When Creating Characters Your Goal Should be to Show us Who They Are...Not Tell

Have you ever met someone new in your life? Of course you have, we meet new people all the time. In this day and age it is almost impossible not to have had the experience of meeting someone new. Unless of course you are some rare person shut off from all forms of human contact, but then again you wouldn't be reading this letter would you? So we are all agreed, everyone knows what it is like to meet someone new. Let me ask you this, when you introduce yourself what details do you include? Generally you include your first name, possibly your last, and maybe your age, but I doubt it. In most cases when we meet someone new, we omit certain details about ourselves.

It would be most rare for me to introduce myself saying, "Hi, my name is Tina I am twenty-one years old, and when I was five my father killed my mother, and now I am really depressed." First of all most of that sentence is not true, I'm twenty-two. So what is my point in all of this? My point is that you should treat characters in your story like people; your reader's are meeting for the first time. In the beginning parts of your story don't "give it up on the first date" what I mean to say is, if you give your reader large bits of information about your character's past and personality, then there is nothing left to discover. You have basically told your reader, "There is no reason to continue reading this story, there is nothing left to discover, I have told you all about this character." Think of your introduction as a first date.

Tease the reader, show them just a taste, give them enough to come back wanting more, and I guarantee your story will have five stars. So how can you SHOW who your characters are rather than TELL? There are several ways one of the easiest ways is through dialogue, not only what they say, but the diction they use. Another way, especially in third person-point-of-view is relaying the character's thoughts, and feelings. There are however more subtle ways, the food they choose to eat/drink, for example you can tell a lot about a person by what they drink. A good example would be the difference between someone who drinks a cappuccino and someone who drinks there coffee black. The way the dress, the way the walk, the list goes on and on. Another wonderful way to shed light on the soul of your characters is to show how they act in certain situations. For example, if Jane found a dollar bill would she turn it in, or keep it without saying anything. Of course that is a very simple example. A more probable example would be "Jane was alone with her boss, and she never wanted another man more, but the wedding band on her finger suddenly felt heavy." In this example, Jane's decision tells us a great deal about her values, and her moral fiber.

If she chooses to sleep with her boss, some might say she is immoral, and selfish, while others might say she is following her heart, and is a passionate person. If Jane decides to remain faithful, some might call her a coward and others might call her virtuous. It could be read a number of ways, depending on her relationship with her husband, and her own mind-frame. So you see that one little sentence has the potential to reveal more about Jane than a sentence that reads, "Jane was a married woman, but she was unhappy, so she thought about having an affair." Some more advice on taking it slow, don't be tempted to make your introduction a plot summary.

If the reader is allowed to experience the plot AS it is developing, the reader will connect on a much deeper level with your story. The main point in all of this rhetoric is to take it slow. Don't worry if the after the first few chapters, reader's don't know everything about your characters; that is good, that means they always have something more to discover. Let me leave you with my final pieces of advice, number one: Never rush your story or your characters; take it slow. Number Two: Characters lie. They can be very unreliable narrators, for example the whole line about my father killing my mother is a lie, but how can the reader know that? I would like to see this exploited more in stories; no one seems to use this literary device which can be quite useful for tricking your readers.

My final thoughts I promise. The writing is in the details, take it slow, SHOW and never TELL! Hopefully this little blurb will give you some ideas.