{"id":10147,"date":"2018-09-05T14:09:31","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T19:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hilbertthm90.wordpress.com\/?p=10147"},"modified":"2022-06-21T12:22:47","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T17:22:47","slug":"the-character-caricature-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/2018\/09\/the-character-caricature-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Character\/Caricature Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you know the difference between character and caricature in writing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caricatures exaggerated a single noticeable feature. This weakens the overall character.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s examine this in more depth in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My History with Characterization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the most important things we can do as writers is to acknowledge our weaknesses and then work on them. Too often we get comfortable with “our thing” and then try to hide our weaknesses by going all-in on our strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve spent an enormous amount of time over the past five years really studying and working on prose style and story structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write a book according to something like the Story Grid<\/a> method. Then I see what works and what doesn’t for me, and then move on to another technique like John Truby<\/a>‘s method. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iterating this process a dozen times has brought me a rich understanding of structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s no doubt that characterization is my weakest point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Character Realism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’ve had a philosophy for a long time that characters should be “real.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means my characters often act in contradictory or paradoxical ways. They have subtle and complicated reasons for doing things that only come out in subtext.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be thinking: wow, that sounds great! <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then you actually read it and every character sounds the same and has no interesting characteristics. I tend to write an “everyman,” and they all sound boring and similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not that they’re “one-dimensional,” as many reviewers might say. It’s that fiction shouldn’t have an ordinary main character. The whole point of telling a story is to get into the head of someone who isn’t ordinary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fully developed characters can be boring, and that does not make good literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then there’s the opposite problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"the<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Caricature in Fantasy Writing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is especially problematic in fantasy writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a general trend in fantasy to create caricatures instead of characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means one feature is exaggerated to the point of becoming a one-dimensional defining feature. These flat characters can be boring and predictable as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caricature Example<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A novelist might settle on a few core concepts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n