Month: April 2023

“These characters who are not fundamentally good should also be rendered with multiple facets. Bad guys aren’t bad every single second of the day. Sometimes, they’re just hanging out eating their take-out Chinese food, or waiting in line with their car at the carwash, or even doing something kindly, like helping an old lady pick up apples that have fallen from her grocery bag” (Gorham’s Writing Fiction)

Not 100% sure how I’m supposed to analyze my sources since most of them are not countering or forwarding specific topics but more so provide guidance for writing or are actual short stories. Gorham Writing Fiction takes a different approach to creating and developing characters. Most guidance books tend to teach you about focusing on a sole character’s key traits, which is super important, but Gorham wants you to take a pros and cons approach. In order to create a strong character, you need consistency. Unlike Gorham, I suggest that you start with the key traits of the character first. Focus on the overall character traits, keep your character consistent throughout the story. Making a rough draft first and putting your character in key scenarios to see how they would deal with the issue or setting. Once you have your character developed, you need to figure out whether they are a main character or a side character. After that decision has been made, then you can introduce the technique from Gorham’s Writing Fiction. You also need to ensure that those traits are introduced in a timely manner, and they align to what they normally stand for. They shouldn’t be so out of pocket, so when you introduce new character traits like helping an old lady pick up apples for a bad guy character, you need to make sure that he still holds a grudge about it. Or at least ensure that the soft essence has an explanation as it would be a sharp contrast to his overall harsh demeanor.