Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Denis LeDoux/@DenisLedoux

 

” I want to move with the character and describe the world in which they are living.” Gay Talese

 

This is a second session of memoir writing tips by Denis LeDoux in preparation for November is Life Writing Month (NILM). Today’s topic is describing characters.  Here is the first session on action.

 

Welcome back, Denis!

 

 

The people in your story are your characters. It is your job to bring vivid literary characters to the attention of your readers. You must use descriptive writing to present believable characters. Without other people, our lives and memoirs risk becoming dull. Although ideas are pivotal for many individuals, relationships are even more commanding. We are intrigued with who other people are and how they function. “Who’s that? What are they doing? Where did they come from?” These are question we want answered. To write a strong story, capitalize on this interest.

 

In lifewriting, you create a strong, vivid sense of people by describing characters in sensual details. (The senses, of course, are: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.) The most effective descriptions of people make use of these.

 

Here are ways you can use sense details to describing characters more vividly:

 

Taste– Let the reader sample foods associated with your past or with the person you are writing about. Perhaps a food image or a metaphor will give a deeper sense of the person’s personality.

 

Many people mistakenly believe that characters in a story have to be well-known to be interesting. When they write their stories, they search their pasts for when they might have crossed paths with the famous. Consequently they write about when they were in the same elevator with some luminary back in 1968. This is not necessarily something that will make your story interesting. A representation of a vivid character is more likely to entice your reader. Describing characters well is about details not about fame.

 

Sight- What did the person you are writing about look like? Describing characters well requires you mention height, weight, color, shape, posture, mannerisms, contours of the face, prominent features. How did that person move, talk, walk, sit? Describe the person’s clothing, sense of style, hairstyles. In what ways ways did that person typically express emotion with body posture?

 

Sound- This includes voice modulation, timbre, and pitch as well as favorite expressions, accents, dialectical usage. Don’t forget throat clearing, foot scraping, or the knocking of a wedding ring against glass as a hand cleared frost from a windshield.

 

Smell-Your text should make references to perfumes, colognes, pipe tobacco, barn odors, the scent of a kitchen, the aroma of a bath, or the smell of a workshop. Smell is one of the most evocative senses in describing a character. A particular herb or soap or cleaning fluid can immediately return us to another time and place. Be sure to use that power in your descriptions.

 

Touch- Help the reader feel how rough your character’s skin was, or how smooth the clothing, how gentle the hands, or how furtive the caress.

 

Remember: describing characters well need not be that hard.

 

Good luck writing!

***

Thank you Denis for showing us all the ways to bring our characters alive on the page by using the five senses.

 

 

 

Author Bio: Every November, Denis offers November is Lifewriting Month. NILM provides writing prompts via e-mail, free tele-classes on memoir-writing techniques and many surprise memoir gifts. Denis is the author of the classic Turning Memories into Memoirs/A Handbook for Writing Lifestories. Most recently , he completed his mother’s memoir, We Were Not Spoiled, and his uncle’s, Business Boy to Business Man. Denis is currently working on a book about “writing with passion.” Jumpstart materials are also available for writers wishing to be memoir professionals in their communities.

 

How about you? What’s your experience in describing characters?

 

Denis has generously offered to give away the Memoir Start-up Package at the end of the series to a commenter whose name will be selected in a random drawing.

 

We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

 

 

Next Week:

Monday, 10/14: “Interview with Jerry Waxler on “The Memoir Revolution.”

 

Wednesday, 10/16: “Interview with Memoir Author  and Ex-Nun, Karen Leahy: The Summer of Yes”

 

Friday, 10/18: “Memoir Writing Tips by Denis Ledoux: Establishing Your Setting”