THE FRONT PORCH
DEVELOPING A GOOD STORY
By Major Mitchell
The second link to writing a good story, is to create believable characters. This may sound easy, but it is much harder than you might think. Start off by watching people around you, and note everything about them. The way they stand, cross their legs when seated, tap their fingers against a table. These are the small things you add to your characters to make them real.
For instance, the girl you create is flirting with the guy across the room. Without having her giggle, flip her hair, smile and give glances from the corner of her eye, the story would seem rather flat. To write about a flirting girl, you must first study a girl who is flirting, especially if you happen to be a man. I would also suggest you watch the boy’s response in order to properly describe this mating ritual. Men are not often aware of how they respond when they receive advances from a pretty female.
What I found most helpful is to take a note pad and sit in a mall, school cafeteria or restaurant and study those around me. Most of the time I have a stack of books, so others think I am studying for a test or college paper, instead of them. What I am writing is all the above mentioned items, along with dress, the peculiar walk someone might have, or the way they might smoke a cigarette. The last is especially important for a none-smoker. In short, never try describing something you haven’t experienced, or studied.
It is claimed that the character created by James Cagney in Public Enemy, (the jerky movements, hand in the pocket, slurred words, etc.), where a copy of a two-bit hood he had watched daily on a street corner in the Yorkville section of Manhattan where he grew up. Cagney was hired to play a supporting role, but the character he portrayed became so powerful and real, the entire movie script was re-written to center around him. His performance led to his recreating the same character in several other movies, and made James Cagney a famous and wealthy man.
Next, when you find your characters for your story, build a card file on each one. Your story might begin when your characters are thirty or forty years old, but start your information file at their birth. This way you’ll know how they might act, given a certain situation. Know their hair color, eyes, the food they like and dislike, the music they listen to, etc. This may sound like a lot of trouble, but it will make your writing easier, and more believable.
But remember, characters are not real people. Readers expect and demand from protagonists (heroes and heroines) a higher set or morals and mores than they do real people. This is not to say that brave characters never become frightened or suffer from doubt. But they always overcome their doubt and fear, not allowing it to rule their lives.
A hero or heroine must always have some built-in weakness or flaw that will cause the reader to think they are really human. And every great hero deserves a great villain. Sherlock Holmes had Professor Moriarty. They were not evenly matched. Moriarty was shrewder, and more resourceful. Be careful when creating villains. The hero is always overmatched by his opponent. It is not interesting to read about a 6’5” hero beating up a 5’7” tall villain. But if the villain is much bigger and stronger, and willing to fight dirty, or is trying to kill our hero, and given that or hero has just broken his right arm…now we have created a vulnerable, yet sympathetic hero, and the reader is dying to know how he gets out of this mess.
Next month, we’ll talk about first sentences, and how to grab the reader’s attention.