I have found these four points to be so true to make interesting and consistent characters. I love the fact that she say 'there has to be honesty.' This to me means consistency. Would your character act or react this or that way. Will the reader believe what the character is say, feeling and/or doing in a situation. I also love that she points out there has to be a dilemma to make, not just the character interesting, but the story line interesting.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Janet Evanovich on character development
On character development, Evanovich says, ". . .there has to be honesty." So consistency in character is a must to make the character believable. Three points Evanovich follows are: 1) The main character must want something. 2) Someone or something (nature, money, distance) must stand in the way of his getting what he wants and 3) The choices that a character makes in his efforts to overcome obstacles and ultimately get what he wants define a character.
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The intersection of character and plot is in the motivations and subsequent choices of the characters. So true. I like how Evanovich distills character. Whereas Lamott and King, I think, expand character by examining and unfolding all the layers and complexities, Evanovich reduces to 4 points (although you only provide 3 here, CarolAnn). Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI do think that moral decisions a character makes is probably one of the key pieces. Doesn't that sort of make us who we are? How we decide to act in the moment? Even the most mundane. For example, an English professor, in a hurry to get home to a well-earned hot dinner, encounters a student on the way out the door who needs to talk. What I do in that situation does go far in defining my character.
Thanks for the post, CarolAnn. A great point about character.
I am in agreement with the points that you have pointed out. Evanovich hit it on the head when she say, "there has to be honest." Honesty is the key to everything.
ReplyDeleteThe morals of the character,(in agreement to what Kim said) completely defines who the character truly is. The plotting of the character is the independent variable that truly test the virtues that a character posesses, so I am in total agreement with all the above statements. Besides, to me ,the most interesting characters are ones that are given in a truthful light.
ReplyDeleteI truly agree with Evanovich said as well. Truly there has to be honesty in the character because you want this to be believable to people who are going to read the material. The 3 points that she points out are definitely necessary because if the story doesn't possess those, then the story will in every way be boring. Also it makes the story very much believable and realistic because in life we experience such things. Those things such as wanted possessions like money and power, and in order to get those things something always seems to be in the way. But what brings the character to life is how they go about getting waht it is they want? Do they go about it doing things in a positive or negative manner? What lines to they cross they get it? Did the path they used to get what they want differ from the characteristics that they possessed throughout the rest of the story. So yes indeed like Evanovich stated, this all is very important!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea that the main character must want something. People without passion are not very interesting. Neither are totally content people very interesting. Wanting something gives characters motivation to become something. What a neat idea!
ReplyDeletemk