separate file, away from the actual novel or story. This file is exclusively for character development. I write in detail about every major character in the story, as many such profiles as I can think I will use, adding others as and when I need to invent them, and filling them in. It helps me keep everybody’s names straight, and lets me more easily bring pertinent bits of their whole background into the plotline consistently and cleanly.

  By the way, I create a lot more material for each character than I might ever use. But it’s there, so I can draw on it when I need to. It also serves as a reminder of who the character really is, and lets me know if I’m making them do or think something that’s inconsistent with their nature.

  I’d like to think it helps me create believable, credible people to populate my stories. Heck, the material might even help if I ever want to write a sequel. Which I’m working on…

  I’m still very much new at this writing stuff, as perhaps some of you are. Only about three years into it, after three different careers. So if, in my own works, I don’t follow exactly what I’ve stated above, don’t be dismayed. Creative writing’s a journey I recently started. And if you’ve been there, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

  It’s why I’m convinced, if I can do it, so can you…

  See you next time.

  ###

  About The Author, Wim Baren

  Wim Baren is the pen name of the author, who has had an abiding fascination with history and the many things throughout it that are so incredible that they could not have been made up.

  The author attended an eastern college and then served in the nation’s armed forces for three years in Viet Nam, a very green place with, at that time, a high metallic density to the air.

  From there, he realized that his technology education at college was already obsolete, and went to a small business school where he learned all about strategy and business and finance, and entered the financial services business, in which he labored until he realized that people wanted not so much advice as they wanted help on actually getting things done that they wanted to get done.

  He turned his hand to consulting in project management, became an independent consultant, developed professional education courses in projects and risk and leadership, even a software learning application (!), and generally made as if this were his final career choice.

  But it wasn’t.

  And since I’ve turned my hand to authorship, this little work, among other offerings, was a quick brainwave that I thought I could share with others who might like a little literary confection, coupling the worlds of the real and fantasy.

  Feedback (What you really think, but please keep it polite, respectful, as others would do for you) is really welcomed from you, as well as your recommending this little opinion to your friends and family, and neighbors, and passing strangers.

  Reach me at wbwemple@aol.com