8th Day, Write or Wrong: Characterising minor characters
I'm currently writing a pantomime. (That is, I'm writing something that's half way between a serious drama and a panto farce — I can't quite bring myself to write something devoid of substance!) It's a retelling of The Snow Queen.
I'm totally happy with the plot. I've simplified it a lot, and added a twist at the end (as is my wont). In my version, the Snow Queen is actually Gerda and Kay's mother, who made a deal with the devil in order to save the children's life, and thus is compelled to do evil.
So, characterising the main characters is fairly easy. Gerda is fairly reticent and has confidence issues, stemming from growing up without a mother. The Snow Queen is mercurial and changeable, alternating between doing evil enthusiastically (to prove herself), and feeling lonely and slightly vulnerable. Kay spends most of the time under a spell, so he's easy too, as I can write him fairly two dimensionally.
My problem is the minor characters. I'm finding it hard to make them interesting, and particularly to make them have a distinctive voice. Since I'm writing a play, I have to do a lot with just dialogue. While I'm good at making characters fulfil their role in the plot, I find it a lot harder to make one interesting without their part being strictly necessary.
In another adaptation of Snow Queen (which I read for research), they made the crow a WW1 flying ace. He used all the phrasing, kept calling Gerda "boy" or "lad" (which was both in character and also a running joke)… how do you think up stuff like that? It had no plot relevance, but added much-needed colour.
I'm totally happy with the plot. I've simplified it a lot, and added a twist at the end (as is my wont). In my version, the Snow Queen is actually Gerda and Kay's mother, who made a deal with the devil in order to save the children's life, and thus is compelled to do evil.
So, characterising the main characters is fairly easy. Gerda is fairly reticent and has confidence issues, stemming from growing up without a mother. The Snow Queen is mercurial and changeable, alternating between doing evil enthusiastically (to prove herself), and feeling lonely and slightly vulnerable. Kay spends most of the time under a spell, so he's easy too, as I can write him fairly two dimensionally.
My problem is the minor characters. I'm finding it hard to make them interesting, and particularly to make them have a distinctive voice. Since I'm writing a play, I have to do a lot with just dialogue. While I'm good at making characters fulfil their role in the plot, I find it a lot harder to make one interesting without their part being strictly necessary.
In another adaptation of Snow Queen (which I read for research), they made the crow a WW1 flying ace. He used all the phrasing, kept calling Gerda "boy" or "lad" (which was both in character and also a running joke)… how do you think up stuff like that? It had no plot relevance, but added much-needed colour.
Comments
Sometime,s the vocal ticks can be more physical, but they have to be expressed with speech for a play. So a character might blink his eyes at the end of each sentence, characterised by [blink, blink]. If it is performed well, the characterisation will come thtough.
Often, you can get these from exagerating real people. Do you know someone who always talks in a particualr way? With an accent? Don't take the piss, but do use their peculiarity to an extreme to make an oddity.
I have a character who is a stereotype posh brit - he says things like "what ho old chap". Really easy to slip into conversations, and it helps to identify them when they reappear.
(Actually, in his case, it was an affectation, but the idea is there).
I guess I find it hard to think up examples/ideas for that.
One previous year, the character I played had a repeated phrase "It was literally this one time!". Other characters kept referring to stupid things I'd done in the past, and that was the response. It was great — really gave me something to build the character on.
But coming up with things like that from scratch? Everything I can think of seems dull…
The critic James Wood has a good piece somewhere on 'getting in' a character, bringing even the smallest walk-on part to life: he used the example of a character from a Guy de Maupassant story: "He was a gentleman with red whiskers who always went first through a doorway."
Perhaps you just need to spend a little more time with the minor characters until they emerge more clearly?
Mine are often silly (one spoke in txtspk all the time) but as tthey only appear a few times, it is OK. They can simply finish each sentence with "No?" I suppose I have heard so many people with irritating vocal styles that I can find versions of them to use. There might even be shipmates that I use to inspire me...
The local pantomimes I was involved in had names based on local villages - so King Stag and Queen Camel, for example.
Went to a panto the other day where one of the young actors was dressed to look like Donald Trump. He didn't say much, but he didn't need to. Oh how we laughed.
If you watch the political spoofs, and take the facets they take the mick out of, some of them should work for you. More - see which ones get the best laughs. It does make it very contemporary (so may not age well), but as it is minor characters, they could be redone for other environments/times.
It is a pantomime. He is only slightly less believeable than other traditional pantomime characters.
Ewan came lifted from a friend's character in a tabletop RPG. (I asked permission!) I guess he's roughly modelled after the stereotype shopkeeper in a fantasy bazaar — selling everything, offering you useless stuff among the gems. But he also keeps mishearing what is asked of him, and provides an endless source of puns.
Crow I'm still working on, but I'm modelling his way of speaking on Dido Twite from the Wolves of Willoughby Chase series. No idea if I'm getting the dialog right, but it gives him a distinctive manner of speaking, which is what I want at the moment!
I don't think there's anywhere I can work Boris Johnson in… problem is, most of my baddies are accounted for. Perhaps I could start characterising the Snow Queen's minions a bit better — I just call them Troll 1, Troll 2 at the moment. I guess I could give them a bit more of a separate identity…
Double acts are a good idea, especially for performed pieces, because the physical characteristics of the performers can be used to emphasise the pairing (like all famous double acts).
For a single character, a simple stupid haircut - like Boris, Donald or Kin Jong - might work enough (if written only, you can mention it each time they appear).