Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
Today I want to talk a little about the craft of fiction writing, and a principle I learned back when I used to write and read screenplays.
In real life, it’s not what a person says that shows us who they are. It’s what they do. The content of a person’s character is revealed in action and behavior. Who a person says they are, or thinks they are, doesn’t necessarily reflect their true character.
In screenwriting, the challenge is to show a character in action, and have their actions reveal to the audience what kind of person they are—what’s important to them, what they want, what they love, and what they hate. You don’t want characters telling each other (and the audience) who they are. We have to see it.
Likewise, novelists need to allow their characters to show us who they are through their actions and behavior, rather than “tell” us who they are through narrative. You’ve heard, “show, don’t tell” many times (although telling is appropriate sometimes). But you may not have realized that one of the reasons showing works so much better than telling is because people’s words can lie, but their actions tell us the truth of who they are. (Click to Tweet this.)
One of the most interesting things to observe in people is how their self-image contradicts the image others have of them. A person might think of themselves as frugal, for example, but a look at their credit card statement reveals the truth. Almost all powerful characters can be described as hypocrites to some extent, because few are so self-aware that they understand all their own flaws and foibles.
So one of the most fun things we can do as storytellers is to show a how a character thinks or talks about themselves as one way, but their actions reveal them to be another way. When you decide to have a character “tell” about themselves either in narrative or in dialogue, it’s interesting if we can see where their telling contradicts what we know about them from their actions. This is a great way to reveal character and keep the audience engaged at the same time.
Action is character. Let your characters show themselves through what they do. (Click to Tweet this.) Let their words contradict their behavior whenever possible to reveal even deeper character.
Can you think of some favorite literary or film protagonists and how their actions revealed their character? How are you doing this in your novel?
Real life or fictional: By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? (Matthew 7:16)
*O Lord, my the gifts you have planted in the writers who meet here bear good fruit. No thornbushes, no thistles! Amen.
Amen…
Rachelle, great reminder. I am going to go back over my WIP and see if I am showing enough. Thanks.
Great post, Rachelle. As a person who tends to take life at face value, bringing out contradictions in my characters is something I need to work on. I hadn’t thought about this much before.
*I’m reading, “The Wonder of You,” by Susan May Warren right ow, and one thing she does is shows how her heroine’s fear because of an event has changed her perspective. She’s now afraid to find an adventure because of something that happened when she traveled. She’s telling her friends that she’s a home-town girl with no urge to travel, but her friends know her better and are reminding her. This has shown some internal conflict for her as well, which has been fun to read.
*I’m going to be looking for more examples; maybe that will help me see how to better implement this in my stories. 🙂
Wow, this post immediately started me thinking of ways to reevaluate the protagonist in each chapter of my YA. At the beginning, the MC uses internal thoughts and dialog to let readers know she has anger issues with God concerning past events. She also feels unworthy of His love. Although self doubt continues even after God uses the protagonist in a mighty way, her actions do begin contradicting what she thinks of herself.
*By looking at this story in another light, I’ll make sure those actions are as obvious to the reader as her spoken words.
I’m working to be better at this. Using action verbs really helps, too. One scene that I pondered for a long time was in Pride and Prejudice, the movie version. I haven’t read the book. But Elizabeth is leaving and Mr. Darcy takes her hand, helping her into the carriage (barouche?) … when he walks away, the camera focuses in on his hand … he flexes his fingers and then pulls them back in. Why did the camera focus on his hand? And why did they show you that Elizabeth saw his hand? Because he loved her. He touched her. And he liked the feeling of her hand. And maybe he didn’t wash his hand for days. 🙂 Though he never once said it at that point. And that reminds me of Ed Sheeran’s song that I LOVE, “Thinking Out Loud” … the lyrics: People fall in love in mysterious ways maybe just the touch of a hand …
I LOVE that!! The hand as an indicator of his true feelings?? I’ve always noticed that.
And the parallels with Mistah Collins and boiled potatoes? Bland, dull and hopeless.
Yes … the potatoes … just a filler. 🙂 I crack up at the scene where Elizabeth denies Mr. Collins, and her mother runs after her, screaming, “Lizzie ….” (You hear it, you know you do!) And that piddle flower he gave her … half wilted … really? 🙂 Which revealed his lack of love for her. I mean, the flower could have been sweet if it had some sentimental value … but, no. 😉
Love it!
In the updated movie version of Pride and Prejudice, “Bridget Jones’ Diary”, one is introduced to the Carcy character (played by Colin Firth) when he arrives at his parents’ Christmas party wearing a perfectly dreadful Christmas sweater gifted by his mum.
* It says a lot about the charter…of which some is contradictory. Is he loyal, or is he tied to the proverbial apron strings? The remainder of the scene doesn’t clarify things, but it’s set up a tension in which we don’t know to root for Darcy…or for the caddish Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), for whom redemption seems to be possible.
* For character studies, it’s a really remarkable film, and well-worth the viewing.
Darcy, not Carcy.
Good to see you here, Andrew. I get concerned when you don’t post before 8.
Thank you, Carol. Not doing too well, and Barb has the flu.
OOooh you should read it! I read Pride and Prejudice every year it is that good. I’ve never gotten through Jane Austen’s other books but this one is just so fabulous. I love that moment in the movie too, very telling…or showing rather.
I agree that everyone should read P and P at least once. I’ve read all of Austen’s books several times. Emma is very funny.
I’ve got at least two copies of P & P … but haven’t read it. And I love the movie Emma … 🙂
Excellent and timely advice!
As an high school educator and a parent, one of the quotes I hear a lot is from Jim Henson. “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” This applies to readers and characters too. You can’t tell the reader that your character is brave, you have to show them being brave. I think it’s fun to use a juxtaposition of what the character thinks about themselves and how they really are, but to do that you have to be aware that the reader know the character by their actions.
You’ve hit the nail on its head, the human disconnect between thought and action, a form of self-deception. As a speaker, I often like to shine light on this by saying we need the mirror of God to reveal our ‘stuff,’ our inner self, what is there and hidden from view. We have a hard time seeing it on our own. I like how you describe the way character development works in story writing, and how ‘showing’ is revealing of the underlying truth. I’ve never tried to write fiction but this will be helpful when I do.
I’m watching Billions on Showtime, and the two lead characters present themselves one way with their words, but their actions are all about egotism, testosterone, and indifference to others, including those who love them. Last week Axe, the Wall Street billion that the DA is trying to take down, belts a neighbor for driving drunk with Axe’s two boys in the car. Why did Axe hit him? Because Axe couldn’t hit the DA, his nemesis. But Axe said he was sticking up for his family. (So manly!)
Ha ha! Those feelings trickle down. 🙂
Janet, could Axe’s action, in punching out his neighbour, be an effort on the makers’ part fo introduce a genuinely ‘good’ aspect to his character, the desire to protect his children (or at least ensure that they aren’t put in that kind of jeopardy again?
In the opening scene of “The Caine Mutiny”, Willie Kieth is introduced literally teetering on a high ledge.
* The backstory is that he is in a WW2 officer training programme housed at Columbia University, and in disassembling his training rifle has allowed the mainspring to escape his grip, and depart via an open window…to fetch up on said ledge.
* What it shows is that Willie has a sort of courage; he knows that he will likely wash out of the programme if his error is caught (and how would he explain it?) and he sees a vision of himself shipping off to Europe wearing Army green, as a private, rather than enjoying what he fancies as the relatively opulent life of a naval officer.
* His courage is therefore initially in his self interest; but such is Wouk’s genius that this spoiled Princetonian becomes, by the end of the tale, a man worthy of respect. The seed of approbation is planted in the reader’s heart, and the flowering comes in due time (about 400 pages worth).
I am trying to balance showing, for clarity, and telling, to bring out the depth of contradictions and suffering in my characters. Showing is good, but sometimes telling adds even more to the story. I think it’s working in what I’m doing, but I’m constantly tweaking to get the balance right.
Thanks for a helpful post.
Here is a real life example, sad but true: A person repeatedly told me, “I am a Christian,” but her actions and attitude said otherwise.
That awful reality drove me away from being a Christian for so long, and even when I finally got around it, I would interact with other Christians like we were both hypocrites, waiting for them to finally so their true colour.