- Instant Conflict. Awkward characters will be the catalyst for conflict. They will either obstruct another character who will have to find a way around this or be the source of the conflict directly. (This is particularly true in family sagas - some will always side with a character out of loyalty almost no matter what they do. Others will argue with said awkward character and splits will arise).
- Instant Curosity in Reader - Will the character carry on being awkward or will they come to their senses? Do they have good cause to be awkward? What will the other characters do? All good reasons to keep reading, which is precisely what you want!
- Instant Sense of Something About to Happen - This will either happen to the character directly or as a result of their awkwardness. Something will have to happen because of this. The character themselves may be aware of it and either not care or try to stop it if they can recognise their own failings.
- The Awkward Character May be Right! There should be good reasons (at least from the character's viewpoint) as to why are they like this. Are they really awkward or just awkward because they ask difficult questions the authorities in your setting don't want to answer? Awkward characters can include the dogged detective who will not give up, the investigative journalist and so on. Awkward characters can genuinely be those who want to get to the truth and will not give up until they have done this.
The wonderful ways are wonderful for the writer! Definitely not for other characters in the story or book as awkward characters .... well they just make life awkward. It is what they do but why are they wonderful for writers?
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm Allison Symes and write fairytales with bite, especially novels and short stories. Archives
October 2019
Categories |