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The Inkspiller replied to the topic Reserved Characters in the forum Characters 5 years, 11 months ago
@hope-ann, @kristianne-hassman
@devastate-lasting and @Princess-Foo have great responses – but I already typed this thing up so I may as well send it in. đ
A quiet, passive, reserved character neednât be inert.
While others are off gallivanting about, sassing each other and exchanging their witty repartee, she plays the part of the straight man – her anchor of sanity and stability ought to make her stand out just as much among the crowd of relative lunatics.
Your approach will vary based on the POV and the tone of the story. You may be able to present events through her eyes and make her more interesting by giving the reader access to her presumably deeper thoughts as she observes the chaos unfold, and make her more amusing by giving her a droll or sarcastic tone of voice to her thoughts – then contrasting that with her more genteel, politic exterior.Another approach is to highlight her rare moments of action and dramatically accentuate them. Without knowing who your characters are or the story theyâre in, hereâs an example:
Letâs say your quiet girl is A, and the crazy ones are B, C, and D. A normally just folds her hands and sighs, or occasionally makes a singeing remark when B/C/D embarrass themselves or get themselves into minor trouble –
But when B and C go wandering off into known dangerous territory (e.g. they think theyâll go handle the big bad evil guy by themselves), and D is asking A for advice (or maybe D doesnât know itâs a trap), contrast Aâs normal placidity by having her suddenly rise to the occasion, moving with a purposeful swiftness never before seen to go and save her friends.Because youâre absolutely right, if sheâs quiet and passive and does nothing the whole story, she seems kinda boring. You can improve her to foil status by giving her a deeper level of insight than the more surface level / energetic characters, but action and contrast are key to making her a dramatically compelling character; at some point sheâs gotta do something.
I donât think quiet characters are by necessity less interesting but they require a different approach than the âsarcastic witty sassyâ type that is much much MUCH more prevalent within modern fiction of all genres. Lively, comedic characters lend themselves to an easily digestible, light-hearted tone for the story (not that this is a bad thing, but it is just a teensy bit derivative (when not done imaginatively)). Quiet characters are by their nature more contemplative and often moody, and do not as easily lend themselves to bright a quirky atmospheres, but tend to stick out like sore thumbs.
Iâve run into this with one of my characters, Myrrha – a troubled sorceress born with horns, claws and a tail – making her look like a stereotypical demon. In earlier drafts, she and the other MC encountered each other and initially conversed with witty repartee (as described above), but given the historical and dramatic tone of the rest of the story, that made absolutely no sense, considering that she looks like a demon to 99% of the medieval people who actually see her.
Later drafts had to zero in on her status as a pariah and what that would realistically mean for her. As a result, she spends a lot more time silent, experiencing the story from other charactersâ minds (sheâs telepathic) and much of her story is actually entirely dwelling within her thoughts.
Sheâs very active though – she is constantly doing dumb, impulsive, or outright malicious deeds in pursuit of her desires and urges – or otherwise wrestling with those sinful desires. Sheâs quiet in the sense that she doesnât have a TON of dialogue relative to the amount of narration, but sheâs otherwise quite verbose – at least internally.Iâm not quite sure why I brought that tangent in but I hope it was helpful in some way.










