In his latest fantasy, James K. Burk experiments with not just two or even three points of view, but with twelve, including a wide range of age and sex, and one outsider to whom everything he sees is new and foreign. That means he had to think about the issues of culture, attitudes, religion, even clothing and eating habits, in some detail when he started out. I'll let him explain.
One of the greatest challenges of
writing is the creation of an engaging and memorable character. The character need not be likable, but the
reader should be able to look at the world through that character’s eyes. That is, in my experience, best achieved by
using a limited third-person point of view.
Other techniques will work but I prefer that approach because it allows
the writer to display to the reader the values and ethics of the character
through their perceptions.
My novel The Twelve was written at least partly as a writer’s
challenge. One has a tendency to slip
comfortably into only one or two character types. In The
Twelve, I wanted to show twelve different points of view. The first hurdle in that sort of game is to
let the reader know, at all times, whose head they’re inside and whose eyes
they’re looking out of. This was
addressed by breaking up the story into short chapters with the name of the
viewpoint character as the title of the chapter.
As a writer, the next trick was to
actually perceive the world as the characters did. Since the characters were of both sexes and
from late teens or early twenties into quite elderly ages, this requires a
writer to employ a literary version of method acting. One’s outlook depends partly upon the state
of one’s health, as well as age, sex , and the culture at large. The writer must, therefore, take all these
factors into account when sharing the characters’ perceptions.
In fantasy and science fiction, the
writer must also be intimately familiar with the culture or cultures within
which the story has been set and must convey it to the reader. A culture is
part and parcel of the character, whether he or she reflects the culture or
rebels against it, and it has so many ramifications that it is the sea in which
the character swims.
Again, the writer must have a clear
vision of the society. Is the culture
largely shaped by religion or is religion largely ignored? For example, Iceland converted to
Christianity around the year 1000 but it made a negligible difference in the
daily life of the people. Rather than
being deeply pagan or deeply Christian, the Icelandic “religion” was a sort of
aggressive fatalism. What was fated to
happen could happen and was inescapable.
One had a store of good luck and when it was used up, that person was
doomed. What was important was the
fortitude with which one met the inevitable.
Most fatalistic cultures tend to be passive but, to the Icelanders, it
was an incentive to adventure and standing up for what you thought was the
right thing. Or, in some cases, the
thing wanted, right or not.
Culture, sometimes reinforced by
religion, is reflected in, among other things, how women, the young, the aged, minorities,
strangers, and even servants or slaves were treated, and your character reveals
himself or herself by how the character reacts to the people around them.
What sort of art is appreciated and
practiced? These play a major role in
the development of characters. What sort
of music do they produce? Are they
literate or do they have an oral tradition?
Almost every culture uses drawing or painting. Do they have sculpture? What sorts of dances do they perform and for
what reasons?
Climate and terrain play a very
important part in the development of culture but not to the degree that it is
predictable. Most highlanders live hard
lives of scarcity, even privation, and the result is often a people who are
dour, parsimonious, and often reserved or even hostile to other peoples, but
might be quite hospitable to lone travelers who bear news of the outside
world. Or outsiders might be considered
contaminants.
Names are sometimes essential to a
character, both for a reader and for the character. We often use names with no sense of there
meaning but once upon a time (and still in some cultures) names had
meaning. For instance, the common name
John once meant “God is gracious.” Other
common names also have very strong or poetic meanings, and that gives another
clue about culture. So the meaning of a
name can help display the culture and it may, of course, have its effect on the
character.
Some cultures consider names to have
power, and to protect themselves, may have a true name and a use-name. The use-name will almost always have a
meaning but it will never have the same meaning as the true name.
For the character to resonate with
the reader and seem real to them, the character must have flaws as well as
virtues. Given the culture, what we
might now see as flaws might be seen by others as desirable traits. Among the Icelanders, words like “formidable”
and “ruthless” were not terms of approbation.
They were necessary qualities for a leader.
So, we have our character and the
culture in which he or she lives. Often
a writer will get a “twofer” by making the character a stranger in a different
culture, which lets the writer introduce the reader and the character to the
new culture simultaneously but, unless you’re going to pull A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,
the writer must deal with the character’s perceptions being colored by the
culture from which they came.
Two more quick words of advice; the
character, to be believable must sweat and must stain his shirt when he does
so; and even minor characters, down almost to the spear-carriers, must be
considered characters, not stereotypes.
There are two ways to accomplish all
this. The writer must either start with
a clear vision of the character and the world he or she inhabits, or must edit
like a pro.
Happy character-building.
About James K. Burk
James was born long, long ago in a place far, far away. He had as normal a childhood as one could expect of someone who grew up to be a critic and writer. He was taught (or was that conditioned?) by a succession of nuns and Jesuits. His favorite job was being a Sunday gunman. This was a summer weekend job at an amusement park helping stage old west gunfights. He was usually cast as either the villain or the village idiot. This is called type-casting. He writes everything from fantasy to science fiction to weird westerns.Besides his shorter work, Burk has two novels currently in print, Home is the Hunter is half of Double Dog #3, and his fantasy novel, The Twelve has received some very satisfying reviews. Check out Amazon's James K. Burk author page for more details
