"If you are like most people, plot is what keeps you going when you first read a story, and character is what stays with you after you have finished reading it."

- Ann Charters from The Story and Its Writer

In our character-based approach to writing fiction, we have spent the first two weeks "discovering" or "knowing" our character devoid (largely) of plot. We have restrained ourselves (again largely) from jumping into the plot before the character is well fleshed-out in our own minds. We are now ready, as Faulkner writes, to allow the character to stand up on his (or her) own feet and begin to move. It is time for us to "trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does." So that's where we are headed this week, and we're going to do it at the place where many of my characters take their first cautious steps into the world--at the cafe.

Placing your character in a cafe adds setting, and a character in a setting is a character on the verge of conflict. Now it's time to see what happens.

Exercises for Developing Character through Conflict

Imagine your character sitting at a table in a cafe. Now introduce a minor external conflict (e.g., your character is thirsty or needs to go to the bathroom). How will your character resolve this conflict? What obstacles (internal and external) will your character face in the process? Now write that scene using the tools of characterization. Be sure to include a physical description of the setting and of your character. Add dialog if appropriate, but avoid adding other major characters (stick to stock, flat or static characters in this exercise). You can repeat this exercise using a major external conflict (e.g., the cafe gets robbed, or a man at the next table starts to choke on his biscotti).

You can also repeat it with both minor and major internal conflicts. Keep in mind this is an exercise to help you know your character better, and, as such, none of these conflicts may have any bearing on your eventual story. In fact, if you already have a plot brewing in your mind, steer clear of it entirely for the sake of this exercise. You may choose to ponder the following quotation as you write.

“In characterization, just as much as in the structure of events, one ought always to look for what is necessary or probable: it should be necessary or probable that this kind of person says or does this kind of thing, and it should be necessary or probable that this happens after that.” - Aristotle

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Homework: Using any setting you like, repeat the above exercise, but this time add a second round or dynamic character to the scene. Keep in mind this is an exercise to help you know your character better, and, as such, none of these conflicts should have any direct connection to your eventual story. If you are doing it "right", your characters should do and say some things that surprise you. As Graham Greene says, “The moment when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At that moment he’s alive and you leave him to it.” Bring copies to class for everyone.

Suggested Reading for Next Week: "Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat" by Russell Banks; "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane; "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston; "Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville; "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" by Joyce Carol Oats

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