Character and Conflict

An important factor in character development for me is voice. How a person speaks, and interacts with other people tells us a lot about their values and sadly, their social background. For instance, Arnold Friend sprung up as a threat in my mind when I saw how he talked to Connie condescendingly in ‘Where are you going?’. Using terms like ‘baby’ a lot, especially to women/girls, infantilises them and sounds patronising; creating a false feeling of intimacy. He was a hideous character, but so very well written.

Another good technique for character development is detail. For instance, in ‘Silver Water’, Amy Bloom writes that ‘all the patients wore slippers with the hospital crest on them’, and I know exactly how miserable it is, where all the patients just mesh into one. This is not specifically applied to a character, but the repetition of the slippers is like a symbol for the dullness of the place, and we realise it’s not good for the colourful Rose in the eyes of her loving sister. In this we also learn that Violet feels like an observer in the family, in which Rose is ‘the favourite’, but she doesn’t object to it.

It is very fitting when conflict come from character, for instance in ‘Bullet in the Brain’. The downfall of Anders is his smart mouth. He can’t stop being a critic to the very end. This technique probably works the best in short stories, where you don’t want to get too caught up in different struggles. Also, it gives the story some kind of moralistic purpose, we can look at the protagonist’s defeats in light of our own. Actually I find writing character a lot easier than making up conflict, so I look forward to how I can advance my plots and make them more interesting.