I think developing characters can be very difficult. Especially, when writing, for instance, a short story one has to know before how the character is supposed to look like, how he feels in certain situations, and the general traits the author wants to portray. Generally, authors are assumed to “have the lucky, facile sort of imagination”. However, not every writer has this ability. Chapter 4 provides a good approach to this problem. It introduces a so-called Character Journal. How this is supposed to look like is described the following:
“Use the journal to note your observations of people. Try clustering your impressions of the library assistant who annoys you or the loner at the bar who intrigues you. Try to capture a gesture or message that physical features or clothing send.”
Honestly, I have never heard of this technique before, but I like this idea very much. Gestures can reveal so much about oneself without even knowing it. And many of these gestures are most likely recognized by the reader.
To conclude, integrating a character journal during the writing process helps the author to describe the character. And how, for instance, a character acts or how it looks like reveals the specific traits this particular character has. So this is a much better way to describe these traits. A text becomes more interesting when the reader is challenged I guess. That is why the author should avoid serving the character traits on a silver plate but rather show indirectly the character’s personality in the story.
“Use the journal to note your observations of people. Try clustering your impressions of the library assistant who annoys you or the loner at the bar who intrigues you. Try to capture a gesture or message that physical features or clothing send.”
Honestly, I have never heard of this technique before, but I like this idea very much. Gestures can reveal so much about oneself without even knowing it. And many of these gestures are most likely recognized by the reader.
To conclude, integrating a character journal during the writing process helps the author to describe the character. And how, for instance, a character acts or how it looks like reveals the specific traits this particular character has. So this is a much better way to describe these traits. A text becomes more interesting when the reader is challenged I guess. That is why the author should avoid serving the character traits on a silver plate but rather show indirectly the character’s personality in the story.
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