Hello
all! I'm so sorry for my lack of updating! There were computer
issues and then there were life issues. At the end of August school started and
has been a lot of work this year, but at least I get to go to the zoo
everyday:)I'm going to try to start updating more regularly again. Things are starting to calm down and I'm beginning to have a little more free time than I'm used to.
Picture of the Playbill |
Going on to the Character Depth
part, I think that characters need depth. Yup, that's it. I'm sick
and tired of all of these flat characters. I mean, authors give the
characters faults and quirks but I still don't think that is enough. I
love reading books where I think that I know each and every one of the
characters. People have pasts, people have wants and desires and strange
ways of thinking things through. People change sides, they make mistakes,
they do stupid things to hurt themselves. And those all have thoughts and
decisions behind them. Too often do I read characters that are just
overblown stereotypes that do things for no apparent reason. I'll
admit it too that I have also written out characters that don't make much sense
when I read back through my writings. I like to think that I am becoming
better at adding depth, but I know I still have a long way to go.
Relating back into the world of YA, defending your work by the pathetic excuse of "Well they're hormonal teenagers" is not acceptable. I've read that excuse a few times before because of a random kiss or a random debate. I can tell you for a fact that the excuse of being a hormonal teenager doesn't work for parents, teacher or any adults in the real world, why should it be an excuse for a fictional world? It's not. We teenagers are great strategist, well at least the ones I know. We plan our outbursts, our date invitations, our kisses, our sex, our actions in general. Occasionally we'll have a slip, especially after one of our plans blow up in our face and leaves us with an unsavory aftermath. But in general we're pretty controlled group with a few outliers that mess up our image for everyone... (Sorry, homecoming was last Saturday and my distaste for my peers has only elevated, because I do NOT need to see that!)
Relating back into the world of YA, defending your work by the pathetic excuse of "Well they're hormonal teenagers" is not acceptable. I've read that excuse a few times before because of a random kiss or a random debate. I can tell you for a fact that the excuse of being a hormonal teenager doesn't work for parents, teacher or any adults in the real world, why should it be an excuse for a fictional world? It's not. We teenagers are great strategist, well at least the ones I know. We plan our outbursts, our date invitations, our kisses, our sex, our actions in general. Occasionally we'll have a slip, especially after one of our plans blow up in our face and leaves us with an unsavory aftermath. But in general we're pretty controlled group with a few outliers that mess up our image for everyone... (Sorry, homecoming was last Saturday and my distaste for my peers has only elevated, because I do NOT need to see that!)
It's a deep picture... I just thought that we needed another picture for this post |
I do believe that is all I have got to say on this. Do any of you have any ways that your able to create Character Depth? Do you have any good examples of this? What are your opinions? I'd sure love to hear them!
Nice post. Character depth makes a story for me, and a lot of books leave that out in their rush to have an action-packed plot. (Forgetting that action is a result of character reaction...the two are inextricable.) I think one of the keys to great characters is complexity -- not letting any character be all bad or all good.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think that you're correct with the all good or all bad, it makes the writing seem amateur-ish. Action-packed plots seem to take over a lot of novels, at least the books that I have read, and they just seem too rushes. Also, the depth makes the books for me too!
DeleteYou're making me really sorry that I missed B&B when it was hear a while ago.
ReplyDeleteYes, character depth is so important, and it's equally important for all the major characters (and arguably for the minor characters), no matter what the plot is. At least in my opinion.
I'm sorry! It was amazing, hopefully you'll be able to catch it when it goes around again in the future!
DeleteI agree completely with your opinion. I love when minor characters have almost the same amount of character depth as the main characters. Thank you for your comment!