characterisation

[lobelia321]

Here's a question: have any of you ever read any fic of mine that was lacking in characterisation in some way? This is now a beta criticism I have had several times for a variety of fics. Whenever I have got this beta comment in the past, I have not posted the fic. (Well, I did finally post My Very First Fic a few weeks ago... but that was 2 years after the fact!) I may now dust another one of those unposted fics off and post it just to get some clarification.

Just wondering. Two of the alleged under-characterised fics featured Jed Brophy. So I'm thinking that perhaps Jed is some sort of cypher character for me; perhaps he *is* the "Man without Qualities" (novel by Robert Musil) ; a kind of flat blank -- and I do see him like that a bit: smooth, snappy dresser, sharp, not overly emotional or forthcoming. A bit of an Invisible Man. But how to convey that in a fic? It can perhaps only be done through stylistic means -- I wouldn't want to do it via showing his feelings (because the point would be that he doesn't have any). It's difficult to foist such a man upon fandom because fanfic is so heavily built around characters with a rich inner emotional life and plot revolves around psychological tension, especially in Lotrips (one of the insights I've garnered from doing the narratological analysis of fanfic, which, btw, is 4/5 finished!!).

Well, I realise this is difficult to answer without a concrete example so I will finally post that unposted thing in the next few days. It's been gathering dust somewhere on my shelves (god, I only hope I can *find* it in this mess: still no finished loft!).

I suppose I'm pondering two issues:
1) Do I tend to give short shrift to characterisation? (And if so, in what types of situations? Because I don't think all of my fics have this tendency but I can see that some do.)
2) And if I do, is that a bad thing? (And how to turn it into a positive thing?)

Comments

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

1) No. Not usually. I think you sometimes tend to characterize some of the guys in ways that deviate quite significantly from fanon, and maybe that requires more work on your part to make them seem convincing. That can be difficult if your character really doesn't have a lot of feelings, and even more so if he's a bit taciturn. Oooh, mysterious! So see, mysterious and enigmatic are characteristics. Of course I don't see your fics un-beta-ed, so maybe you've fleshed out the final product.

2) Not a bad thing. Some characters don't have as much character as others; a Dom vs. a Jed, say. Plus, your style can be rather sparse at times, so a very detailed characterization would be jarring in those cases.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I do think that non-fanon characters require more in the way of 'characterisation' than very familiar ones -- but at the moment I'm even unsure about what 'characterisation' is! (Hence the quotation marks.) I do think that some of my fics tell you more about the people, and in hindsight they're the ones I enjoy re-reading, and others tell you practically nothing, like Arthropods. Which, hm, I guess is an example of the sparse style you mention. Because this is also what I've been thinking: that one strategy to adopt for dealing with absence of character is style.

Heh, beta. I haven't had a fic beta'ed in a long time. I've gone off it. For exactly the reasons that I found myself unable to cope with adverse criticism and ended up not posting!!! Perhaps now, with my more robust, undepressed self... But now I'm just finding myself becoming stroppy!

I need to ring you. But it can really only be done on the weekend; the time difference is too stupid. And this weekend I have my sister-in-law here. Grr.

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Don't fret- we'll manage to chat again eventually. I've got family in town this weekend as well.