When your polite, soft-spoken MC goes through a forty-chapter long ordeal that ends up killing her entire family and landing her into the hands of a psycho serial killer, what does she become?
Does she change?
If you or me would've been in her place, we wouldn't simply change; we would be be acting like freaking baboons on crack. We would be plotting a thousand ways to kill him, to escape the hell, to call the police, to contact the outside world in some way or simply die merry. None of those options include falling head-over-heels in love with him. (Which is sadly what happens in most books)
Why, you ask? Because in real life you cannot fall in love with a man who wiped out your family from the face of the earth and now holds you captive, just because a.) he looks handsome b.) he is insanely hot c.) he seduces you very well. Is that all that takes to make a man to be 'desirable' in a reader's eyes? When we are blaming men for objectifying women, we are unconsciously doing the same to men in literature. Well, overlooking that for a short while, even if by some slightest possibility you manage to fall for him(in your own perverted way), it definitely does not happen in a span of three short chapters and an epilogue where they are married and have cute kids.
So my little feminist potatoes, what did you learn from this?
Every character must have-
a.) A character development (negative or positive)
b.) A correct pace of character development
c.) Priority of a particular aspect of character development over the other
d.) A character beyond the wall of physical appearances.
Lets elaborate.
a.) A character development : What is character development? Its just a slight difference between the character that you read about in the first page of the book, as opposed to what he/she becomes when you turn the last page. It doesn't necessarily have to be hero-to-villain or villain-to-hero change. It can be a suicidal character that evolves into someone who loves life. Or a homeless person who has given up on love, finally finds someone who loves him/her. Yada Yada.
There are two kinds of character development- Negative & Positive
Negative character development: The name is pretty self-explanatory, but we'll still see a briefing about what it is.
Negative character development is when a character with mostly white shades and an overall 'good-character' vibe, turns bad. This can be influenced by anything from a troubled past to a haunting experience. Basically, it is the emergence of a comparative villain (and my favorite kind of character development). You can also see it as a-person-who-loves-life-turns-into-an-addict or a-feisty-girl-turns-sheepish or the likes of these.
Positive character development: The opposite of negative. Duh ;)
When a bad guy turns into a good guy, it is positive character development. Or you can interpret it in your own way by giving the considerably grey character a few more shades of white along with a few redeeming qualities. Again, it doesn't necessarily have to be villain-turns-hero thing. It can be regarding any bad-to-good change.
b.) The correct pace of character development: If a character turns from Batman to Joker in a span of four chapters, will it be believable? No. And the most important talent of an author is to make you believe in what he/she is writing. He/she may be writing about dancing monkeys in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, but if the author can make you believe it, only then he/she is worthy of being called an author. So its important that you know what is the correct pace of a character's journey. Remember, the more drastic the change, the more time it will take. It is advisable to spread out character development over a considerable amount of chapters to make it believable.
c.) Priority of a particular aspect of character development over the other: Picture this-
A guy and a girl meet for the first time during a zombie apocalypse. Their families have been eaten by the zombies and only a handful of survivors remain healthy and human on earth. Or are there more? Maybe in some corner of the world, there is a person who is healthy and has survived, but now there is no way one can find those people.
Most of the rescued survivors are now kept in NASA's security premises. NASA is readying its biggest project ever- a space shuttle to evacuate the remaining part of healthy humanity to another planet. But there is one trouble- the shuttle is about to take off in five days. NASA cannot risk keeping the rest of humanity on earth for long- the defense of a handful humans against billions of the undead is next to impossible.
Our protagonists have only five days to fight their way through hungry zombies, rescue any survivors they find on the way, and make it to NASA- all within five days- which if they fail to do, they'll be left alone on earth with hungry zombies, and waiting for their imminent death.
Excited eh?
Now picture this: The author decides to change it a bit. He/she has just read The Fault In Our Stars and is still under its 'book hangover'. So he/she thinks, 'eh, why shouldn't the guy not fall in love with the girl first and deal with this stuff later? That would have a sad ending like TFIOS and would make people realize that love wins over death. *gasp* I am a genius.' He/she changes the blurb to-
A guy and a girl have five days to fall in love before they get eaten by zombies.
*facepalm*
If the author wants to make another TFINOS, I bet no one will cry (they would rather bang their head on the wall) because in the book, Gus and Hazel were separated by cancer; something they had no control over. Whereas in this book, the lovers are separated because of a lack of common sense- something they should have in order to be written a story about.
Compare the two scenarios and you would get exactly what I'm trying to say-
Don't make your character do something illogical in the name of character development just because you are brutally single and want a one-and-half legged boyfriend (or a lung-cancer patient, in case you swing that way) - or simply because you want to make it cater to a particular audience. Remember, stories are not made keeping audiences in mind. The audiences should keep the story in mind when they read it.
Prioritize your character's development.
d.) A character beyond the wall of physical appearances:
What is your favorite book character your favorite in the first place?
Because he/she appears like a real person to you. No matter what kind of character he/she is, the reality is what makes you love him/her.
And real people are not just people with a chiseled face and sculpted body.
Do you like that character just because he/she is good-looking, or because of something that lies within? Think about it. Every character has its ups and downs, but a face remains constant. So basically, if you have a character whose most prominent trait is that he/she is good-looking, then there are no possible character developments you can surprise the readers with (except messing up his/her face or enhancing it with plastic surgery- which are the only two possibilities. What an awesome character development that would be, wouldn't it? Tsk tsk.)
____
All these points are what make a character memorable. These characters etch into the reader's mind and grow beyond the pages of the story. They stay with you even after you turn the last page and let out a satisfied sigh.
If these helped, then please hit that pretty little star so that more people can benefit from it. Leave a comment if you have a query and we'll get back to you.
Have a great day :)
~Feminist_Ideologies
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Pointers for Story Lines
RandomA guide to writing a book that you would want to read.
