Representing Character and Action

Novel: a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.

I'm going to focus on the bold part, and then will write posts on all the rest of that definition later on. One little part at a time.

In my last post, I mentioned that writing was an art. Anything that expresses your creativity is art. Therefore, writing is art. Novels are a piece of artwork, and deserve to be recognized as such. Even those books that don't deserve to even be called Literature. But that's beside the point.

I feel like in modern literature, writer's miss the most important part of a story. They miss the most epic, most creative part. And that makes their piece of art dull and lifeless. What's the part that most writer's miss? Character. Lots and lots of character. Not just the "people" kind of character, but the "character" one builds within themselves. This "character" makes the "character" who s/he really is. It's what we should  be building the story upon. The "character" of the entire story shapes the novel. It creates both the Characters a person, and the plot.

If any other writer is like me, I start several rough drafts of different novels, and then jump back and forth between them. I don't do this a lot anymore, because it's stressful, and you can't put time into the story like you need to. In this process of jumping back and forth and not really caring, the characters get put on the backburner, and the writer tends to focus more on the story goal and plot. I feel like that is what happened in Veronica Roth's book Divergent. As much as I really liked the first book, I felt like the second and third were focused more on the plot, than on Tris and Tobias. I thought Tris and Tobias had a lot of potential in become strong characters. I got excited after reading the first book, thinking that the next two would be better. There was so much character development in the first book, I expected it to continue. Instead, it fell flat, and I was greatly disappointed. I told myself that I would never do that to a reader. It might not turn out like that in the end, but maybe I can try. That's all that counts, right? The combining of both is FATAL. I repeat: FATAL.

To create a novel, one needs two things: characters, and action. They need to be able to represent both objectives in one story. Most writer's fall flat on their faces with this. They tend to lean towards either the characters, or the plot, and they seldom get them both together perfectly. I do this, too. I'm not in anyway exempt from this. I tend to lean towards creating my characters, and my plots are often flat. I have great ideas, with great potential, that never comes out great on paper. It happens to the best of us.

So then, how do we fix this?

Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.Research.

Study hard on what you are writing on. Learn the world and setting you are in. Spend time creating the world of the character with detailed planning and plotting. Have a plot board. Once you've outlined, then you can start writing. It's really important not to just jump into a novel blindly. It will be a weak novel if done this way.

Something else I want to briefly point out is the backstory of a strong character. A character doesn't need a detailed backstory placed inside the novel to make the character a strong character. Neither does having a detailed backstory placed inside the novel make the character a weak character. It's perfectly fine to have detailed backstories, just don't think that is how a strong character is formed. I have had character with little to no background put inside the novel and turn out just fine. I have read books where the characters were strong and my favorite, and didn't have a detailed backstory inside the novel. I like details, though. So if a writer does put a detailed backstory in the novel, I appreciate that. But their characters can still end up rather weak. So keep that little tip in mind, and maybe I will write an entire post on that someday, but today is not that day.

Here's an example of what my character development looks like at the very first stage, even before I start plotting:

Profile: Christi Robin

First name: Christi

Last name: Robin

Age: 16

MBTI personality type: ENFJ

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Worst enemy: the government

Backstory: mother died when giving birth to her. She's an only child. Father had been sick for years and died when she was fourteen. The "government" came in and took Hundred Acre Wood from her which was legally and rightfully hers. She didn't fight it, because there was nothing she could do on her own. So she let them make her forest into a safe place for all fictional characters

Personality: kind, loving, gentle, but also brave and strong, and likes adventure. Very loyal to her friends, and trusts too easily. Enjoys people.

(I won't ever be able to publish this story, because Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Wood is under a lot of copyright. So I post this profile as a brief example, but I do not hold copyright to the actual story.  Neither do you. ;) It's just a retelling. )
That's just a small part of character development. There is much more involved in creating good characters that are strong and like-able

For the first part of my outlining, I usually go over small details like who the main character is, and then go over the allies. I add the villain's bio, and the setting, along with the genre, love interests (if there is any), and a rough synopsis.
The detailed outlining, I will go through each chapter and give briefly what I want to happen in that chapter to keep a general structure. Different people do it different ways.
But never forget that your novel is supposed to be the representation of BOTH the character and the plot (action). Don't lose site of one or the other.