The Most Interesting Man in the World…

           Over the weekend I found myself watching the majority of season one of Dexter.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show I suggest you go and watch an episode right now, as this is one of the best shows on television.  The show follows a serial killer who was taught by his foster father to control his murderous urges and only hunt and kill murderers who have either cheated the system or who haven’t been caught yet.  Oh yes, he also works for the Miami Police as a blood splatter analysis tech.  While the premise sounds intriguing itself the character of Dexter, played by Michael C. Hall, is really what draws the viewer in to the story. 

            Characters are a difficult piece of fiction to write and as an author it is difficult to come up with a character, or two, or twenty that are both relatable and flawed.  The character needs to be believable and dynamic at the same time.  There are several things that I have heard from writing instructors that I think Dexter’s writers employ perfectly in their characters.  They are the use of small character acts to show meaning, character agenda, and inventory.  First, small character acts, something touched on in the last post, are exactly what they sound like.  Instead of saying something like:

           

            (Jack would worry.  He would worry about the locks on the house, the gas in the car, his wallet in his pocket.  What if it slipped out and he didn’t notice)?

The author could place in small character acts:

           

            (Jack walked down his front steps.  He absently felt his pockets for his keys, his phone, and his wallet.  He stopped at the bottom of the stairs.  He looked back up at his door, turned and started again down the street, then turned around and walked up the stairs and checked his lock.)

            By using small acts to convey meaning for the character you can capitalize on the efficiency of the words and can essentially say more about a character without explicitly telling the reader how your character feels.

            Giving a character an agenda is a great way to complicate your character’s lives and to give them things to do.  Give your character someplace to work, make them responsible for something.  Have them pick up the kids after school or take the dog to the veterinarian or have them tutor high school math after school.  A character with an agenda helps the character be more dynamic and more real for the reader.

            This goes along with the character’s inventory as both the character’s agenda and inventory will define who the character is better than just writing who the character is.  A character’s inventory is all of the stuff that the character surrounds itself with.  By writing the character’s things, be it a pocket watch, a photograph or something as simple as a pack of cigarettes, the character becomes more real and these items reveal things about the character.  It helps to establish that uninterrupted, vivid vision that writers are trying to establish when they write fiction.

           

“The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” – Mark Twain