Comments on: Characters: Audiences Read Stories, but Great Stories Read the Audience

By: Top Picks Thursday! For Writers & Readers 09-26-2019 | The Author Chronicles

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 17:01:53 +0000

[…] Nathan Bransford urges us to let the reader diagnose your characters, Kristen Lamb examines the power of different characters to resonate with different readers, and Nathan returns to show how to create a great […]

By: Suzanne Lucero

Suzanne Lucero — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:55:27 +0000

In reply to Deborah Makarios. Spot on!

By: Suzanne Lucero

Suzanne Lucero — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:53:56 +0000

It’s all in the subtext, baby. Subtext is my weak spot: I can “feel” it in writing, but I can’t duplicate it in my own. (You’d hate the stories I wrote in high school. The characters were there for one reason only: to give me catharsis. Not one inch of depth.) Still working out my story, but finally decided I really have to outline. That way I can see everything at once and plant seeds in the background that will blossom into subplots later on or totally take the plot in a different direction. Also, I’ll be able to control how the plot is shaped instead of writing myself into a corner. Wish me luck.

By: Will Remains

Will Remains — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:25:12 +0000

Great post! Insightful comments and I appreciate that you offer such relatable examples illustrating your points. The way you drill down into Cersei’s character brings your point across where more generalized advice would not.

By: Deborah Makarios

Deborah Makarios — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 23:33:10 +0000

This reminds me of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, infuriated by the rules of society that mean she can’t act to avenge the wrong done to her cousin. “O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place… I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.”

As a reader, I don’t like characters who are either perfect or irredeemably evil, but nor do I like the kind of stories where everyone’s unpleasant in varying degrees. If everyone’s a jerk, why would I care who wins or loses? As you say, you’ve got to have someone you can relate to, even if that’s not the same person for every reader.

By: Kristen Lamb

Kristen Lamb — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 15:20:12 +0000

In reply to Sydney J. Baily. They can surprise us, just careful they don't go completely off the rails, LOL. But a good example would be Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Early on, Spike say refrained from going in for a kill when it would have been easy. The writers showed there was something in him not wholly evil, that he was capable of mercy or even doing the "right" thing under the right circumstances. His chaotic nature made him one of the most fascinating characters because there was wiggle room. He was unpredictable.

By: Sydney J. Baily

Sydney J. Baily — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 14:13:21 +0000

Wow! I’m reading your post and thinking, Kristen has done it again — thrown everything on its head. This seems to fly in the face of how we’re taught to create a character (maybe even using the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator) who must always act a certain way because that’s his/her personality, and who can’t act in a surprising way because it won’t be believable. Then your post ending says to create characters who do act surprisingly so the readers don’t know what they’ll do next and can’t guess what will happen in your story. Given me a lot to think about. Thanks!