Category Archives: Characters

Musings on Costumes, Clothes, & Character

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Characters, Costumes, Research, Writing

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Clothes Define Character

It’s almost Halloween. The one day of the year costumes are acceptable … and in some places even expected or required.

The typical question we ask one another at this time of year is, “What are you going to be for Halloween?” This translates to:

What type of costume are you going to wear?

Young woman in old west costumeWhat we choose to wear defines the character we are impersonating on Halloween. By donning the costume we become the character.

I never thought much about that innocent Halloween question in terms of character definition in my writing. Until now. The concept translates directly into how we build characters in fiction.

A person’s manner of dress conveys a lot about their personality … quirks, insecurities, likes, and dislikes.

Clothes styles can also be used to reflect the time and place in which a character lives, or how they view the world. [image from morguefile]

To be over-the-top ridiculous with an example — because it’s almost HalloweenCostumes_zombie-mummy — there is no way you’d think the people (?) in these two photos are anywhere near similar in anything  judging from their style (?) of dress.

The old saying, “Clothes make the man” — or the monster, as the case may be — is directly applicable when it comes to fictional characters too.

Hollywood clued in on the secret of costume = character from its beginning. And they still pretty much own the market in that department. I recently got a tour the Universal Studios Costume Department in Los Angeles, so I can vouch for that fact.

I guess I’m thinking about this sort of thing a lot lately, because I’m in the early stages of a new project. Which means defining the nuances of character — through the clothes they wear — as well as by dialog and action. Props provide another means for defining character, but I’ll save that rather large topic for another blog post.

So…what are you going to BE for Halloween?

Maybe something that incorporates some — or all — of these…?

Halloween costumes

Do tell! Ghoulish minds want to know!

[images by moi, taken at Universal Studios Costume Department]

Animated Storytelling

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Animation, Characters, Story

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What animation taught me about storytelling…

I came to writing fiction through animation. Yep, I’m an animation geek, and proud of it! And as circuitous as my journey might sound … it’s not.

Good animation tells a story by showing emotion, the same as fiction. This image of Thumper (from Walt Disney’s “Bambi”) is a perfect example. You can tell Thumper’s been reprimanded by his slumped posture, his paws held behind his back, his ears laid back, and his head tilted downward.

Likewise, in this next image (also from Bambi) it’s obvious the two skunks are infatuated with each other by  their posture, how they hold their hands and look at one another. Good storytelling immerses you in the lives of the characters, so that you feel what they are feeling.

The Walt Disney Studios developed the 12 principles of realistic character-driven animation back in the 1930’s. Those principles are still considered “standard” today. The Illusion of Life, by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, is an insightful read on the history of how these principles were developed.

Writing with Emotional Impact

Writing fiction is not the same medium as animation (duh!), so the techniques a writer must use to immerse an audience are slightly different from the keys to invoking emotion in animation. But not so different. Really. I ask myself the following questions when I begin a  scene. These questions are surprisingly similar to the questions an animator must resolve when animating a scene:

  1. What is the character thinking, and why?
  2. What is the character feeling, and why?
  3. How does the character express their feelings, and how does that vary with the different people in the scene?
  4. What is the arc of the character’s reaction to the circumstances?
  5. What are the character’s strengths and faults, and how do they manifest as a result of the circumstances?

When I understand what’s motivating a character and why, I can figure out how the character will react and what their feeling. I keep a copy of the Emotion Thesaurus handy to prevent myself from using worn out descriptions, or reusing the same ones over and over.

The Bella Note “Spaghetti Scene” in Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp is  probably the best-loved scene in animation of all time. It became famous, because we relate to the characters’ feelings (even though they’re dogs). We feel their love for each other through their nuanced looks, expressions, and gestures. Magical storytelling in action! You can watch this remarkable scene here.

Bella Note Lady & the Tramp

What’s Your (Character’s) Line?

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Characters, Elizabeth Fais, TV Shows

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Revealing One Character Trait at a Time

At the writers retreat last weekend, the exercises we did on Building a Better Character reminded me of the (really) old TV show What’s My Line?

What’s My Line? (1950-1967) came from the time-before-color. Yes boys and girls, there was a time when the world was in Black and White. And worse … there were no laptops, iPods, or cell phones. And dinasaurs roamed the earth. Pretty much.

Anyway, way back then there was this game show where contestants with unusual occupations were interviewed using questions that had to be answered with a “yes” or “no” and from that the panelists had to guess the contestant’s occupation. There was usually one “mystery guest” round–with a famous person–where the panelists had to wear masks and the mystery guest disguised their voice.

So … are you up for a jaunt in the Wayback machine … blasting into the past for a few entertaining episodes of What’s My Line? Hang onto your bobby socks … 1950’s here we come!

What’s My Line? Mystery Guest ~ Walt Disney

What’s My Line? Colonel Sanders

There was a time when people didn’t recognize Colonel Sanders by sight? AMAZING!

What’s My Line? Female Wrestler

Do you have a favorite *REALLY OLD* TV show?

Building a Better Character…

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Characters, Meg Cabot, SCBWI

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…From the inside out

I attended a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) writers retreat this past weekend in Southern California. It was a working retreat, where aside from critiques and talking with editors one-on-one, the Young Adult (YA) and Middle Grade (MG) authors participated in hands-on workshops for developing richly layered characters. Something I need to work on, and I learned A LOT!

In the initial stages of defining a character, if you’re like me, you focus on the character’s strengths. What their good at, why people like them, how they affect the people around them in a positive way. That’s all good. But for a character to be fully developed and believable, you can’t gloss over their flaws. That’s because it’s the flaws that make a character likeable. Their faults are what we relate to, why we fall in love with the character. Take Mia Thermopolis‘ klutziness in the Princess Diaries, for example. Her dorkiness is what endears her to us, because we’ve ALL been there. At one time or another. One reason I love Meg Cabot’s books, is that she is a master at developing quirky, well-rounded characters.

But of course, to draw us in so we care about a character we can’t insert a bulleted list of good and bad traits. We have to layer in them so the traits are discovered through actions and reactions to other characters. Just like us, characters won’t interact with everyone in the same way. What a parent says will piss them off.

However, a friend can say the same thing and the character takes the advice to heart, or laughs it off. Defining a character through their interactions with the people around them — their circle of influence (COI) — is what makes them believable.

Another tool for building a character with greater emotional impact is to use traits that go against type.  For example, in one workshop at the retreat we wrote a scene with two characters that showed their flaws. I chose a paranoid, arrogant, and tad superstitious Jiminy Cricket pitted against a perfectionist Pinocchio who was theatrical and self-righteous. So not the Disney classics, but that’s the point.

Dare to be different. Breathe freshness and fun into your characters with unusual or conflicting traits. And it’s important to remember that in many cases …

…characters speak to conceal rather than to reveal.

That’s subtext … and a whole other topic … for another blog.

Implements of Construction

Here are some useful resources for building emotional impact into your characters:

What character is most memorable for you (film or fiction) and why?

Inquiring minds want to know!