No More Flat Stanleys

Years ago, when my granddaughter was in kindergarten, she sent me a letter. Folded inside was a paper puppet sort of thing called Flat Stanley. My assignment was to take photos of Flat Stanley visiting all the important places in the little town where I lived. I had a great time snapping shots of Flat Stanley at the post office and at my church, in front of signs and shop windows. I even took a photo of Stanley on the big slide at our local park.

Flat Stanley was my coolest friend for a few days. I sent the photos and Stanley back to my little granddaughter, and she shared them with her classmates. It was loads of fun.

However, writing (or reading) a story with characters as flat as Flat Stanley isn’t fun. When you’re writing a story, it has to come out of the heart, mind, and life of your main character. To do that, you must create a character that lives and breathes on the pages. Without a fully rounded-out character, the most exciting, action-packed story ever will not capture the imagination and interest of your readers.

In other words: flat characters make for flat stories.

So HOW do you make well rounded characters who seem alive for your readers?

First, you need to create characters that will touch the emotions of your readers. To do that you must SHOW your character’s emotions. Don’t TELL us that the fair princess was sad. NO! Show us what she does or says that lets us know she is sad. Use strong verbs to SHOW us that she cries or sniffles, wrings her hands, or slumps into her chair. SHOW us things that will enable us to see that your princess is indeed sad.

Secondly, you must KNOW your characters. Yep, get to know them before you try introducing them to your readers. Authors have many different lists and questionnaires and surveys they use to get to know their character before they start writing that character’s story. Try this: type or write the sentences below on a piece of paper (You should be able to just copy and paste them on your computer). Then, start filling in details for each item about your story’s main character. When that one is finished, do it again for other, less important characters in your tale.

Describe his or her personality using single word adjectives (not sentences).

List traits that make this character stand out; how is she or he different from other people?

Where does your character live? What country, state, city? What kind of place is it?

Describe the sort of home he or she lives in.

Describe your character’s family. How many people? Both parents, one parent, or none? Does he or she have brothers or sisters? How many? Is your character oldest, youngest, or middle?

What age and grade is your character?

Describe his or her best friend.

What are your character’s favorite things to do? Places to go? Hobbies? Favorite classes in school? What classes does he want to avoid?

What makes your character feel really happy? Really sad? Really angry?

Does she have a pet? Does your character like animals? Is she afraid of animals?

What are your characters favorite foods? What foods are disgusting to him?

What frightens your character?

How does he dress? Expensive clothes or hand-me-downs? Is he sloppy or neat?

Does she have a nickname? Where did the nickname come from? Does she like the nickname?

How would you describe his bedroom?

Wow! Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Surprise! Writing well IS hard work. But it’s worth it!

By the time you record all of this stuff about your character, you should know him or her well enough that you’ll be able to SHOW your readers just how the character feels, acts, talks, and more. They’ll laugh with him, cry with her and feel his joy, her fear, his pain.

That kind of writing eliminates Flat Stanley-characters. Or, for that matter, Flat Marias, Flat Roberts, Flat Samanthas and, well, flat, boring characters, period. And that will make your characters and your story not only come to life, but also capture the hearts of your readers.

Happy Writing!

Our Author

Jean Matthew Hall lives with her husband, Jerry, in beautiful North Carolina. Her stories and articles appear in a variety of magazines and anthologies including Mature Living, Alive!, Chicken Soup for the Chocolate Lover’s Soul, The Ultimate Gardener, Christmas Miracles and The Spirit of Christmas. She is also the Conference Chairperson for The Write2Ignite! Conference for Christian Writers of Literature for Children and Young Adults (www.write2ignite.com).

Visit Jean at www.jeanmatthewhall.com.