Character: What Is It?
According to the OED:
11. The sum of the moral and mental qualities which distinguish an individual or a race, viewed as a homogeneous whole; the individuality impressed by nature and habit on man or nation; mental or moral constitution.
12. a. Moral qualities strongly developed or strikingly displayed; distinct or distinguished character; character worth speaking of. (For instance, "1735 POPE Ep. Lady 2 Most Women have no Characters at all.")
A few questions:
- How do Marquez or Joyce establish the verisimilitude--or the feeling of "realness"--in their characters? If it's detail, what sort of detail?
- Why might an author sometimes choose to have "unreal" or "stock" characters? What function could unreal/stock characters fulfill? Are all great books chock full of real-seeming characters?
- Does the differentiation of "round vs. flat" character make sense to you? (See Wikipedia.) Dynamic vs. static?
- How do you know a strong fictional character when you see one? (Beyond, "I just know it when I see it.") What are the hallmarks of a strong fictional character?
- What sort of story or book requires strong fictional characters? What sort of story might succeed with types or caricatures?
- What sort of story relies on a "likable" main character/narrator? What sort of story thrives on an unlikable narrator? Let me clarify: I don't mean "should," but if you're trying to write a happily-ever-romance, it might be harder to do with an unlikable narrator, no? Or perhaps it might turn out to be more interesting that way. What books or stories--ones that were well-done or memorable--thrived on an unlikable narrator?