Sunday, September 15, 2013

A Character is NOT a Rose

Bram Stoker's (1847-1912) Notes on the persona...
Bram Stoker's (1847-1912) Notes on the personal for his novel Dracula. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roses will always smell sweet. I can't say the same about characters who seem to be strung up on hubris by default.

In fiction, the names given to characters are almost as important as the theme of the story. That fact is beyond dispute. You have to make character names as memorable as character traits.

A vampire that stalks the night who goes by the name Dracula would strike terror into the hearts of folks long before his true form is revealed. Consider Lord Voldermort in the Harry Porter series. And the fact that the villain's name was altered after he turned and became a twisted sorcerer.

In real life, in fiction even in scripture, names have featured elaborately in programming the mindset of its bearer as well as those of the people around them. Readers would root for heroes with memorable and likable names. But there are rare moments when an heroic feat hauls an otherwise ordinary name into a threshold of heroism.
                It's art and in this realm, rules are flimsy things.

As precaution, make an habit of giving your protagonists admirable names and then tag your villains and anti-heroes with horror-inducing names unless you  know, to do otherwise, would sell your story faster.

A rose by any other name will smell sweet but a character on the same basis will definitely suck. That's food for thought.

Keep your pen bleeding.


Akpan


Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments:

Post a Comment

Feedbacks welcome and appreciated.

Free counters!