What I Learned from the SCBWI NJ Conference-Characterization

Literary Agent Scott Treimel gave a wonderful lecture about Characters, Conflict and Pacing. Let me throw out a tidbit from his speech and discuss it. Something I find difficult to get across to writers is how easy it is to mess up the imaginative process for the reader. Scott mentioned how there is no need to describe everything in vivid detail. In fact, being somewhat vague with the description of the main character helps the reader identify more fully with that character. The reader is, essentially, that character, because the reader can imagine that character looks like them.

I found that so interesting, and tried to think back on the last few YA books I’d read. True enough, no flowing blond ringlets like a halo around a heart-shaped face. No freckles across a narrow nose. No bright green eyes framed by long, black lashes. I’d made up what the character looked like based on the character’s personality. And yes, perhaps the character did resembled myself a little.

He also stressed that mentioning, for example, that the surrounding lockers are orange, bogs the story down. How important is it for those lockers to be orange? And, I might add, how important is it to know the character’s locker is the third one down from room 123? Yet these appear in first drafts of stories over and over again. Because that’s how we, as writers, see it.  And we want to reader to imagine it exactly as we do,to experience it the way we are experiencing it.

I once read an article where two fictional men are discussing this very topic. One reads the other the beginning of a scene, giving only a small amount of detail, and even simplifying the action. He then asks the other man to relay what he’s read, describing the details his imagination has filled in.The second man does so, and adds what was never actually written into the scene, because his imagination has done all the work. The writer has merely made suggestions.

Try this: cut out a room from a department store’s advertisement. Now write about a character who enters the room, rushing to pack a suitcase before her abusive husband comes home drunk from his friend’s house. Do this now before you read on. Go on, I’ll wait.

Now that the scene is written, take a look. How much room description did you use? How about her actions? Did you detail everything she did, from opening the suitcase to pulling out articles of clothing? Did you use internal dialogue? Does she think a lot about what she’s doing?

Okay. Now, keeping the scene for the most part intact, take out half the words. Get rid of what the bed or rug looks like, if you’ve added it. Keep her thoughts sparse. Use short, clipped sentences for her inner dialogue. Only use necessary action.

Does the second scene have more immediacy to it? Does the tension feel stronger? It should. And guess what? Your reader will have filled in what the room looks like, how she moves from dresser to suitcase, and the fear that presses against her heart…all on his/her own! Isn’t that amazing?

Now, that’s not to mean you shouldn’t describe anything in your novel. The reader can also benefit from scene descriptions and character descriptions. But keep these observations from your character’s point of view. Do we really walk into a party and describe to ourselves what kind of light is being emitted from the wall sconces? Or do we note the activity going on instead? Maybe your character is an interior designer, and she/he’s drawn to wall sconces. If so, then describing them may make sense. But if not, leave out those details.

After all, do you want to spend your time reading ten pages about locks of gold ringlets and long dark eyelashes?

I didn’t think so.

This entry was posted on 9. June 2010 at 18:00 and is filed under Writing Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.