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On Character Development: Casting Sessions



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Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:59 am
Dream Deep says...



Consider, for a moment, your characters. Now maybe you have entire notebooks dedicated to that one perfect protagonist... or maybe you have absolutely nothing on any of your main characters but are hoping to develop them further at some point... or maybe you've given them a distinct appearance but a prosaic manner of speech, or vice versa. Maybe your characters just aren't cooperating, ergo the sudden and extremely powerful urge to just annihilate them and start back from square one. It may be helpful, at this point - when the ink on the page is more in the form of scribbles and x's than in the form of lovely prose - to consider those characters as actors. Let's go back a pace, and see this through from the beginning.


The Cast


cast [kast, kahst] noun, theater. the group of performers to whom parts are assigned; players.

Your cast is the sum total of all of your actors/characters. You think "Okay, so what? Pick a few random people, throw them together on a stage, put some makeup on them and give them each a backstory and I've got a cast". Yes, you may have a cast in the dictionary definition of a 'cast', but do you have a cast that will actually work towards where you want them to end up? Do you have a cast that's flexible enough to allow change in the plot and believable enough to be halfway convincing for the reader? Your cast needs to have some chemistry, and that can't be forced by frustration and the pen. If your characters don't work well together, your action and dialogue will suffer for it. So bribe them, cajole them, send them chocolate or beg them, but bear in mind that the outcome you're looking for is that they are able to interact together and still maintain the flow of the narrative. If bribery, cajoling, chocolate and pleading don't work, it might be time to fire one of them and find yourself a new Character B.


Casting Sessions


"[A casting session] typically involves a series of auditions before a casting panel... In the early stages of the process, candidate performers often may present prepared audition pieces such as monologues... Later stages may involve groups of candidates attempting material from the work under consideration in various combinations; the casting panel considers both the talent of the individual actors and the chemistry of their combination." - Excerpted from Wikipedia

And while we're on the subject of characters as actors, you've just fired that annoying Character B - who, truth be told, didn't fit in with the protagonist at all, though she was supposed to be his adorable and adored live-in girlfriend. Let us say that she came across more as the aging, world-weary waitress with the platinum highlights and too much makeup. Not that your characterization was faulty, here, but perhaps you're looking in the wrong direction? So we're back to the drawing board again.

Again, we're going to look at our characters as actors. Maybe The Actress Formerly Known as Character B just wasn't a good Character B. But this certainly doesn't mean that all hope is lost. All we're going to have to do is recast for the part. Set the scene for yourself and write it down (that way you can refer back to your notes). Let's say there are, oh, say, seven different hopefuls for that time-honored and glorious part of 'Character B'. Write out the scene with you as the director: be rude to them, be kind to them, coach them on what to improve upon and send them towards the door or retain one or two for a second audition. Throw them into a random scene with one of your already firmly established characters and see if the two of them 'click'. Take notes on each performance. Have them read off the script. Have them improvise. Have them tell you about themselves a bit. Give them annoying habits that keep showing up during their readings and be sure to keep them all very distinct and unique. Remember that they're human - if they're missing a page of the script or if they humorously mangle a line, write it down.

This is wonderful character development practice not only because it lets you crystallize what you want to find in that elusive Character B, but because it gives you substantial practice and room to move with all of your candidates. Make them ridiculous. Make them memorable. Make them witty, sarcastic or as dry as the Gobi Desert, but I guarantee this - you're going to end up with one killer Character B. ^_~


Best of luck with it.
Last edited by Dream Deep on Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
  





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Thu Apr 12, 2007 2:53 am
Emerson says...



Despite this being an article, I'll still nit pick ^_^

through them together on a stage
threw

I liked your analogy of characters as actors, considering my idea-in-progress is about a group of actors :-)

Though, I was slightly confused on what it is you are exactly suggesting. Do I write scenes and drop in Character B to see if it fits? Are these scenes already created? Will this work if I don't have a story?

As you probably have heard, I'm struggling with writing right now ^_^ Who do I fix first? My characters, or my plot? What comes first? So I suppose I'm trying to do both, form characters and plot. But, without a plot, will this suggestion help me?

It was well written though. Bravo!
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Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:46 am
Sam says...



Ah, a grand analogy...it does make a lot of sense, though. Writing is hard, but it's a little easier when your characters work together.

Good article, DD!
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Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:12 am
Wiggy says...



Loved it, Dreamy! It was superbly written, and I loved the analogies you used. I think I may just use that!

Also, if you're having trouble with characters, try keeping a journal that you write as if you were them. In the first entry, I discovered Fineena (my main character) had a love that died tragically, which makes her feel guilty about loving Peter because she feels like she's betraying the dead Sean.

Ramblings aside, it helps. :D
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Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:55 am
Snoink says...



Hehehe, this is so funny because it is so true. Sometimes, you'll want a character that is a certain way but then the character just doesn't fit and you put it in the scrap pile. Or something. And then you use them in other ways...

But this is cool. It shows you how many ways there are to think about characters. Neato. :D
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Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:12 pm
Dream Deep says...



Wigs, Sam and Snoink: Hope it helps. ;) It felt like quite a lot of rambling when I wrote it. ... which brings me to Till's last point, confusion:


Claudette wrote:Though, I was slightly confused on what it is you are exactly suggesting. Do I write scenes and drop in Character B to see if it fits? Are these scenes already created? Will this work if I don't have a story?

As you probably have heard, I'm struggling with writing right now ^_^ Who do I fix first? My characters, or my plot? What comes first? So I suppose I'm trying to do both, form characters and plot. But, without a plot, will this suggestion help me?


Eeo - typo edited. ^_~ Thanks for catching that, Till.

... I think I'll PM you on all of the above, if you don't mind.
  





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Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:19 pm
Twit says...



Good points, Dreamy! It might take a bit of practice, but as you say, the characters have got to be good, or they won't work. Thanks for sharing this, I'll keep it all in mind. :)

-Shadow
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Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:10 pm
Goldenheart says...



Truly inspiring and incredibly helpful! It came at the perfect moment, too. My characters were giving me an excessively hard time. I'll try it. :)

Goldie
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Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:36 pm
Dream Deep says...



Goldie and Shadow: Heh, my pleasure. Thanks for taking the time to read it. I'm very glad that it might be of some use to you (and/or your characters). ^_^
  





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Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:23 pm
Cassandra says...



Great article, as always, DD. I'm definitely going to bookmark this page for future use: there's a character I'd love to try this out on. Thanks! :D
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Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:23 pm
Dream Deep says...



:D Glad it might help, Cass.
  





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Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:17 pm
Goldenheart says...



Oh my.

I tried it yesterday. Do you know what happened? I got carried away, and wrote six pages of auditions! Not only are auditions helpful, character-wise, they're loads of fun! Thanks, DD!

Goldie
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Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:48 pm
Dream Deep says...



Goldie wrote:Oh my.

I tried it yesterday. Do you know what happened? I got carried away, and wrote six pages of auditions! Not only are auditions helpful, character-wise, they're loads of fun! Thanks, DD!


Six pages? !_!

Heh, you've got more perseverance than I do. ^_~ And six more pages, obviously. I wasn't sure that this exercise would work very well for the sane and constructively occupied, but again, I'm so glad it helped you. And I still can't get over these six pages of auditions - I got to four before my psyche crashed and burned. ;)
  








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