![まろ's writing classroom: Lesson 3 [Preparation homework] Character setting (Part 2)](https://og.vista.tw/s-writing-classroom-lesson-3-preparation-1.png)
まろ's writing classroom: Lesson 3 [Preparation homework] Character setting (Part 2)
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The author of this article まろ is the author of the light novel “Southern Cross”. He hopes to use his own experience to help more friends write good stories. Thank you for authorizing the “Content Hacker” website to reprint it. Thank you hereby.
The characters are emotionally driven by the premise, and the psychological factors inside and outside make the characters more real.
Recently, netizens have been asking me about “how to write good novels”. Therefore, I organized my experience in writing light novels into 34 themes, divided into three stages: [Preparation Assignment], [Plot Process] and [Writing Management].
Whether you want to write a novel, a biography, or a business history, these articles can help. No matter what your writing level is, I will help you complete a piece of work in the two stages of [preparation] and [plot flow], so let’s get started!
Besides the protagonist, what other characters are there?
If you talk about supporting roles, it’s not wrong, but it’s not complete enough. After we have finished reading the previous article [Character Individual] (click to read), now let’s move on to the [Character Interaction] part. Here, we use Ａ‧Ｊ‧Greimas’s “Behavior Pattern” theory and take “Slam Dunk” as an example:
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](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnPpDBDqMwcaf-NQne2hDM MxK7Wdvi85aPpAzsztT4stNgPI6AWMuJ1zAg11q0w6WKCmYdOcLwM6MhSnQBLtUhQfihLQr0z00DVTiAmtAo gYPHkcdta4zP5tXdSP3b7v8cO1GIcIRR4Vet/s1600/%25E8%25A1%258C%25E7%2582%25BA%25E6%25A8% 25A1%25E5%25BC%258F-%25E7%2581%258C%25E7%25B1%2583%25E9%25AB%2598%25E6%2589%258B.png)
In a long story, there are usually six types of roles: protagonist, provider, object, antagonist, helper and recipient. As seen above, Haruko is both a provider and a helper, and the rival school is sometimes a helper. So to be precise, the same character can play different types of roles, as long as you can make sense of it.
In the course of our lives, we will also meet some people who are both enemies and friends, so there is no need to limit your character to a specific role position. The key point is to show the various relationships and emotions in the process of completing the mission, whether the hero cherishes the hero or does not hesitate to die together.
In my work “Southern Cross”, Ayuha, who is an enemy, once said the dialogue “You should cherish Xiaoqian (Yizhi) more”. This kind of desire to transcend the enemy and ourselves and only hope that the other person can be happy is the most precious friendship. Wow ~ this is youth! (tears)
As mentioned earlier, in the field of character drawing, there is a gold standard for making the character completely black and still being recognizable. In the interaction between characters, the same standard is that the names of the characters in the dialogue must be removed, and it must be clear who is talking to whom.
This means that you need to explicitly establish your character’s idioms based on their personality. It may include positions, titles, nicknames, particles, dialects, professional terms, secret codes, slips of the tongue and even unique grammatical structures. It may seem difficult, but in fact you do it every day. Think about it, you have different ways of dealing with family, friends, colleagues, close friends, opponents, haters or bosses.
These quirks and catchphrases in interactions will make your character more realistic. For example, in “Southern Cross”, Yizhi will only say “you pig head” to Tetsu Sahara. She has never used the word “pig head” to other characters. To a certain extent, it is the secret language and bond between the two of them. And when Yizhi loses control of his emotions, he will go berserk, lose his temper, and even disappear from the world (more than once). This made Tetsu Sahara say to her helplessly and dissatisfied: “Seriously, can you get rid of your bad habit of always leaving without saying goodbye?”
Each character should have special friendships, bonds, grievances, and maybe secrets between them. You have to show it in the dialogue, or in the interaction that the narrator sees. Let’s take a look at how Yizhi uses dialogue to express emotions to other characters:
“Ah, what’s the problem? I can say it again. You are so stupid…”
(To Tetsu Sahara)
“You are always so kind to me, what can I do to repay you?” Do you know that this feeling of guilt is so overwhelming that I can hardly bear it anymore…”
(To Ryuzenji Hikari)
“The value of a girl is not only the appearance, but also the heart. I am not like a girl at all. I am clumsy and rough, and I know nothing about housekeeping. I am jealous of girls like Yuba, who is like a modern version of Yamato Nadeshiko.”
(To Kamiya Ayuha)
“I don’t know why, but the perverts who come to me are pretty stubborn.”
(To Officer Dong Kexiu)
”…Why does A Guang, a gentle person like him, have a sister like you? No wonder he wants to run away.”
(To Ryuzenji Ryuki)
As you can see, the same character Amakusa Yoshio has different ways of interacting with other characters. You don’t necessarily need to build a character relationship diagram right away. We will talk about chronology and relationship diagrams in the last lesson [Inspiration for New Works]. I suggest you first create a title table for your character, including unique self-titles:
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](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFxhRcVlfUDm4lJug 8DLLIJ6hbncrSULc-7i7ZAvlcgpqJ8u-Rj2zDgxwdIGmnQfb2dYu7iNfpgjRPm5A7f3m5C3CEnN1qi-f 4IUc1yHVhOZo_n93VimJ8qLvHNdRKlCk5CLvg8jd6scr/s1600/%25E5%2583%2585%25E6%25AD%25A 4%25E5%2594%25AF%25E4%25B8%2580%25E7%25A8%25B1%25E8%25AC%2582%25E8%25A1%25A8.png)
After completing the two important foundations of [Character Individual] and [Character Interaction], we come to the end of this class: how to make characters trigger events. This is a very important subject and relies heavily on the author’s observation skills. As a key stage connecting [Lesson 2: Establishing Premise] and [Lesson 4: Creating Conflict], please be patient and think over and over again. What reason does your character have to be involved in the incident? If the same incident happened to you, would you be involved?
From now on, we are going to visualize the [Establishing Premise] from the previous lesson!
Remember in the last class, we talked about a boy who dressed up as King Kong Barbie in order to help his childhood sweetheart girl fend off her stalkers? If this happened to you, when you asked her why she was dressing up as a woman, would she answer this way?
“Why are you asking so many questions, you damn servant? My word, Queen, is my decree!”
I think probably not, unless they are childhood sweethearts with a special connection. This example tells us the rationality of interacting according to relationships. In the real world, there are boundaries such as propriety and overstepping the rules. According to the personality differences between characters, the most reasonable interaction method is set. Of course, there will also be characters who take pleasure in challenging others’ limits.
So we use the commonly understood childhood sweethearts to write the reasons given by the girl, for example:
“Why are you dressing up as a girl? Do you think I’m someone who can get a boyfriend? Of course it would be more convincing to bring a girl with me!”
This is of course a certain degree of distortion, but we usually have a higher tolerance for childhood sweethearts or close friends. Judging from the girl’s tone, she is the stronger of the two, so the boy should accept it. And we left a foreshadowing: this boy may be the girl’s closest friend of the opposite sex. The problem is just how to break through the dilemma of “more than friends, not enough lovers”. The accumulation of various reasons and opinions may not seem as good as establishing a great premise, but it can be said to be an indispensable spice and explosive point in the story. This of course depends on daily observation of the crowd and the accumulated number of plays you have watched. Among the various drama mediums, I recommend comics, movies, and TV series (not TV series). The main reason for recommending comics is that you can decide the reading speed yourself, unlike animations that are limited by the timeline. Movies and albums must express a complete story in a shorter period of time, and the intensity and content of the event are usually higher.
Also, collections of short stories or chapter stories may be particularly suitable. For example, I personally like the cartoonist Ayuko (あゆこ) A collection of short stories, as well as the incredibly funny “Gintama” (ぎんたま). By the way, I would like to recommend my masterpiece [“Knotting, Not Untying” (むすんでひらいて)](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%93%E7%B5%90%E4%B8%8D%E6%89%93%E8% A7%A3), there are also many reasons for triggering feelings. Generally speaking, they include: being late for school and bumping into the senior sister who is cleaning, childhood sweethearts who have been cared for since childhood, supporting each other in moving forward on the road of cartoonists, unexpectedly opening the door to each other’s heart during the process of being abused, not being able to bear the unrequited love of the other person and starting to care, and accidentally getting to know each other after being broken into.
In short, if there is interaction and conflict, there will be opportunities.
You can also refer to character profiles to learn more about the thoughts of famous figures. Celebrities who can appear in character magazines are usually temporary choices. From the perspective of our drama, they are in conflict with the world. At this time, we can refer to Satir’s “Iceberg Theory”. (This diagram combines Jung’s teachings with my personal insights, simplifying the original iceberg theory)
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These two icebergs will accompany us through the next two lessons [Lesson 4: Creating Conflict] and [Lesson 5: Elements and World View]. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand it now. The point is that underneath the apparent personality is the result of the accumulation of layers of the past. We can follow this model to explore and construct your character’s past.
If you are an observant person and what you need most now is a way to organize materials (personality, events, interests, etc.), I would recommend you to use Mind Map. Don’t worry if you haven’t used it before, it won’t affect our course. But if you can learn to associate and integrate concepts, it will be very helpful for your creative journey. We will talk about mind maps in the last lesson [Inspiration for New Works].
Now that I’ve finished talking about the main topic, let me be a little more verbose. As I mentioned at the beginning of this lesson, my friends usually start with a beautiful girl or a handsome man when setting up their characters. I don’t want to directly deny this view, but you can look at other industries, such as how many singers are there in the recording industry? How long is the shelf life of so-called otaku goddesses or fresh meat? How many Internet celebrities have disappeared silently?
Okay, I know you may be lucky enough to get a big sum, which may at least be worth the salary of an average office worker for several years. But when you are about to gamble with yourself, please think twice. If the characters and stories you create cannot create deep emotions with readers, they will sooner or later be replaced by new, cheaper creators, especially in this era when learning and creation costs are relatively low. I don’t recommend that you directly use the “character type” method to set your character. It can be used as a reference at most, otherwise your character may fall into the appearance of the public version. But I will provide you with relevant information in the extended reading. If it is too painful to get stuck, just use it.
We may not necessarily be able to be like [Studio Ghibli (スタジオジブリ)](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%90%89%E5%8D%9C%E5%8A%9B%E5%B7 %A5%E4%BD%9C%E5%AE%A4), you can create excellent works like “My Neighbor Totoro” or “The Hidden Girl”, but if you really want to make creation a lifelong career, the suffering you suffer now will become your advantage in the future, as long as you don’t give up.
In the next lesson, we will use psychology as the main discussion and talk about the conflicts caused by character interaction. Although the setting of King Kong Barbie is really interesting, it is difficult to meet the content of our course. We also have to consider the examples needed for corporate history. Therefore, we will create a new character - a ramen shop manager who wants to revive his old shop, his sailor friends, and the story of the legendary cold cabbage from the far east. (laughing)
Please prepare your story premise and character settings after class so that you can enter the “Creating Conflict” unit! If you have any thoughts and suggestions about this article, please feel free to write to maro.huang@hukaka.com and I will reply to you personally. See you next time in [Lesson 4: Creating Conflict (Part 1) - Behavior Patterns]! (Click to read)
If you are interested, here is further reading for this class:
*Van Gennep’s “Rites of Passage” Theory
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“The Secret of Story” (my personal five-star recommendation)
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“The Psychology of Screenwriters: Constructing Conflict in Scripts”
Further reading
- Misaki’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 4 [Preparation Homework] Creating Conflict (Part 2)
- まろ’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 4 [Preparation Homework] Creating Conflict (Part 1)
- まろ’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 5 [Preparation Assignment] Elements and World View (Part 1)
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