This guest post was written by Nick Thacker.
When I posted here back in April (about writing a novel in two
sentences), it got a great response. I wanted to follow that up with another
post in the same vein, this time about creating “two-word” characters.
Originally introduced to me through the great Dwight Swain, this is a wonderful
method for drafting initial character concepts.
Every
character has a goal, a mission. Sometimes the “goal” is to simply to serve as
an extra—a body to be killed, a boy to be shunned, etc. Other times, their
missions are as apparent as the back-cover text.
When you
write a novel or an outline and place characters in it, it’s
important to know them in and out—this is a truism that’s been rehashed by many
writers. While true, it’s not always intuitively helpful for figuring out
exactly how much detail you should include.
Some
writers swear by including an entire dossier of informational material on each
of their main characters—before
starting the writing process.
Others
choose to be “pantsers”—allowing the sparks of creativity to shape
and mold their story people. All of these things can lead to setbacks, but if
you focus on creating believable characters, it’ll make the rest of your job
that much easier.
In Dwight
Swain’s book, Creating Characters: Building Story People, he claims the art of character building can be
reduced to a fundamental two-word level. This method won’t be perfect for
everyone, but it can sure speed up your planning and
outlining process!
The Two-Word Character
Before I
get too far into this, I want to disclaim my beliefs on the subject. First,
there are many, many ways to create
art, and characters are no different. This method is just one of many. But it’s one that has truly helped shaped my characters, without causing me
undue stress.
Second,
your mileage may vary. As with my previous statement, there are many ways of
reaching the same conclusion, and that’s mainly because different things work
for different people. If you don’t like this method, don’t use it—but if you’ve
never tried it, at least give it a shot!
The
Two-Word Character method involves giving at least your main characters a
two-word (didn’t see that coming, did you?) description. You’ll expound on
these two words as you continue to write, ensuring your creativity,
personal style, and overall flair is not stifled by a
“formulaic” approach.
The two words we're looking for are:
1. A noun of vocation.
2. An adjective of manner.
The “noun of vocation” is simple—it’s what the character does. Either for a living
(a job), as a retirement hobby, a lifeblood, or whatever. It’s the way you might
describe someone at a party (or how you might describe yourself).
Your
character can be a pilot, a seamstress, a prostitute, a carpenter, etc.
The “adjective of manner” will help further chisel out a nice-looking
image in the readers’ mind of who
your character is. As we all know, a pilot can be charismatic, mean-spirited,
idiotic, charming, or anything else, and a prostitute can be gracious,
exuberant, regretful, etc.
Overall,
you want to capture the main essence
of your character. What they’re like, boiled down into one single word that
describes their mannerisms and their personality.
What to do with the Two Words
Once
you’ve figured out the main line of vocation and a general word of description
for each character, you can start to write. Sometimes you’ll want to work out a
few more specific qualities or quirks for each of your main characters, but if
you’re at all like me—you’ll just want to jump in to the story.
The
first time I wrote a novel, I messed up big time when I tried to write a character
into a scene that I’d never met before. I had no idea if he was young or old, patient or demanding, charismatic or short-tempered. I had to do
a lot of extra, unnecessary editing before he really started to take shape in
my mind.
My
second mistake in character development was going the exact opposite route. I tried to plan in
advance every single trait, characteristic, and historic feature of my
characters before even typing a word. Of course, this led to thousands of
unnecessary words, and while I knew my secondary villain’s nephew inside and
out—my readers never needed to.
The
Two-Word approach lets me hone in on the two most important, overarching
qualities of my characters that will truly bring them to life for my readers.
Two words don’t allow me to get into the nitty-gritty details of their
childhoods, nor do they allow me to get hung up hair color, eye color, etc., when those things aren’t important to my story.
Using Two Words
Obviously,
most of your characters will need many more than two words of description
before they become living, breathing people, but the Two-Word Method is great
for getting you into your story faster.
Let the
story guide the rest of the details—how they talk, react, think, live. Let
their two words become the memorable traits your readers will take with
them, long after they’ve finished reading your novel.
About the Author: Nick Thacker writes about
writing, blogging, and publishing, and you can check him out on his blog.
Be sure to grab his new book, Welcome Home: The Author’s Guide to Building A Marketing Home Base,
and grab the newsletter!
Tell me your opinion: Have you used a method like this before in your writing?
Related Posts: Interviewing Your Characters
Story by K.M. Weiland
Tags: Characters , Feature
When I do my short list, I'll do the two word, good guy, crooked cop, bad guy, handsome love etc but before I start writing plots,arcs, subplots I do the in depth character studies. It keeps me out of trouble
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing with us today, Nick!
Alas, I'm one of those writers who composes dossiers. However as I look back, I can see where creating "two-word" characters would've helped. I'll give it a try!
Thanks J.L. and K.M.! It was a pleasure to write and share! Thanks for having me!
Hi Alesha!
I've done that as well, and I actually like having a good amount of information about my characters. If you feel like you need to write up a full dossier, you might try using this "two-word" method to brainstorm and get the initial "gist" of the character written up!
That's an interesting approach. It wouldn't work so well for me in my current work though, as none of the characters are what they do - ie, the university professor has left her job to seek goals which have caused problems for her and her children; the coach just interferes, never actually coaches; etc. But then again I guess I'm the kind of writer who, given a rule or parameter, instantly seeks ways to break it! So if I planned on a charismatic pilot, he'd have to be a pilot who didn't fly for a reason which made his charisma a flaw rather than an asset. ;-)
This is a new concept for me but I like it. It gives me a tighter focus when building the character bio and will help me keep up with the cast.
I use Scrivener's template for developing characters but focus on primary traits w/o overdoing it.
Thanks for sharing,
Rich
A couple of examples might be nice. Lady Macbeth is an "ambitious wife." Macbeth himself is a "reluctant murderer." Am I getting it?
Interesting approach. The second word will the be harder, but ultimately more important of the two.
Just starting to think about how I would describe my characters' personalities in a single world has lead me to a minor revelation. The reason two of my characters clash so much at first is because they are exactly the same (but don't try to tell them!)
Hi Bozo!
Yup, those are both great examples. When I've used this method, I've focused on the juxtaposition of the two words:
For example, a "heroic soldier" is ridiculously cliche (there's not much juxtaposition; we "expect" soldiers to be heroic) and is going to leave you with little to explore. On the other hand, a "ex-con soldier" as a good guy would be more interesting.
So would a "cutthroat lawyer-turned-pet shop-owner" (sorry, I know it's not two words) or an "arrogant florist" (I'm picturing a male bodybuilder who has a secret love for flowers...
The idea is to launch or jumpstart your character development so that you, as an author, have more room to explore and don't get bored quickly when you hit a wall trying to build a believable backstory for a faceless teenaged girl who falls in love with a strapping vampire... oh wait.
I think doing it in two words would be slightly overdoing it. However, if I can fit the general concept for a character in five words, it's good exercise. This "character pitch" can then give at least *some* justice to the full personality behind it. Which sounds like something a good writer will do - an "awkward hero", or "socially awkward heroic inquisitor"? A "benevolent demigod" or "good-hearted demigod with a dark past"? I find two words to be slightly too limiting.
Mind you, this comes from the person who finds five-word limitation for general book pitches incredibly suffocating (my story essentially becomes "Star Wars in ancient Greece" this way...), so I may be terribly wrong about this whole thing, but as I see it, probably many good stories got shafted because they didn't fit neatly into such a pitch.