As I’ve written before, character descriptions often focus on information that is interesting and even captivating but won’t necessarily assist us in sending a clear signal with our story. We want to choose the details that enact our vision of the story’s essence (see day 9 post) and support sending the story’s main message. We want to find the details that make our protagonist the right one for this story.
We begin with the story essence with each inquiry. It provides the North Star for all our story decisions because it’s what matters most to us about our story. If the essence isn’t embedded within the DNA of the story, we won’t feel confident that the parts will be aligned and that the whole functions as a coherent narrative. Worse, we may feel disappointed in the story, even if it sells. We look at the result and think, that’s not what I meant.
The well formulated and crafted story essence will suggest potential detailed characteristics for the person, place, and protagonist of the premise. More importantly, it helps eliminate possibilities that come easily to mind but aren’t aligned with the story we want to write.
This narrative cartography process is iterative: generate, distill, reflect and assess. We’re not trying to land on the right answer immediately, but seeking the connections, patterns, and insights that emerge from the process. If we ask why? about the protagonist, for example, we might discover that their vulnerabilities are echoed in the story world. These vulnerabilities may reveal what’s wrong with the world or can cause conflict the protagonist must resolve, complicating the story’s problem.
Let’s say, we’ve done this process for the protagonist and come up with five or so fundamental characteristics like those listed in the day 30 post. What’s next? We use our characteristics to generate how the character functions within the story. The protagonist and every other character in the story is working from the following:
A worldview or mental model of the world: The worldview shapes their understanding of the goal.
A goal that refects their values and determines how they frame what they experience in the world: The attainment of this goal is what they believe will solve their problem raised by the inciting incident, and it informs the strategy they apply to seek the goal.
A primary strategy that is the protagonist’s “theory of victory”: This is how they think they will achieve the goal given their worldview.
With these as a foundation, we can generate possibilities for the tactics the protagonist will apply to execute their strategy and categories of specific actions they might take within scenes. This like having bins full of the Lego bricks you need to construct and animate your protagonist. One well developed character may not sound like much, but it’s a full working model from which we can imagine what they will do in any given situation, and those actions will create a stable and coherent character that makes sense and feels real.
When we generate a stack like this for the other major characters in the story, we can see at a glance how they are similar and different. Similarities in relation to the differences show us different perspectives on solving a particular problem that add complexity to our story. The differences show us points of conflict we can leverage to make the story engaging. The whole character stack aids us in creating a subtle pattern of the story we want to create, like the one we can see in a Fair Isle knit.
This post is part of a 75-day writing challenge and experiment. From September 9 through November 22, I'll be posting daily thoughts on writing, storytelling, and creativity based on recent readings or reflections. While my intention was to keep them very short—250 to 400 words—I've found that this range doesn't give me enough space to cover these topics adequately. I aim to keep them brief enough to be read quickly, but they will often be longer than 400 words.
At the end of the challenge, I will organize and revise the material with intention. For now, the object is to explore and share.