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Fictional Narrative Basics - Character
Unit Completion Date: End of Week 5
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Rule number one about fictional characters (which is not always true of real people) is that there must be at least one thing compelling or intriguing about the character that is apparent from the story's start. The reader doesn't have to like the character, and in fact a lot of the characters we will talk about in this class would not, if real people, be folks you'd want at a dinner party.
Think of the main characters of some of the stories in What if?. Raymond Carver's main character from "Cathedral" springs to mind as an unlikable character. Neil Bauer in "Five Points" is in many ways less than admirable. The delightfully nasty old man in Under the Roof. Look back at the story beginnings posted by your classmates from the stories in Best American. Notice how many have characters that catch your attention right off. In cases where they don't look at what else the writer had to substitute for the missing character hook.
Characters, in addition to grabbing and focusing our attention, drive stories forward with their desires. Almost without exception, fictional characters want something, and in most cases want it badly. The samplings from the Best American stories on character provided by your fellow students in the class craftbook illustrate this point. As a writer working on first draft material, the question to keep in mind about a character is "What does he or she want?" It's not really even necessary to know why a character wants something. If you write far enough into a story, the character will usually tell you why as a matter of course.
Read Exercise 22 in What If?, "What do your characters want?" You should be able to complete this exercise for the story you're developing to submit for the class workshop. This assignment will not be posted to the course site but should be placed in the "Character" section of your craftbook.
Character Exercise 1 (Opt.) - Submit Response
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