The Writer as Actor
by Joyce Becker Lee
One of the most difficult aspects of writing is creating rounded characters who seem real. How do you infuse your characters – and your story – with warmth and believability? You must crawl into your character’s skin. You must become an actor.
Actors start developing a character by asking three questions:
Who is this character?
What does he want?
What is he willing to do to get it?
Once you know the basics you can begin fine-tuning. There are many schools of thought in character-building for actors, but all rely in some way on exploring the actor’s personal memories and emotions (called “affective memory”) and infusing them into the character. As a writer, you can incorporate these techniques into your writing to create stronger characters.
Working from the outside in
Perhaps the most famous of acting techniques is that of using sensory recall to remember your own physical reactions to a situation. Actors keep diaries of their life experiences, noting events, along with sense cues and physical reactions. They use these notes to remind them of how they felt to help build a character’s reactions to similar events. You can use this technique as well.
Say, for example, your character is faced with a terrifying experience. How do you convey your character’s fears without saying “John was terrified”? Recall a time you were frightened. Step back into that time and place and focus on each sense separately. Take the time to build your memory, sense by sense. Sight: was it bright or dark? Were you surrounded by buildings or trees? Smell: Did the air reek of jasmine or factory slag? Hearing: Did you hear birds or ship horns? Taste: Did bile or an acrid taste arise in your mouth? Touch: Did your legs shake? Did you break out in a rash? Relive that moment. Now transfer those physical reactions to your character and write the scene. Whether you use elaborate description or just a terse line or two, when you feel it, you can write it.
Working from the inside out
What made your character who he is? Just like writers, actors must create reality from nothing, developing full, rich, imaginary lives for their roles. To do that, they invent a backstory: life events of the character that the audience will never see. We are the products of everything that ever happened to us, and the more you know about a character, the more believable he becomes. Each actor who plays the role of Willy Loman creates an unseen life for Willy, drawing some hints from the play, but inventing many others. Each actor’s backstory will be different and will inform how he physically presents his character, making each actor’s Willy Loman different. A backstory will enhance and round out your written characters as well.
Start with what you have already planned: your character’s goal and conflicts to be met and overcome. Then, as you flesh out the story, imagine various life events that happened before the start and how those events affected your character. Start with simple questions: Where was your character born? Where did he grow up? Then let your imagination run free with possible life events. Were his parents loving or physically and emotionally abusive? Did a favorite cousin die in a boating accident that was your character’s fault? Is there a family history of Alzheimer’s? Did he get lost in the city at age seven and find his own way home? Create imaginary events, both pleasant and traumatic, to help you understand your character’s strengths and fears, which will in turn affect how he reacts to other situations. Knowing what is going on inside his head will help you flesh out his interior life and add those realistic little bits of description – the tics, flicks, and fleeting expressions – that create a whole person. Someone who saw a beloved grandfather struck by lightning will react to storms differently from one whose grandfather taught him to dance in the rain.
Physical objects from our past are often powerful stimulants for emotions. Develop your own “grab bag” of tactile objects – photographs, mementoes, even foods – that have a distinct connection with your character’s past. Let’s say his mother had to pawn her beloved china elephant collection to feed the family but saved one for him. Now every time he looks at that elephant, it elicits some powerful emotions. Give your characters their own “elephants,” whether presented in the story or not, and connect your own emotions to them. The result will be a more authentic character.
Create your character’s inner world
Get to know your character’s likes, dislikes, habits, hobbies. What’s in his pocket? A photo of Mom or a long-dead pet gerbil? A recipe for creampuffs or a shiv? A safe driver card or a vial of cocaine? Consider how those items are part of your character’s life. What physical anomalies does your character have? A war injury? A weak heart? Poor eyesight? How does each affect his daily interactions?
One more connection
Finally, further your connection with your character the way actors do. Ask yourself not “What would the character do or feel in this situation,” but “What would I do or feel if I were the character in this situation?” By doing this, you can more completely step inside your character, becoming better able to breathe your life – your reality – onto the page.
Writing should follow the same creative process as acting. Both arts create a personal world to share with others, and by using similar techniques, both can better create an honest character and a satisfying experience for the audience.