It's all about the Character, stupid! Part One - Audience Surrogacy

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 Well, maybe it isn't ALL about the character. But it is essential that your characters cause an emotional reaction for your readers, watchers or players. The stronger the emotional connection, the better. This is important in all types of storytelling. Whether you are an actor on Television, Film or Stage, a play or screenwriter, a novelist or a short storyteller devotee, even a gamemaster for a Role Playing game. The things(The plot) that happen in the tale you are spinning are meaningless without your characters.

Meaningless you say, tell me it isn't so! It really is. An Earthquake, a wasting curse, an invading army. All these things are terrifying or at least concerning on the surface, but they are abstract concepts and events unless you can tie them to someone in the environment that is experiencing or causing them. The Invading army seems so much more fearsome when you have a character who is rounded up and taken to a prisoner of war camp. The wasting curse is so much more heart wrenching when one of your characters is actually suffering from it, or worse, watching a loved one suffer and is incapable of saving them.

Or maybe they are not just victims, maybe they are heroes?

If you think of your plot and your environment as a beautifully constructed painting that is hanging on a wall in some pretentious gallery that is all well and good. But the reason most people(maybe I exaggerate a little) find galleries boring is because the painting is static. It is just there on the wall, unchanging, unmoving. In other words, dull. 

What if we conceive of our characters as having a special key that allows us to walk into that beautiful or scary painting and move around in it and interact with it? Now all that environmental construction and your plot events are no longer static or abstract because we are seeing it and interacting with it from the inside. This is one of the most powerful functions a character can perform in your story. They can be an audience or reader surrogate. Basically, we see the world you have created and feel the impact of your plot through this character. How do we do that?

Step One - Identify Your Audience

You need to have a rough idea who will be consuming your content. Your book, movie, game, etc. Once you have an idea about that demographic, then you can build a character that they can connect with. It is easy to fall into stereotypes here, trust some of your alpha readers or friends to let you know if the character seems to cookie cutter. 

Step Two - Flesh out the Surrogate

This character should have something in common with your intended audience. A similar age, ethnicity, point of view, past trauma , illness or affliction, family or relationship history. Basically, anything that a "real" human being has in their lives your surrogate character should have. Perhaps they have more than one of these things. The possibilities are endless. Don't over do it and make your character a carbon copy of your neighbor, only he raises the dead instead of mowing his lawn at 6 AM on a Saturday. That will be too close to reality and creepy. You just need a few touchpoints. A lover that died tragically in an accident or from disease. An abusive parental figure or on the positive side a prodigious talent they keep hidden or has been recognized and lauded. This should be something that it is easy for your audience to recognize in themselves or in their real life social circle or family.

Step Three - Determine Point of View

Will this character be a Point of View Character? Will they be the character that the reader or viewer sees most of the world and the story you are telling through? Will they be present for the majority of the story points you want seen, heard, etc? If so, then you are in great shape with one major surrogate character. If this character is a great gateway into your story, but due to certain limitations (geographic, social status, size, ethnicity, etc.) they cannot observe or participate in the majority of the events the tale, repeat the process with a second character. You will use the same process, but this second character will connect with your audience in a different way. Maybe this character is not the young heroine, but rather it is the lass' older, possibly wiser, mentor. This expands your potential audience to bond with and also gives you a different Point of View to see your story through. If the character is just not in a position in your story to be a POV character, then they are not a good surrogate for your reader, viewer, etc. Back to the drawing board you go. Keep the character and use them, but know that their role in the storytelling will be different. 

Next time we'll talk about the other Point of View. The Bad Guys!

Enough stalling! Get back to creating!



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