Hemingway, Sinclair and Steinbeck a few of history's great authors whom I believe would agree with the adage great characters make even greater authors. Why? Simply their legacies were created by developing complex and compelling characters. For example take Shakespeare's passionate Prince Hamlet, Rod Sterling's punch drunk boxer Harlan (Mountain) McClintock, Requiem for a Heavyweight or Victor Hugo's tormented Quasimodo featured in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Each of these great characters were given life well before their famous authors became well known for their works.
It can said character development begins well before the ink
hits the paper and constructed properly this ongoing process creates characters
well remembered long past the final page of a book or closing scene of a movie.
Character building can be compared to Di Vinci painting his Mona Lisa. His stoke of the brush on
canvas carefully applying colors for depth and shadow giving her forever life.
As a writer you are that painter and have absolute carte blanche. Just remember
your characters must have depth, be multi-faceted and have the ability to
become larger than life.
Character development doesn't happen on page one of a novel
or a movie script but is an ongoing organized process of bits and pieces and
must remember characters are not all good or bad just a reflection of society. No
matter protagonist or antagonist characters drive your storyline to the very
end. Whether your characters have deep
personal conflicts, physical deformities or simply a lack personal or moral
responsibility or simply a psychotic degenerate they must reach great highs and lows. We respect
characters who fail both themselves and us but respect them more when through
the sheer power of their passion and human spirit redeem themselves. If writers
have worked their magic properly, characters failing in the end, make us shed
tears. For example Victor Hugo's Quasimodo, the physically hideous hunchbacked Bell-ringer
of Notre Dame suffering through his conflicts of unfulfilled love and
acceptance. Failing in the end, Quasimodo dies of starvation joining Esmeralda
in death. A final act of personal sacrifice for love loss.
For a memorial example of strength of character, we have the
seedy and ill-tempered character Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the classic
movie The French Connection. A
bestselling non-fiction novel adapted to the silver screen sets the stage for Jimmy
to enter a seedy, tough New York bar and through strength of character leaves
the bar with an Oscar in his hands. Hollywood's typical producing a character
bigger than life. On the other side of the spectrum, character building for an
antagonist allows for greater negativity of socially unacceptable behavior and
nefarious deeds. Schaeffer's Jack Wilson, the antagonist gunfighter portrayed by Walter Jack Palance
torments his adversaries by slowly putting on fingerless black leather gloves
prior to a gunfight. This simple "prop" devised by Palance added a an
already deeply troubled psychotic killer a further character building enhancement
and garnering Palance a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Simple, but
tremendously effective.
The most effective way to accomplish character building is
to read and take meticulous notes for every one of the Top 100 novels of all
time and watch every Oscar nominated movie you can. Don't miss Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman in The Hustler and the before mentioned Shane, voted the best western of all
time. Why, because of the depth of characters. Though neither movie won an
Oscar, they are absolute classics. Learn from the masters and then take your
brush and add your name to the list.
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