Going Deep into Character Descriptions to Connect with Our Readers

by Sarah Sally Hamer @SarahSallyHamer

Writers are always trying to improve the way we describe our characters. Usually, I suggest my students concentrate on four basic ways for our characters to express: dialog, body language, action, and, if in that character’s point of view, with thoughts. But today I was looking for a specific book on my shelf and came across one that might convince me add another way for characters to express. And it all comes down to what they’re holding in their hand.

The book is Fiction is Folks: How to Create Unforgettable Characters, by Robert Newton Peck. I’d never heard of him when I bought this book, used, about five years ago, but he was well-known for his children’s stories. He brought characters to life, simply by describing ordinary people with ordinary objects any of us might use in our daily lives. For instance, Captain Ahab was a whaler in the mid-1800s. “Let your Captain Ahab hold a harpoon, finger the barb of its point, and balance its shaft.” Things that make Ahab more real. Because, as Peck says, “Characterization is physical.” But it’s not the color of the eyes or hair or even the height of a character that makes the difference, unless you’re trying to force a 6’6” basketball player into a Volkswagen bug. It’s how the character uses and experiences the item that makes all the difference.

Dolly Parton sings a song about a coat her mother made her—the Multicolored Coat—which tells us the story of prejudice, bullying, love, and faith. Funny to think of all of that in one small girl’s garment. The coat is not only the major theme of the story but also the reason for it. Dolly grew up very poor and her mother used the scraps of cloth she had to make a warm coat. To Dolly, it was the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. But to the other children in her school, it was the costume of a clown. Dolly didn’t understand why she was bullied and vilified over something her mother made with love. Ultimately, though, it taught Dolly a lesson about what was really important with her life and became a defining moment for the person she is today. The coat was an important teaching tool for her and for generations to come.

Tools play lots of different roles. They can be nothing more than a ring that a newly widowed woman turns around her finger each time she thinks of her loss, or the stuffed toy my new grandson holds to sleep. It can be a smell of the cologne or a pair of high-heeled shoes that a child recognizes as the signal for Mom to go to work. It certainly can be the pile of books next to my bed or my favorite reading chair. No one who knows me well would recognize either without books next to them. Dolly’s mother, sitting at a sewing machine, put love into every stitch of that coat.

All of these and millions more—one or two for every character—give us the depth our readers demand. They show those readers what a character does and lets us make our own decisions about who they are. 

How do we add items to a character in the most effective way? Think about characters you love. Harry Potter always carried his wand. Yes, there are obvious reasons but he always had it, ready to protect himself. We don’t see it all the time, but it was close and ready to use when needed. Can you imagine his character without it? Peck tells us about Jack, a fireman, who is “exhausted, gritty, near frozen from icy water, scorched with flame, hurting from a fallen rafter…yet before his bath and rest, he flattens water from a hose, then refolds that hose with dedication into the rack at the read of his giant red engine.” This shows the reader in great detail the “tools” of his trade, from the physicality of fighting a fire to the perseverance and training of being ready for the next one. Without a word, watching as he works, his purple, stiff, and numb hands slipping on the cold wet hose, we can understand what kind of man he is. Isn’t that better then being told, “He is a good fireman?”

Sit down with your character and “talk.” It’s called a “character interview” but it can become a really deep conversation. Ask questions. Here are a few I recommend:

1. What do you want? (Goal)
2. Why do you want it? (Motivation)
3. Why can’t you have it? (Conflict) These three questions are ALWAYS my first ones.
4. What’s important in your life?
5. What do you do? (as in a job or a hobby or something you love deeply)
6. What tools do you need? 
7. What would you do for free?

There are many, many more, of course, but that should get you started. Show us with details, especially of the tools because, “Your reader will decide, without your assistance, what kind of man he is…his beliefs, the devotions of his life that he holds dear.”

Think about your favorite character. What “tools” does that character use? How? Why?

What tools will you give your characters?

(With great thanks to Mr. Peck. I bought my used book of Fiction is Folks for about five dollars, which included shipping and handling. The ones I looked at today were almost ten times that expensive. I wish they’d reprint it. )

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Going Deep into Character Descriptions to Connect with Our Readers from @SarahSallyHamer on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Sarah (Sally) Hamer, B.S., MLA, is a lover of books, a teacher of writers, and a believer in a good story. Most of all, she is eternally fascinated by people and how they 'tick'. She’s passionate about helping people tell their own stories and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online for Margie Lawson at www.margielawson.com and for the No Stress Writing Academy at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/classes-deleyna/a/no-stress-writing-academy. Sally is a free-lance editor and book coach, with many of her students and clients becoming successful, award-winning authors. 

You can find her at info@mindpotential.org