Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I Inventing Characters 4
Chapter 1 What is a Character? 5
A Character Is What He Does
Motive
The Past
Reputation
Stereotypes
Network
Habits and Patterns
Talents and Abilities
Tastes and Preferences
Body
Chapter 2 What Makes a Good Fictional Character? 19
The Three Questions Readers Ask
You Are the First Audience
Interrogating the Character
From Character to Story, From Story to Character
Chapter 3 Where Do Characters Come From? 32
Ideas From Life
Ideas From the Story
Servants of the Idea
Serendipity
Chapter 4 Making Decisions 54
Names
Keeping a Bible
Part II Constructing Characters 61
Chapter 5 What Kind of Story Are You Telling? 62
The "Mice" Quotient
Milieu
Idea
Character
Event
The Contract With the Reader
Chapter 6 The Hierarchy 76
Walk-Ons and Placeholders
Minor Characters
Major Characters
Chapter 7 How to Raise the Emotional Stakes 87
Suffering
Sacrifice
Jeopardy
Sexual Tension
Signs and Portents
Chapter 8 What Should We Feel About the Character? 96
First Impressions
Characters We Love
Characters We Hate
Chapter 9 The Hero and the Common Man 120
Chapter 10 The Comic Character: Controlled Disbelief 129
Doing a "Take"
Exaggeration
Downplaying
Oddness
Chapter 11 The Serious Character: Make Us Believe 137
Elaboration of Motive
Attitude
The Remembered Past
The Implied Past
Justification
Chapter 12 Transformations 156
Why People Change
Justifying Changes
Part III Performing Characters 163
Chapter 13 Voices 164
Person
Tense
Chapter 14 Presentation Vs. Representation 174
Chapter 15 Dramatic Vs. Narrative 182
Chapter 16 First-Person Narrative 186
Which Person Is First?
No Fourth Wall
Unreliable Narrators
Distance in Time
Withholding Information
Lapses
Chapter 17 Third Person 202
Omniscient Vs. Limited Point of View
Making Up Your Mind
Levels of Penetration
Chapter 18 A Private Population Explosion 226
Index 228
