{"id":4337,"date":"2013-10-30T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/?p=4337"},"modified":"2013-10-29T22:43:19","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T05:43:19","slug":"what-a-character-3-more-tips-on-creating-great-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/what-a-character-3-more-tips-on-creating-great-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"What A Character! 3 More Tips on Creating Great Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bob-odenkirk-breaking-bad\"<\/p>\n

As followers of The Story Source<\/a> know, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written extensively about Breaking Bad<\/strong>, the Emmy award-winning show on AMC<\/strong> that wrapped its final season a few weeks ago. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not here to praise the expert storytelling<\/strong> (ten Emmy awards), the suspenseful scenes<\/strong> (too many to name) or even the superb direction<\/strong> (Vince Gilligan is among the best in the business).<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to talk about Saul Goodman<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Saul, played by the multi-talented Bob Odenkirk, is one of the funniest and fully developed secondary characters<\/strong> on television. After watching him for five seasons, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve fallen in love with Saul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flagrant scheming and naked opportunism. But what exactly makes Saul so memorable<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

It all comes down to character choices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To help you tell stories with characters that are as colorful and rich as Saul, here are \u00e2\u20ac\u01533 More Tips on Creating Great Characters<\/strong>.” Follow these tips and you may have a spinoff show in your future<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Simplify Your Descriptions<\/strong>. In real life, people are complex, full of nuance and subtlety. Unfortunately, when you tell a story, you only have a limited time<\/strong> to showcase secondary characters, so make your descriptions count. To do this, simply answer the question: Does the description paint a picture<\/strong> of the character for the audience? If the answer is no, make sure to add the necessary visuals<\/strong> to make the description pop out to a listener or reader.<\/li>\n
  2. Use Metaphors and Analogies<\/strong>. In some instances, it can difficult to reduce whole characters to simple descriptions. This is where the right metaphor<\/strong> or analogy<\/strong> can help. For example, maybe your brother-in-law is a police officer with a buzz cut who sings songs from Michael Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thriller\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in public places (go with it). One possible analogy is that your brother-in-law is like the child of Joe Friday<\/a> and Lady Gaga<\/a><\/strong>. Another possible metaphor is that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mix of the Hardy Boys<\/strong><\/a> and Fallout Boy<\/strong><\/a>. The key to finding the right metaphor or analogy for a character is to identify the unusual or prominent thing<\/strong> about the character and then offer a truthful<\/strong> comparison<\/strong>. Even if the analogy doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a huge laugh, it will at least resonate<\/strong> with the audience. Just remember: analogies should be used to augment<\/strong> descriptions, not to replace them.<\/li>\n
  3. Serve The Plot<\/strong>. Once you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve boiled down your characterizations and\/or added an analogy, the final step in the process is to make sure that your character descriptions serve the story\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot<\/strong>. For example, if you mention that your father used to shoot rabbits at the beginning of the story, the audience is expecting a reference<\/strong> to either guns or rabbits somewhere later in the story. If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deliver on this promise, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll begin to wonder why you chose the original description. Once again, deliver what you promise<\/strong>! The upside of doing this is that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also an easy way to inject humor into your stories<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Feeling better about your characters<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

    (Originally posted at The Story Source<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As followers of The Story Source know, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written extensively about Breaking Bad, the Emmy award-winning show on AMC that wrapped its final season a few weeks ago. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not here to praise the expert storytelling (ten Emmy awards), the suspenseful scenes (too many to name) or even the superb direction (Vince Gilligan is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}