One of the crucial aspects of a good writer is to make a character feel alive. I reread a lot of my work, and often I can feel the plastic mold encasing some characters. You work hard to give them depth and complexity, but they can’t escape that Uncanny Valley. I think it’s pretty easy to write characters who are like yourself. Just ask “What would I do?”, then jot down the words. It gets tricky when the character you create is smarter, wiser, or more charismatic than you are.
Starting off with D&D character attributes? You bet your ass I am.
It is not hard to write “down” to a character’s level of one of those traits. A brutish bouncer is often simple: They have simple thoughts, have simple tastes, and dress in simple clothing. But it’s a cliche, one that people expect. Perhaps they’re not so brutish but instead have a powerful personality, able to cool down a bar fight with words and presence alone; A charismatic bouncer. But how does that character come across that would cause people to react that way? If you are charismatic, not an issue. If you are socially awkward, it becomes more difficult.
Even more so, what exactly defines someone’s intelligence or wisdom is wrought with controversy itself. Just ask your local teachers. They struggle with these concepts every day when creating lesson plans to cater to their classroom. There are lots of theories on what makes someone intelligent, but I believe the word “intelligence” gets too much credit, same as the word “artist.” But this is an entire post’s worth of discussion for another time.
I came up with this analogy for explaining what each of these traits means to me:
Three people are watching a sport at home on their television. One is intelligent, one is wise, and the other is charming.The intelligent one knows all the rules of the game, the scores of the last ten meetings between the teams, records, playoff standings, and all the player statistics by memory. The wise character doesn’t know the rules, but by watching it for a few minutes, she can decipher how the game works, and can also tell that these teams do not like each other by their aggressive play. The charismatic character is so confident that her team will win that the other two characters feel more inclined to root for that team, and become more invested in that team as the game goes on.
I would label all three characters as “smart,” but that’s not very saucy. How they are smart is what gives them the proper seasoning that makes them interesting.
It is difficult to write “up” to a character’s trait. As a writer, it is hard to admit that I’m not as smart as my main character, or as wise as his teacher. Characters whom I have written as being wise often give advice that isn’t profound. I have to often cheat with intelligent characters and make sure I have things written down. Charismatic characters are my most difficult subjects, I myself having the personality of a truck with no steering wheel. I laugh a lot at my first draft of these characters; They come off like an undercover cop posing as a teenager, trying to find out who sells weed in a high school. “Hello, fellow school goers, what is the up and up, knowwhatimsayin?”
What works for me is juxtaposition. Having a character with a luminous personality speaking with one that is akin to driftwood does a lot of the work for you, and allows the reader themselves to come to the conclusion, often creating a stronger image than you simply telling everyone they are smart. I haven’t read all of the Harry Potter books, but I have a massive amount of respect for J. K. Rowling’s novels, especially her skill in exposition. As the book-smart student, Hermione often stands out more by displaying what Ron and Harry don’t know. She remembers verbatim what the teacher said in class three weeks ago, as they stammer their sentences and stare at the dirt trying to remember that one line that Snape said yesterday. Effective, believable, and works well within the dialogue.
If it works for one of the most successful authors on the planet, it works for this dummy.
-DB
Dumpster Fire 