Title: Character-Driven Storytelling
Panelists: Tara Tallan, Karen Howard, Jason Dunstan, Other Person I Didn't Write Down and Don't Remember
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 2010; 1:00 PM
The first panel I went to at Penguicon was about Character Driven Storytelling. The four panelists were webcomic artists and writers. We ended up discussing more about character development than character based plots, but I guess that makes sense - with character driven storytelling the characters, not the plot, are the important part.
So why should someone choose character driven storytelling over plot or action driven? The panelists talked about how when a story is character driven the audience can connect and identify with the characters much stronger - because the story isn't as important as the emotions and internal experiences. I realized that this is how I write normally - which explains why I have a big problem with writing down plots or what's going to happen in the future of my stories.
The rest of the panel was about characters, and character development. It was strongly emphasized that we - as authors - needed to know our characters inside and out; we need to know their voices and their quirks and everything about them - even if those facts don't come up in the story. Of course clothing and names can help to develop a characters personality (we were, of course, warned against using clichéd names like "Chastity" - there's only two things that can happen with such a character: she either becomes a nun, or she becomes a slut), but their voice is much more important.
Something that was suggested that I never thought of doing was taking two of my characters, and switching their places. If they end up being interchangeable - dialogue flows the same way, the scene has no or few variations, etc - then I haven't done enough work. The analogy was made that good characters interacting with one another should be like a pinball machine - all sorts of things should be going on. One of the panelists mentioned that it was interesting to see how characters can and will play off of each other if they're done correctly.
Another thing that was pointed out that I never considered: If I, as an author, don't like my characters, my audience will also not like my characters. I would imagine that this goes the opposite way, as well: If I care a lot about my characters, and put the work and effort into making them the best people that I can, and I love them - my audience, my readers, will see that - and they'll feel the same way.
The last thing that really, really stuck out to me was a very simple idea: Characters should be written as people first, characters second. It's the best way to make them as real as they can possibly be.
I don't feel as strongly toward any of my characters as I should, and many of them feel shallow. I guess I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Penguicon 2010 Posts
[[Character Driven Storytelling]]
Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science-Fiction
Methods of Life Hacking
Publicity 101
Post-Scarcity Futures
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