Colorizing Characters

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by Starla Kaye

Let's say you've finished the first draft of your story. Now you are ready for the first read-through and starting your revisions. There are so many areas to review: plot, conflicts, settings, and characters. With each of those areas there are even more things to focus on. But, to me, the most important to concentrate on are the characters.

You can have an intricate plot filled with mysteries, an amazing adventure, or a beautiful love story. If the characters don't come to life for the reader, though, you take a chance of that reader never reading more than the first page or two. A reader (which I am one, as well as being a writer) wants to care about the hero and heroine. And she wants to care about each of them as individuals, plus she wants to pull for them as a couple if it is a romance.

Give the characters depth. This goes beyond giving the reader hints of what they look like, what kind of car they drive, how they prefer to dress, whether or not they have an accent, or where they live. All of those are useful in establishing a basis for the reader understanding a character. Yet they are still surface elements of characterization and not necessarily personalizing items.

Nothing brings a character to life like a hint or two of reality. Make them have habits or quirks that individualize them. I’m talking about little things that are reasonable to a reader and yet set a character apart from every other character in the story.

An important thing to remember about these character details is not to go overboard. This is part of that whole KISS idea: Keep It Simple Stupid. The following are some little ways to colorize your characters.

·        Always putting their keys in a particular spot at home - meaning when they have been put somewhere else they go nuts when they can't find them

·        Having a set routine while getting ready in the morning - meaning if they do one step out of order it throws them off and slows them down

·        Religiously checking refrigerator and pantry items to make sure they are within the expiration date...or never remembering to check the dates until it is too late

·        Always turning every light in the house off before leaving to conserve energy and save money...or never remembering to turn off lights

·        Eating the same thing every day for at least one meal…or always skipping a certain meal

·        Doing the dishes every day...or putting dishes into the dishwasher without running it until being ready to eat again and discovering there isn't anything clean to cook with or to eat on

·        Never remembering to fill the car up with gas until being forced to drive on fumes or run out...or constantly watching the gas gauge and never going below 3/4 of a tank

·        Using the passenger's side of the car’s floor as trash storage...or being almost anal about always having a small trash bag or container

·        Needing to sleep on a particular side of the bed…or not being able to fall asleep

·        Taking your share of the bed in the middle - meaning the other person has to make do sleeping on an edge of the mattress

·        Going through the morning newspaper first and cutting out something important to you - leaving the other person to try and figure out from the holes in the paper what is missing

People have a lot of habits or quirky things they do and a lot of the time they aren't aware of them. These are simply part of "who" they are. These can be the fun things about knowing someone. Or they can be things that really irritate someone else.

Of course there are far easier details that can give the reader ways to identify characters. He runs his hand through his hair whenever frustrated. She chews on her lower lip when nervous. Etc. I wanted to show you, as a writer, how to think beyond those easy traits, how to use what you observe about real people to add colors to your characters.

Did you recognize anything listed as something you do? Maybe see something your mate or a friend does? What other quirky things can you add to this list of everyday habits?

Unjustifiable Violence

A topic close to my heart this month.

By L.C. Dean

Fifteen years ago, on an October night, a young man stopped to have drink in a bar. Maybe chat with a few people. Nothing big. Just have a little fun. There he met up with two other men, both seemingly friendly, who offered (or who he asked for) a ride home. He never made it back. A cyclist found him the 

next morning, beaten but alive, tied to a fence like some macabre Halloween decoration. The only spots on his face not covered by blood were the tracks of his tears. His injuries were so severe doctors were unable to operate. Matthew Shepard lived for six more days but never regained consciousness. His attackers had pretended to be gay to get him into their vehicle in order to beat and torture him simply because he was homosexual. Protestors picketed his funeral with signs reading “No Tears for Queers.” That one horrible and unconscionable placard has stuck in my head for a decade and a half.

Matthew’s death remains the most recognizable example of hate against a gay man in the United States today. His torture and subsequent death launched the campaign for a hate crimes bill. Eleven years later, President Obama signed The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/matthewshepard.php —better known as the Matthew Shepard Act—into law on October 28, 2009. (Byrd was beaten and dragged behind a pickup by known white supremacists until dead.) The Act expanded the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

This legislation now makes hate driven violence, no matter the recipient, a major crime. Still, across the nation brutality continues against those perceived as different or weaker somehow. Race, gender, sexual orientation, and a plethora of other excuses pop up again and again to justify violence against individuals or groups. There are laws in place to handle such issues, but stopping it begins with the individual. We live in America where free speech declares we all have the right to speak out against things which concern us. Hate should concern everyone.

No one has to approve or support the ideas, lives, and attitudes of others. But does anyone have the right to end a life just because someone is different? Free speech gives us the right to take a stand against hate. We can say no to violence and yes to acceptance. If you hear of or see such things, be the voice of reason, call the police, take a stand…but don’t ignore it. Had someone who knew Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson’s intentions intervened in some way, even to turn their thoughts to other things, perhaps Matthew would not have died. No human being, whether different from the majority or not, deserves to suffer this type of treatment. Martin Luther King, Jr. told us all of his dream,  and we have come a long way since then, but we have a long way to go until “all men are created equal” and are judged only by the “content of their character.” Love is love no matter what.

All my hope and friendship to readers, friends, and countrymen alike—please, remember those who have suffered or died at the hand of hate and help stop unjustifiable violence.

L.C. Dean

Matthew Shepard Foundation http://www.matthewshepard.org/

The James Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing can be reached at 888-656-6514 or by electronic mail at byrdfound@juno.com

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