Conceptualisation and Exposition

A Theory of Character Construction

Lina Varotsi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429593901
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

While the concept of the fictional character has been widely discussed at interdisciplinary level, a foundational theory of character creation is yet to follow. As a result, creative writing students and beginner writers refer to post-construction analysis, as well as the step-by-step advice often suggested by popular writing manuals. Aiming to fill this gap and at the same time reconcile approaches in writing and criticism, this book proposes a theory of character creation based on the in-depth analysis of the concept, as well its place within the narrative. The approach suggested herein consists of two interrelated stages: conceptualisation and exposition.

Conceptualisation entails the in-depth understanding of what constitutes the fictional character, as well as the dynamics of its correlation with the reader, the author and its real counterpart, the human person; Exposition refers to the conveyance of such understanding on paper. Viewing creative writing as an art and craft, the author builds her theory on the notion that comprehension of the world and the concept of character itself is an essential prerequisite in order to construct consistent and believable fictional persons.

Varotsi also introduces her four stages of creation: Observation, Perception, Empathy and Imagination to inspire a method of work according to which personal craftsmanship and artistry can be successfully combined with pedagogic technique.

1    Introduction

The idea for this book was born out of a creative need to understand everything I could about the reason behind my love for writing and reading. Fascinated by the complexity of human nature and its endless possibilities, I was always attracted to anthropocentric narratives. Yet I had never before pinpointed the instigating forces behind this attraction, which, alongside inspiration, imprinted memories and fanciful imagination, shaped my daydreams into events which were to become stories, ultimately in the form of fictional texts. Until one day I decided to transform my endeavours into acquirable knowledge: I wanted to know what the fictional character is all about.

During my research, I developed a strong interest in creative writing theory and those dynamics that drive inspiration and the creative process. Having read across genres, narrative modes and languages, I embarked on a long exploration searching through literary criticism texts, popular writing manuals, philosophical and psychological analyses on personhood, and cultural conceptions of identity. The impressions and discoveries of this journey were then collaged together and mapped into the path revealed in the book that you are now holding.

What is proposed here is an applicable model of thought, focussing on the fictional character as a notion, textual element and function within the narrative. Graeme Harper’s (2010, p. 63) following quote fully encapsulates my syllogisms:

We can also consider the systemic nature of Creative Writing in terms of choice — in this sense, using the idea of system to refer to both conscious and unconscious choices that can be made by creative writers in Creative Writing…. So the systemic entails competing writerly choices and the question of how, and when, and in what form those choices are made, with what results…. This may also relate to how a creative writer establishes, within the context of their Creative Writing, a paradigm of behaviour and results that equate with their own definitions, and assessments, of utility, achievement, aesthetic worth, progression, communication and, indeed, art.

(Harper, 2010, pp. 89–90)

Drawing from the study of creative processes, from problem-solving to stage theories (Gilhooly, 1996; Gregg and Steinberg, 1980; Smith, 1982), I came to view character construction as an act of two stages: Conceptualisation and Exposition. Conceptualisation could be viewed as the ‘preparation’ phase but not in the sense of a rigid accumulation of material. It can be seen as the ‘prewriting’ stage, which Smith (1982) defines as:

[T]he “incubation” of ideas that may constitute the basis of a text can occur when we do not actually have a pen in hand—minutes—or hours, even days or weeks before we actually put words on paper…. Creativity is the business of the brain it is the manner in which the brain copes with the world—and … the way it learns about the world…. [T]he brain is constantly creating possibilities for the future. Its normal mode of operation is to generate alternative worlds in order to anticipate the world which will actually come to be…. [H]ypothetical thought is the basis of our perception of the world.

(Smith, 1982, pp. 122–123)

Applying Smith’s view on this study, we can think of Conceptualisation as precisely this stage of incubation, when fragments of our understanding of the human personality and nature come together to form and crystallise into new fictional figures, which will ultimately make it into a finished text. The products of this creative process will trigger events and receive their impacts in the narrative worlds we build.

My approach is also systemic in that, as Graeme Harper (2010, p. 89) illustrates, “one element interacts with another.”

The main proposition on which this entire work is founded is that above and beyond all methods, strategies and techniques, the key to fictional character construction lies within the understanding of its nature as well as its function in the narrative. In Conceptualisation thus, I’m examining where character stands in relation to the reader, the real human person, and the novelist. My aim is to explore motivations behind reading choices, notions of realism and its correlations to believability, and the relationship between creator and creation respectively. Hence, Conceptualisation is all about understanding and preparing.

Exposition, in its turn, refers to the conveyance of this comprehension and preparation on paper. Once the character has turned from a blurry notion into a delineated figure, the author is called to reveal her through the text by employing a range of creative and technical skills. This is an inexhaustible topic, and there are already innumerable works on the market discussing characterisation; in fact, this section itself could very well be expanded into a book of its own. For the specific purposes of this book and reasons of economy, I will focus on outlining the primary character expositors – or else, certain devices through which characterisation can be conveyed – through an explanatory prism rather than the recommendation of particular strategies. I will also examine the interactions between character and the rest of the narrative elements, such as external stimuli or character relationships, to demonstrate how the fictional character functions within the story-world.

My approach, which considers writing as both an art and a craft, combines synthesis with critical analysis. More specifically, the theory proposed herein will reflect my own working patterns, but its applicability will also be tested against existing works through character and narrative analysis. By dissecting those texts my aim is not quite to guess their creators’ techniques and creative decisions but is rather an attempt to apply my own theory onto them. In essence, I endorse Harper’s (2010) following clarification:

[I]f the creative writer who is also a reader applies the empirical information they have accumulated, more or less over time, from experience and active observation, from the doing of Creative Writing as well as the reading of final works of literature … to final works produced by Creative Writing then post-event knowledge is matched by the knowledge of the event (acts and actions) of Creative Writing.

(Harper, 2010, p. 21)

Most importantly, I aim to establish a comprehensible approach to character creation for the apprentice writer and teacher of creative writing alike, which will enhance individual creativity without imposing technical restrictions to it.

The main literary titles that I have decided to use are Sarah Waters’s (2002) Fingersmith, J.M. Coetzee’s (1999) Disgrace, Rick Moody’s (1998) The Ice Storm, Lisa McInerney’s (2016) The Glorious Heresies and Alain de Botton’s (2017) The Course of Love. This isn’t an exhaustive list, and many other titles will be referenced throughout my study. A plethora of reasons lie behind my choices.

First of all, they are all contemporary novels of the last thirty years, offering convincing human portraits through a variety of perspectives and socio-political situations. Moreover, they all present a diversity of narration modes, each establishing different kinds of reader alignment with its characters. Disgrace and The Glorious Heresies contain excellent examples of the anti-hero at work. In The Ice Storm, Fingersmith, The Course of Love and The Glorious Heresies we come across complicated character relations and watch them unravel or become even more entangled. Disgrace and Fingersmith proffer a unique opportunity to examine the relation between spatio-temporal setting and character. And they are all prime examples of how action derives from character, and vice versa.

I would strongly recommend that readers familiarise themselves with some or all of the titles prior to reading this book, although I hope that the use of excerpts make the reason of their selection explicit and my points clear. Above all, a writer is or should be primarily a reader, and my best tip to any apprentice writer is to study the works they love and the writers they admire.

To support my theorising, I have used a range of academic works from different disciplines, primarily creative writing, literary criticism, philosophy, psychology and cultural studies. I have also included commentaries by contemporary as well as Victorian novelists that reflect personal views and approaches to writing. My choice to embed Constantin Stanislavski’s (Moore, 1984) method is founded on the compatibility of his philosophy with the core stance of this book: the artist touching the inner life of her creation. Gordon Allport’s (1937) personality theory has helped draw valid comparisons between the human and the character as organisational systems in constant flux. And the Kantian approach to creativity, as expanded by Mark Johnson (1987), has served as a platform for some of my propositions on experience and imagination.

Insofar as structure is concerned, this study can be viewed as a conceptual edifice created in such a way that the conclusions of each level serve as stairways to the next one up, with the epitome – the discussion of character within the story-world – as the mezzanine. In order to reach and enjoy its panoramic views, the writer needs to pass through every floor (lifts are unfortunately out of order).

The building’s foundations will be laid upon a discussion of the character concept itself so that further discourse on its correlations with the world, the human being and the author make sense. As such, the first chapter attempts a definition by focussing on notions of personhood and identity in order to sketch a framework around character as a textual device but also the bearer and begetter of action.

The second chapter will discuss the reader both as an abstract notion and a real entity. The emphasis here will be placed on her active participation in the deconstruction of the text as well as those universal themes that can make any story accessible and comprehensible to her, irrespective of her socio-cultural situation. By examining the relationship between character and reader I wish to get to the bottom of what attracts people to anthropocentric narratives and highlight the importance of successfully capturing the essence of human nature in our fictional creation.

Entering the middle of the building, the third chapter juxtaposes the fictional with the real world, discussing concepts such as reality and history, and their relation to literature. One of the greatest and longest-lasting debates among literary scholars is whether fiction is an imitation of reality. Understanding key concepts of this debate and establishing a referential relationship between creation and prototype will help the author decide which elements can render her fictional world plausible, regardless of her chosen genre, as well as how she can ensure suspension of disbelief without reproducing a sterile image of the familiar.

One floor up, we find ourselves standing against our characters – or perhaps closer to them. Is the relationship between the author and her characters one of a puppeteer and her puppets? Are our characters confined by the drawn limitations of a pre-decided fate, or can they (appear to) walk their own path? Are we committing a scholarly faux pas by speculating on how many children Lady Macbeth may have had? Answering those questions from the perspective of the writer can unlock the final door to the mezzanine as it is equivalent to solving the ever-existing chicken-egg dilemma: who comes first, character or plot? Disengaging the new writer from this theoretical dilemma, this book will argue that one derives from the other, emphasising the principle that if the character is adequately and convincingly drawn, there is no real issue of attributing prioritisation. This will become more evident in my final chapter, where character is examined through its dynamic relationships to the rest of the narrative’s elements.

Finally, we’ve made it to the top. If during our ascending we have been harvesting a wealth of realisations and creative insights, how, then, can we share them with our readers? This chapter is all about economy and consistency of information, of relevance and synchronicity, and of pouring our creativity into the pages. Put differently, this chapter is designed to help the writer decide how she can use the information she already holds about her creation by understanding how the narrative works as a system. This chapter alone could be expanded into an altogether new book. For the purposes of this particular study though, I can only offer an outline of how narration and its textual elements work in synergy. Perhaps we can meet again in a different book to pursue our goals of narrative architecture further!

2 The Fictional Character

2.1 Notions of Personality and Personhood

As I will be arguing later, fiction can be correlated to reality to a certain, albeit indeterminable, degree. For now, it will suffice to suggest that the fictional character is inspired by the many facets of her real-life counterpart. The question of what constitutes a person has always been widely discussed within scholarly circles but a respectively detailed analysis lies outside the scope of this book. What I will try to do instead is to notionally outline the parameters of personhood and personality so that it serves as the foundation upon which the fictional character construct can be built. Charles Taylor (1985) writes:

Philosophers consider that to be a person in the full sense you have to be an agent with a sense of yourself as an agent, a being which can thus make plans for your life, one who also holds values in virtue, of which different such plans seem better or worse, and who is capable of choosing between them.

(Taylor, 1985, p. 257)

For Vivien Burr (2002, pp. 7–8), the person is the “[F]ree-thinking moral agent with its own unique thoughts, beliefs and values, an individual contained within its own psychological space, separated from material reality and from other individuals.” Jonathan Glover (1988, p. 88) considers that “[A] person is someone who has the self-conscious thoughts expressed by ‘I.’” And for Gordon W. Allport (1937, p. 1), “The outstanding characteristic of man is his individuality. He is a unique creation of the forces of nature. Separated spatially from all other men he behaves throughout his own particular span of life in his own distinctive fashion.”

We can thus agree that the most prominent characteristic of a ‘person’ is her individuality, or else, what distinguishes her from the rest of her species through a number of criteria. In his work, Engaging Characters, Murray Smith’s introduces (1995) the ‘person schema,’ constituted by the following set of capacities: an actual body; a perceptual ability and the awareness of oneself; intentional states; emotions; the ability of verbal communication; the ability to act and as such evaluate; and the existence of traits and attributes within. Similarly, Daniel Dennett (1976, pp. 177–194) introduced six conditions of personhood: rationality, intentionality, reception of attitudes/stances and reciprocation thereof, verbal communication and self-consciousness.

Applying the aforementioned categorisations to my own analysis, I propose that the ‘character schema’ may entail the following:

• The textual representation of a physical embodiment.
• A proper name as a point of (self-) reference and (self-) determination.
• The capacity to perceive and as such infer/reason.
• Intentional states.
• The ability to self-reflect, evaluate and as such react.
• The capacity to communicate.

This way such criteria are interconnected and manifest through the text to form the textual ensemble that can be called ‘the fictional personality.’

In her work, Concepts of Person, Catherine McCall (1990, p. 7) proposes a distinction between the terms ‘person,’ ‘self’ and ‘human being’ as bearing different yet interrelated meanings for the individual. According to her analysis (1990), ‘person’ refers to the specific way an individual is understood by her social surroundings, and can therefore only be used in a social context; on the other hand, ‘self’ pertains to the awareness of our own existence, our intentional states and our actions; finally, ‘human being’ refers to the individual’s existence as a biological entity of a certain species.

Adjusting McCall’s analysis to mine, I suggest that we speak of the ‘fictional person’ as perceived by the novelist, the reader and the other characters; the ‘fictional self’ corresponds to the illusion of a semiotic existence with a virtual consciousness; and ‘human being’ correlates to the fictional agent, as the entity populating the narrative world. All three notions are interrelated and can only be discussed within the realm of the personhood system. The following quote by Martin Price (1983) illustrates this further:

If we are asked to recount our intellectual history, many episodes will remind us that our intellectual life is not autonomous, but affected, even shaped, by other elements of the self…. The self is rarely a simple, massive conception. More often we are drawing out of it those aspects that meet attention because they serve some immediate purpose. The purpose is usually...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Fictional Character
• 3 Character and the Reader
• 4 A Reference for Fiction
• 5 Character and the Author
• 6 Character and the Narrative
• 7 Afterword
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index