How to Write Character-Driven Narratives

Old-fashioned pen and paper can often make you feel closer to your character than the working on the computer.

Great character-driven narratives make for compelling fiction. Consider, for example, Thomas Hardy's classic "Tess of the d'Urbervilles," J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" or the more contemporary "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden. These works are all propelled by a single central protagonist with whom the reader becomes enthralled. Crafting your own successful character-driven piece is challenging and requires imagination, discipline and a good deal of revision. Take on this task and you, too, may be rewarded with a faithful audience.

Instructions

1. Introduce your reader to your character in a compelling way. Grab your readers from the beginning by putting her in a creative setting and giving her dialogue. Use an entertaining beginning to compel people to keep reading.

2. Make the focal point of your narrative real to the audience by fully fleshing out her personality throughout the story with specific descriptions and incidents that reveal the inner workings of her mind and heart. Remember the character should not be simple. Readers enjoy reading about characters that are complicated in their natures. They can be frustrating, frightening, pitiable, soft-hearted, nervous or diabolical.

3. Depict a situation in which your character is in conflict. There are a few basic conflicts from which to choose. These include man vs. man, man vs. environment, man vs. self, and man vs. machine. Let your reader struggle with a character who must face challenges he may are may not overcome.

4. Build the tension in your character-driven narrative. The rising action in your work should be the major bulk of the story. Work out a plot that will keep your reader interested by making it both realistic and surprising.

5. Show more than you tell in your writing. Creating a "narrative" does not mean you have your hero telling the reader everything by saying such things as "I was a young girl living in San Diego." Instead, show your audience this young Californian by revealing what she does, how she speaks and the effect her environment has on her. Use active language and limit your use of the "to be" verbs such as "am," "is," "are," "was" and "were." You'll find much more interesting ways of depicting the action without them.

6. Add appropriate humor to your piece. Even narratives that deal with extremely serious subjects can benefit from humor injected at the right times. Real life is full of both pathos and humor and should be reflected as such in your writing. Your reader will thank you for the opportunity to release the tension built by the conflict with a funny moment.

Tips & Warnings

• Focus on what makes the person exceptional when writing about a nonfictional character.

• Revise your work. Let it sit for a short period of time to get some distance from it, and then approach it again with a fresh perspective.

References

• Empowering Writers: Narrative Writing Paper