Writers’ Guide: The Silhouette
When it comes to writing fiction, the one thing that always baffles young writers, is a jargon called ‘Character Development’. As often as we can, we young writers, always wonder how do you develop your characters in a way to make them interesting, relatable, excellently described and relevant. Coming up with these, about any character, is never easy and at first, it seems like the hardest thing. So how do you go about it?
About Characters
A shadow is a dark area or shape produced when there is a body between a light and a surface. And all characters are just like shadows.
What do I mean? Before you write down that character, before you note down anything about this persona you are seeking to develop, the character remains only a shadow, in the far background of the paper, never to be seen, never to be heard.
Only when you write about the character do things like personality, voice, physical form, habits, emotional strength and weaknesses, come into being. It is through your writing that you bring the character to life.
So, unless you write the character down, the character is not living.
How do you write a Character? The Silhouette
Probably the hardest thing that I ever got right was trying to develop the silhouette of a character- the most basic form of a character.
For instance, in their book Magisterium: The Iron Trial, Holly Black and Cassandra Clare start off by describing the character Alastair Hunt, who is the father to the main protagonist of the story.
From a distance, the man struggling up the white face of the glacier might have looked like an ant crawling slowly up the side of a dinner plate…
From this basic description, you get one thing about the character description: he is male, not a child but an adult male. They continue:
…the wind increasing as his elevation did blowing powdery gusts of snow into his face and freezing the damp tendrils of his black hair…Still, the man was not afraid of falling, although he was using no ropes or belay lines, only crampons and a single ice axe. His name was Alastair Hunt and he was a mage…
The above description, also tells us that he has black hair, and that somehow he is climbing a mountain in an unexpected way. Why? He was a mage. From the description, by the time the authors introduce the fact that he was a mage, the reader already senses an awkwardness to the nature of climbing. This is the silhouette.
The Silhouette: The Gender
You have to first describe the gender of a character as this forms the basis of anyone. Is the character a transgender, is he male, is he female? Mostly, the phenomenon of gender will affect how that character will interact with the world, the perceptions about the character and even behavior.
The Silhouette: Physical Appearance
Probably a description of what a character looks like is often the hardest. At times, as a writer, you wish to explain everything even to the inner ear of the character and what it looks like!
However, what I have come to discover while reading other people’s work, and also in my own writing, do not bombard the reader with all information at once.
Describe only what you need, at the needed time.
When starting off in the book, describe what the character’s gender is, and a basic description of the character’s appearance. A simple black-haired man might quite cut it; however, describe the physical appearance in relation to what the character is doing.
A good example is in the book War of Ascension: The Prophecy by Frederick Edward Fabella:
On a road that leads east from the capital city of Akram, a knight was on a horseback riding alongside an open wagon carrying a mother and her children…Though Beret wore no armor, the sigil of the crown and the sword on his vest identified him as a knight…
From this example, Frederick does not go into hefty details about the appearance of the character, rather he describes him in relation to what he is doing.
It is a smart tricky thing to do so, but you get a hang of it as you put on the first line. Remember, when introducing a character, it is less about what they look like and more about what they do. Let your focus be on that.
As the story proceeds, Frederick goes on to describe further about the character, which brings us to the second way…
The Silhouette: Mirror Dimension
Technically, when the character interacts with others, there is a look, or persona, he or she will portray. Maybe he will wear a cardigan, or even a jumpsuit, or a tight mini-skirt. All these will help shape the character’s appearance, and more to it, the persona.
What you have to ask yourself is this, how do I perceive the character. This guides you more on what you will write about him.
At times, the mirror reflection of the character’s persona can also be self-developed. In that, the character can go ahead and describe himself or herself in relation to what he sees in others or how, he or she, envisions himself or herself.
This also adds to the depth of the character.
The Silhouette: Emotional Self
Often do we not draw emotionless characters. Through our words, we often give characters, character and emotions. But how do you do this?
Well, there is no formula for doing this; however, often times, the emotion is pretty much determined by the setting of the story. Times of war would have different emotions than those of harvest. And also note that:
Emotions are like waves, they change drastically.
Much like the waves of the sea, that sometimes they are soft, floating your body in the sea, and sometimes so hard that they break you, so are emotions.
In light of these, you have to note that even in anger, a character may have a slight moment of joy- and this is when you know you are moving from an armature to an expert!
Emotion must be complex as this is the nature of life.
For instance, Frederick, still in his book War of Ascension: The Prophecy, he writes:
Since their journey together began, the children would stare at him…The sight of them amused Beret. It brought back memories of his own childhood in Torinth… “Is it true Sir Beret that a knight is forbidden to take a wife?” the mother asked. Beret’s smile disappeared briefly…
From the above example, you can see the emotions shifting from happy to frown briefly. This is an expertise you gain as the story develops.
A character cannot possess the same emotions all through. They ups and downs of emotional self makes a character more relatable to the readers.
Conclusion
Coming up with a character is not easy, describing the character is even harder. However, the trick to it is to not do it all at once. Do not dump information on the readers. A character’s full scope is known at the end of the tale, when the story has come to its finality.
One thing I have come to observe is this: An author grows with his characters.
Through my writing, I’ve often found that my character mirrors a feeling that I once experienced. Even better, they develop more as I grow.
The business of writing never leaves you the same. As such, your characters always never remain the same.
Is there a direct way to character development? No! But can anyone do it effectively? Definitely!
Start writing, do not worry about what the character is at the moment. the tools to develop him/her are yet to be written. The more you write, the more your character is developed!
