Recently I have received professional feedback on three different pieces and a recurring critisizm is that they don't care enough about my main character and therefore his/her fate?

While we know the 'I don't love it enough' is a common rejection line, I do feel there is some truth in this. So, in the words of Elton John 'Wadavaigoddado ta make you care?

Elspeth

Hi Elspeth, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a magic formula, but I think one thing is essential: you must really care about the characters. If you don't, why should anyone else?

What we're doing here is essentially selling, and as any salesperson will tell you, it's very difficult to sell something you don't believe in, whilst, on the contrary, if you are passionate about your 'product' that can be infectious.

Bonne chance,

Adele.

<Added>

Btw Elspeth, today's Alex cartoon made me think of you ;):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/Alex/pAlexTemplate.jhtml?pTitle=Alex.Telegraph

Somehow you have to make your characters interesting and believable and seem an integral part of the story regardless of how small a part they play they should not seem to stand outside the tale and almost thus be an adjunct to it.

I think it is a lot like acting where you need to get inside the character to give a good performance which is why good charcter actors playing supporting roles are almost more important than the lead.

david

Adele, the cartoon is excellent - I'll use it as my teaching tool today - thanks a lot. As for the characters - I do care about them but I'm wondering if it's a reflection on my personality if no-one else does!

David, good advice. I guess there is also the element of stepping back from your characters which is why feedback is essential. What worries me is the comment is made about my main characters.

Elspeth

You have to know your character inside out. Their likes and dislikes, their habits, their hobbies. Where were they born, what are their family like, what sort of education did they have. What do they look like, what does their voice sound like, can they sing, do they have any hidden talents. Have they had experiences in the past which perhaps changed the course of their lives. For instance, Lewis (in Paying For The Gallery) was a bit of a hustler in his twenties. But finding himself unexpectedly a single parent facing bankruptcy gave him the kick up the backside he needed to take control of his life. It was mentioned only briefly in the novel but it was that experience which evolved into his need to control everything – and ultimately why he almost came unstuck with his daughter.

You don’t have to write all these details into the novel but if you have the character fully formed in your own mind he or she will come across as a real person in your writing.

I'd like to say more but I’m late for work now so I’ll come back to this tonight.

Dee
x

Adele .. great cartoon. I am printing it out as I type to stick on our noticeboard! Thanks
joanie

I think it says more about the person reading than about the character. You go for a character you read when you feel something in them resonate with something in you. If we're talking Lionel here, then you'd only feel for him if you'd had that experience of wanting to go back and relive an alternative pathway of your life, and most people under 35 won't have, not in that way.To make him appeal to a wider group of people maybe you'd have to build up that aspect so more people could relate to it. I dunno how.

I tend to care about characters if I see different sides of their personality gradually revealed, so you form one opinion of them and then they surprise you by confounding it. You feel then that they are revealing themselves to you in layers. In real life relationships we tend to care about people who we feel trust us enough to reveal things about themselves, and this mimicks that process. But we don't trust the person who marches up and tells us their life story in the first five minutes; it feels pushy and sad and someone who has no surprises won't interest us for long.

Sharon

This is merging into the other thread where the TV girl wanted to know about the writers' reality of their created characters. I e-mailed her and she e-mailed back asking for my views on the subject. I offered my opinion (which, if I reproduce here will make this one longer than the Flash thread) and I'm now waiting for her response.

If there's any interested parties, I'll let you know the outcome.

My lead character agreed with me and didn't think I was the least bit mad.

Dave

<Added>

I pretty much agree with Dee.

Hi,

I must take a slightly different view to Dee as I think we can get caught up in creating our characters (especially back-story) and loose sight of what it is they are doing, or to put it another way, what it is they are trying to achieve. The character must have a recognisible goal and if we can identify with that, we can identify with 'them'. Do we - in short - want them to obtain what they want, or are we at least fascinated by watching them try. And it probably has nothing to do with their favourite colour or ice-cream preference.

When I think of all my favourite characters in novels or plays they have engaged me because I was desperate to see what happened to them next, to turn the page, move on to the next scene...will they make it?

If you're worried about the main character you might want to ask, what does this person want?(Bottom line. Love, self discovery, money?)what are they prepared to do to get it? And have I made this clear to the readers?

I know this sounds terribly simple - and forgive me if you've already gone down this road - but if I'm struggling with a character, or people have told me they need improving, this is always the first place I look.

All the best

Harry

Hello everybody. I'm a newby and this is my first post. Just thought I'd join in with this conversation as it seems to me that it's not just about the characters. It is also about the prose and the story around them.

One of the best ways I've found of working out how to focus my writing is to look at writing that I DON'T like and to try to work out why I don't like it and why it doesn't work. That way you can avoid making mistakes - though whether you can then spin magic is another thing.

On this basis, I thought about the only book I've read recently where I really didn't care about the characters. The problem was not in the main characters themselves, which started off from interesting ideas, but in the book around them. The story started well but degenerated. It was badly planned and edited and the ending felt rushed. It felt as though the author was only writing it because he had told himself he could. By this time I didn't care about the characters because their voices had just been lost in the mess of the book.

(There were also a couple of minor characters who were badly drawn cliches which is another big turn off.)

Maybe you just need a few tweaks and a bit of editing advice so that the plot is providing a strong foundation for the characters to grow?

Sarah

Hi Dee, yes, i agree with you for a novel, you go on a long journey together but for something shorter I'm with Harry (fickle, eh!)

Nudgy, I'll say it again - I think you are the man for the programme...

Sharon, well said and a great example. I'm not too worried about Lionel - I know he's an acquired taste but when I hear it again and again about other characters, I start to wonder.

Thanks Harry, yes I've heard those questions before! I guess the hardest thing is to read your own stuff objectively.

Sarah, welcome to writewords. Good technique.

Elspeth

Hi Elspeth,

Unfortunately, I feel just caring about your characters is not enough to hook the reader. Maybe it depends on the genre, as they have different needs.

I write crime so I use ENVY.

There needs to be something about the character the reader would love to ‘do’, ‘say’, ‘have’ even ‘be’ (as in location), but they haven’t got the nerve to do it – i.e. ‘following their hearts to Paris’. I like daring characters who take the action, most readers would be too scared to do. It’s very subjective.

Dawn,x

Hi Elspeth, I can't offer expert advice because I'm about 3 billion light years from being an expert... but can you tell us something about your MC? Do you have something uploaded?

Derek.

Hi Dawn,
Nice to see you around - lots of good points - I like the idea of daring.
Derek - if you look on the crit of 'My Lover's Love' I've posted some professional feedback i got today. That's really what set me thinking.

Elspeth

Oh I see. Wow, are they real comments from editors? I'm glad I haven't sent anything off anywhere yet.

That's 242 word piece of flash!...waddatheywant!?...oh yeah, that was your question. But you can only say so much in so few words.

I remember reading it the first time. I got the impression that she almost liked this guy's attitude...maybe it even made her more attracted to him. Perhaps that's why the editors comment that they don't care about her. I dunno.

Guess this isn't the thread to go into detail about one piece.

Derek.