“It’s just clothes,” he mutters and throws the box on the floor. The child wanted a toy, a video game, a gift card—anything but clothes. When someone asks him what he received for his birthday, he rolls his eyes and shakes his head only to repeat it again, “Just clothes.”
We can tell if he really wanted it. The eyes sparkle, the hands move, and sometimes he has to be told to slow down talking so we can understand.
There is no doubt about the enthusiasm he has.
Much like a child’s enthusiasm to a present, we can be enthusiastic about the characters in our stories.
Do I dread writing about the character in the story? Whether the character is full of charm or the “bad” guy, I need to be excited to confront him on paper. I don’t need to find an excuse to keep away. Frequent breaks from writing may indicate a need to be away from the character. If I dread writing about him, readers will not want to read about him.
Do I find myself putting my character in “what if” situations? When I am sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, what would my character be doing if he came with me?
The character needs to be real with strengths and weaknesses. I can like him or dislike him. This doesn’t mean that I need to write a story on a character in the doctor’s office. But I need to know my characters well enough to know what they would do if they were there.
It is hard to be enthusiastic about a character if I am forming the traits as I go along. I like to make a personality profile of the character and keep it handy. As I put my character in a situation, I refer back to the character profile to make sure he is doing everything in “character.”
The more situations I am in that I can do this “what if” exercise, the more enthusiastic I am about the character. It becomes a game and it exercises my imagination.
Am I ashamed of the character? I may not want to talk about my character at the writer’s group meeting or I may apologize for the character. I have even caught myself not even wanting to give the name of the character. Sometimes I say that I am still working on character development. That serves as a red flag for me. If I don’t want to talk about him, I have to ask myself why. Maybe the character is so bad that I cannot find any redeeming qualities in him. Other characters in the story don’t want to be around him either. Children want redeeming qualities in others. It gives them hope. I try to give even the most hopeless character hope.
What kind of reaction does the character bring out in me? Am I laughing or smiling when I think about the character? It is very similar to opening the present. I am very animated when I speak (my husband points that out frequently). I talk with my hands, very fast, and seemingly forever on the characters I love. I even do it with characters that just fascinate me or make me curious. One of the best exercises I have found is to look in the mirror and talk about my character(s). I watch how I talk about them.
I can be enthusiastic about gifts. I am one who rips the paper anxious to see what is on the inside. But I also need to be enthusiastic about my characters. If I am, then it becomes a gift I give to the readers. It helps to mold my book into something that others find can’t wait to open.
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