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- Column - Writing for the Big and the Little - |
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July 30/2000  Creating Characters for Both Children and Adult MarketsBy Natalie Buske Thomas Read our review of Camp Convinction by Natalie Thomas I asked my daughter Cassie why she likes Annabel, a character in my children's mystery/fantasy The Magic Camera. She gave me this list of reasons: 1. She's a girl and I'm a girl. 2. She has a family like mine. 3. She has a cat. 4. She likes books. 5. She likes animals. None of her reasons had anything to do with the actual story. All of her reasons for liking my Annabel character are about Cassie's ease in identifying with her. Cassie's comments were more interesting than I expected. Reason number four, "She likes books," has nothing to do with Annabel. I don't recall writing that Annabel has a love of books or reading. Cassie, who likes books, identified with Annabel so much that she invented something new for the Annabel character. Creating characters that readers can identify with is what makes a character come alive. Cassie, being my daughter, can see herself and her own family in my writing far more than the average person can. However, I strive to create characters that all readers can relate to. How do I make characters come alive? So much about a person is something we can feel, not see. When creating characters I use the five senses I learned in Kindergarten: smelling, touching, hearing, seeing and tasting to convey the sense of feel. 1. Smelling In my first mystery novel for adult readers Gene Play, I invented a character named Rose. She was the headmistress for a home for unwed mothers. Rose wore heavy cheap perfume that could be smelled from across the room. When Rose was referred to in the story, I often included a reference to her overpowering perfume. I used the sense of smell to give Rose a distinctive characteristic that set her apart from any of the other characters in the book. 2. Touching In my children's book The Magic Camera, I use touch to describe Annabel: Annabel sat at the dinner table with her shoulders hunched, slouching just enough so that her stringy brown hair tickled her bare shoulders. She stretched the dangling strands behind her ears with her fingers. Readers know the sensation of hair tickling bare skin, they know the elastic quality of human hair. When readers relate to the sense of touch, they transfer their feelings of familiarity to my fictional character Annabel. I used the sense of touch again when inventing Annabel's mother: I wrapped my waist in duct tape. Your father had always said that duct tape could hold a tank together, so I thought if I put it on real tight it would make me look like I had a smaller waist. This character's insecurity is revealed through the sensory cues. We can all imagine how constricting and miserable it would feel to cinch our waist up with duct tape. Using the sense of touch to describe insecurity is much more powerful than saying, Annabel's mother was often insecure. 3. Hearing In my mystery novel for adult readers Virtual Memories, I introduced a new character on the first page of the book. He had an annoying habit of aggressively sucking on hard candy. I created a sound for that habit, "Tull-tull". Then I used the sound when describing the character. The sound itself was annoying. Readers learned quickly that this character was an unpleasant sort of person. Sound helped that imagery. I used the same technique in my second mystery novel Camp Conviction: The man made a grunting noise that sounded like he was dredging his throat of phlegm. He averted his eyes and faded into the crowded room. Soon he was lost in a sea of nondescript people. Another example of using sound, in a more subtle way, is with dialogue. Adding more sensory cues helps readers hear the conversation. For example, this exchange between Serena and Karyn in my adult mystery novel Camp Conviction: There was a pause, in which each woman pondered the situation, then they laughed until Karyn had tears running down her face and Serena gave herself hiccups. It didn't take much for these two to set each other off. When they finally got themselves under control Karyn asked, 'Don’t you want to know what Jack was calling about?' 'Yes!' Serena said on the up part of her hiccup. It was nearly noon, time to get to the office. She needed to get out of her favorite green plaid flannel nightshirt and get dressed. She put Karyn on the speaker phone so that she could have her hands free. Karyn recognized the change in sound quality. Ugh, she put me on the speaker phone, she thought. She hated being on speaker phone. Readers can hear this conversation because the sensory cues are there: laughter, hiccups, and noise. 4. Seeing Seeing is the most obvious sensory cue of the five, but it's surprisingly difficult to create. Describing a character by sight alone can often read like a text manual, just the facts Ma'am. Using sight to define a character requires creativity. It's hard to describe the act of crying in an original way. "Tears fell down her face," is too flat. The use of color and the sense of sight adds punch. In this example from my children's book The Magic Camera I needed to tell readers that Annabel is crying: A lone tear trickled down her nose and splashed onto one of her toppled books. The tear stained a clean white page with a gray splotch. 5. Tasting I often forget to include the sense of taste when creating characters, which is something I want to improve upon. I can see the strength in my descriptions when I remember to include the sense of taste. Taste shows personality quickly and powerfully. Here is an example from Camp Conviction: She poured water into the coffee maker, a promotional giveaway from the java-of-the-month club that she was briefly a member of. The java-of-the-month club had wasted their promotional dollars on Serena, a woman who wouldn’t know the difference between freshly ground premium coffee and the stuff that comes out of a can. She used the coffee maker to heat water for instant coffee. She drank decaffeinated coffee and wasn’t loyal to any particular brand. Serena spooned three heaping teaspoons of sugar and one teaspoon of instant coffee into her favorite mug. She waited patiently for the hot water to run through the coffee maker. Then she added the steaming liquid to her sweet concoction, filling the mug three fourths of the way. The young and the young at heart often want the same things. Whether writing for adults or for children, these remain the same: I need strong characters that come alive, using all five senses. When readers can hear, touch, see, taste and feel, characters come alive. |
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