Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (18 page)

Now, if you haven’t read this novel, hearing the above description of Jessie would make you think she’s a flake. Not so. She’s really quite level-headed. Lee is the volatile one. These beads are varied not because of Jessie’s capriciousness, but because
the conflicts that arise in opposition to her Desire and inner values naturally lead her to such reactions.
My goal was to build a character who appears believable and empathetic—and also very much in love—even as she treats Lee in such varied ways.

How do we discover these kinds of varied colors or “beads” that comprise a character’s passion?

Create scenes of conflict that will allow

the different colors of a passion to appear.

Ask questions such as:

1.
Under what circumstances could a character’s inner values conflict with her Desire?
We saw that happen in the opening chapter of my novel
Sidetracked
in the Study Samples for Secret #2. When Delanie discovers the dead body of a friend, her inner values regarding justice and caring for people immediately fight with her Desire to keep her secret.

2.
In pursuing their own Desires, what actions could other characters take that oppose my protagonist?

3.
Where in the progression of the Four Ds could beads of the most difference in color be placed?

Answers to these kinds of questions will help you create conflict that will prompt your character to show the various components of an emotion or trait. (If you’re a total pantser, you may not think of these things in advance. But they’re great questions to keep in mind as you edit your novel. Did you use these various devices as well as you could?)

But in some novels, portraying the components of a character’s passion isn’t enough. As Stanislavsky notes, the greater the passion, the greater all the colors that compose it. To build characters with the most sweeping of passions, look to Part II.

Part II: Find The Passion’s Opposite

Colors are best displayed against an opposing background. Place a pearl necklace against a white dress and the colors will blend together. Rather than enhancing the effect of the necklace through its similar color, the dress deadens it. Place that same necklace against a black dress and two results occur. First, the pearls stand out in a dynamic way. Second, they appear whiter.

So it is with human passions. To show a passion’s overall color at its most brilliant, you’ll need to include its opposite as well as its components. If your character is harsh, find what is gentle in him. If she’s selfish, find her generous side. If she’s self-confident, find her point of self-doubt. If he’s emotionally strong, find his weakness.

Picture the evil character of an abusive single mother. She kicks her daughter and beats her son with a belt. She screams and taunts and belittles them both. Later we see her cuddle a sick kitten. This tender care of an animal in no way diminishes her brutality toward her children. Quite the reverse—her brutality is heightened by sheer comparison.

The opposite of a passion is easy enough to identify, but finding a way to portray it with believability is something else again. After all, we want a character with colored passions, not a wishy-washy one. We need to find the right opportunity, the right scene that will allow this opposite to naturally show itself. Here we need to treat a character’s traits and emotions a little differently.

To find the most opportunities for portraying

the opposite of a trait, start by looking

within the character.

The various traits within your character, each rising from an inner value, work together to make her who she is. Most of the time this all works in harmony. But we’re looking for those times when they don’t. So choose two traits of your character, then ask: In what situation could these two traits be pitted against each other, causing the character to act just the opposite of how she would normally act?

Let’s say one of your character’s traits is to allow others the benefit of the doubt. She’s slow to “get her back up,” so to speak. If someone slights her, she shrugs it off, thinking the person is just having a bad day. A second trait is to give great customer service in her work. She learned this from her mother, who owns a successful bookstore. When your character was growing up, she helped in the store and was well trained regarding how to handle customers.

Most of the time these two traits work great together. Both result in treating other people well, whether on or off the job. So how to pit them against each other? One answer: make your character the customer in a poorly managed store. If she places high importance on treating her own customers well, she’s likely to expect the same for herself. Normally, if she’s not treated well, her sense of empathy for others will take over, and she’ll give the employee the benefit of the doubt. (“Maybe he has good reason to not be smiling today.”) So up the ante and place her in a real hurry. In fact, maybe she’s in a hurry because she’s soon due for a meeting with a customer at work and doesn’t want to keep him waiting.

She strides to the counter of the store to buy an item. The young man behind the counter is busy putting things on shelves, sees her but doesn’t make eye contact, and seems in no hurry to help. Your character waits for a minute, still showing her empathetic side. (“Maybe his boss told him to load those shelves pronto.”) But she’ll soon be pushed past that. Empathy fades, and judgment rises in its place. Forget the shelves, there’s a
customer waiting
. Nothing excuses this kind of behavior. The longer the employee takes, the more upset she gets. By the time she’s finally helped, she’s terse, tight-lipped, and unfriendly. When she flounces out of the store, the young man may turn to his coworker and mutter, “Don’t you just hate people like that?!”

We can see another example of trait opposites in the character of Finny in John Knowles’ classic novel
A Separate Peace
. Finny is described as a charming sixteen-year-old at the Devon School who seems to get away with anything, a “student who combined a calm ignorance of the rules with a winning urge to be good, who seemed to love the school truly and deeply, and never more than when he was breaking the regulations, a model boy who was most comfortable in the truant’s corner.” Finny was also honest. “Everything he said was true and sincere; Finny always said what he happened to be thinking, and if this stunned people then he was surprised.”

In making up his own rules, Finny often shows himself to be a great and fearless athlete. In the opening of the book, Finny decides that he and his friends should climb a huge tree by the river, then jump from its branches into the water—a feat that was considered crazy by his chums and was absolutely against school rules. Of course Finny jumps first, urging his friends to follow. Gene, the novel’s narrator, reluctantly jumps next. Elwin declares Gene’s jump better than Finny’s. Finny cordially replies, “Don’t start awarding prizes until you’ve passed the course. The tree is waiting.” Elwin refuses to jump, as do the other students. Finny declares to Gene, “It’s you, pal. Just you and me.”

In another scene, Finny breaks the school record for 100-yard freestyle swimming, with Gene, holding the stopwatch, as his only witness. Finny is not a practiced swimmer, which makes his feat all the more sensational. But Finny stuns Gene by declaring that his record-breaking swim will remain a secret. What’s more, Finny refuses to swim the event again publicly so that he can officially break the record. Gene can hardly believe it. The bronze plaque bearing the name of A. Hopkins Parker as record-holder for this swim will remain hanging in the school halls—a lie after Finny’s achievement. Yet honest Finny chooses to let the lie stand.

What has happened? Finny’s trait of making up his own rules has come into direct opposition with his trait of honesty, and the first trait wins. “Swimming is screwy anyway,” he tells Gene. “The only real swimming is in the ocean.” Apparently, to Finny’s unique thought processes, proving his swimming prowess by conforming to a standard set of rules and regulations for breaking a record is some- thing he just can’t do. He plays outside the rules. Usually, this behavior displays his athletic abilities. But even when it does not, he still chooses to live by his own rules. And he chooses to live this way even if it requires that he is less than completely honest about his achievement.

By placing Finny in this situation and forcing two of his major traits to come head-to-head, John Knowles shows us a new depth to Finny’s character.

To find the most opportunities for portraying

the opposite of an
emotion, look to other characters.

What actions might other characters in your novel take that would oppose the first character so strongly that she would be pushed to the opposite emotion? Sometimes this pushing to the opposite happens over many scenes. Sometimes it can happen in one dramatic sequence.

Picture this scene:

A middle-aged woman is deeply in love with her husband. In the last few months, however, he’s begun to treat her badly, staying out late at night with no explanation, ignoring her. She’s afraid he’s having an affair. Still, she’s been patient, often saying how much she loves him and trying her best to make him happy. Finally she decides this has continued long enough. She must woo her husband back. She begs her husband to come home on time the following night—at six o’clock. If he loves her at all, she tells him, he’ll do this one thing for her. He promises. She believes he will keep that promise.

The next day is spent making a special dinner for him. She takes extra care with her hair and makeup, and squeezes herself into a sexy dress. Adds a pair of high heels. As the time approaches for her husband to arrive, she has everything ready. Table set with candles. Low lightning. She is brimming with anticipation and hope. She’s come to view this dinner as
the one thing
that can save her marriage. If her husband doesn’t respond to this, to the special dinner and his wife looking her best, she will know she’s lost him.

Of course that isn’t going to happen. She
will
succeed at wooing him back.

Six o’clock arrives. Her heart feels fluttery.

Five minutes pass.

Ten.

Fifteen.

Well, no problem. He just got stuck in traffic.

She finds little extra things to do to keep herself busy. This lasts fifteen minutes.

The grandfather clock rings six-thirty.

Dinner is getting cold. She sticks everything in the oven to keep it warm. She can no longer lie to herself that he’s in traffic. If that was the case, he’d have called.

She wanders around, waiting, with nothing else to do.

Six forty-five.

Seven.

She’s grown cold in her skimpy dress and adds a sweater. Takes off her high heels. More time passes. She walks the floor, looking out the window, startling at every car that drives by.

Has he been in an accident? She can’t live without him. She
can’t
.

She won’t allow herself to believe that has happened. She shores herself up, muscles taut, clinging to her hopeless hope that all is not yet lost.

Seven-thirty.

She drags herself into the kitchen and turns off the oven. Leans against it and starts to cry. The tears flow hot, bitter. No matter that her makeup will be a mess. Doesn’t matter anymore. Back in the living room she flings herself on the couch and weeps until she’s too tired to shed another drop.

She lies still, eyes closed. Spent.

The grandfather clock chimes eight times.

Two hours late. And he promised!

He doesn’t care about her anymore. That’s the truth, and she might as well face it. He. Doesn’t. Care.

After all she’s done for him.

Anger kicks up her spine—and as it builds, her energy returns. She pushes off the couch, wanting to hit something. She vows she won’t love her husband anymore. He doesn’t deserve her! So
what
if he’s late—she doesn’t want him anyway! She stomps around the room, flinging accusations at his imagined form, telling him everything she’s thought of him over the past few months.

When the words run out she again is exhausted. She slumps on the couch, head hung.

She has failed. What in the world will she do?

That’s when his headlights sweep the driveway.