August 29, 2015
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| by KayVee.INC | via Flickr |
Developing
Characters by Lawrence Block
The chief reason for almost any reader to go on turning
the pages of almost any novel is to find out what happens next. The reason the
reader cares what happens next is because of the author’s skill at characterization.
When the characters in a novel are sufficiently well drawn, and when they’ve
been so constructed as to engage the reader’s capacities for sympathy and
identification, he wants to see how their lives turn out and is deeply
concerned that they turn out well.
Some novels
depend more on characterization than do others. In the novel of ideas, the
characters often exist as mouthpieces for various philosophical positions;
while the writer may have taken the trouble to describe them and give them
diverse individual attributes, they often have little real life outside of
their specific argumentative role in the novel.
Some whodunits
rely on the clever intricacy of their plotting to hold the reader’s attention,
stinting on characterization in the process…..Agatha Christie supplied her
Hercule Poirot with a variety of attitudes and pet expressions, but I’ve never
found that the little Belgian added up to anything more than the sum of these
quirks and phrases. He serves admirably as a vehicle for the solution of
brilliant mystery puzzles but does not interest me much as a character….And
while one of Ms. Christie’s Poirot mysteries will always do to fill an idle
hour, I’m a passionate fan of her Jane Marple stories, not because their plots
are appreciably different from the Poirots but because Marple herself is such a
fascinating character, warm and human and alive.
References: Lawrence Block "On Writing" and Gabrielle Lessa - Article "How Outlining can bring out Voice".https://janefriedman.com/2015/08/24/how-outlining-can-bring-out-voice/?utm_content=buffer177ad
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