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For me, creating rich, compelling characters that are surprising and convincing depends on my state of mind. Somedays, ideas concerning my characters just flow unabatedly. The others, I just draw blanks. This is especially true with characteristics. In fact, the things I’ve struggled with the most are the distinct characteristics of my characters. How do I know my characters are round instead of flat? How do I know my characters will be convincing to my readers? How do I ensure that, in case of a particular scenario (either good or bad), my character will react in a way that’s surprising, convincing, and mostly in character? Which brings me to chapter 10.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter is a must-read. I know I’m being redundant by saying this on almost every reading response before this one, but I wholeheartedly believe it to be the truth. The way LaPlante breaks down the many aspects of a character and the way she guides us through them in a simple, understandable yet deep fashion, helped me develop insights on character creation I only glanced at before, yet never truly considered. For one, I never thought of describing a character using their possessions. I believed giving a physical description was the only way of introducing them. I never thought about my characters’ wants and needs. I only gave them what I wanted to give them. I never thought about the plot being driven by my characters. I drove the plot, and my characters were just in for the ride. These kinds of details helped derail most of my past conventions regarding characters and made this chapter into one I’ll keep referencing in the future.
Mukherjee’s “The Management of Grief” is a prime example of characters reacting believably to an event in their lives coupled with a standout particular reaction. Mrs. Bhave’s reaction, the standout one, was jarring, for I don’t know anyone who would react so calmly to losing one’s loved ones in such a tragic fashion. However, the journey she took from the beginning to the end helped convince me that she was in fact grieving, but she was coping with it in a unique fashion. Mukherjee describes the other characters’ reactions, emphasizing general feelings such as hysteria, despair, and denial, and expertly contrasts them with Mrs. Bhave’s own eerily calm countenance. While jarring (as I said before), it’s a memorable reaction that is rarely seen in people.
All in all, this helped me further understand the importance of unique, round characters and just how effective they can be in making my story impacting and memorable.
Pedro Cano
The way in which LaPlante explains character creation is one which captures attention. Examples are used before any explanation is given simply because there's no better thing than to read what is being explained to better understand it. LaPlante uses these to help us see what can better our craft which helps because I've never been someone to completely take these as much more than advice that I tended not to use. More than describing my characters, I tend to simply allow the reader to make of them what they wanted to because description never seemed all that important. I thought the imagination of the reader was more important (something I do still believe but to a lesser extent). I did use their thoughts as a way to move the plot however, I see that it's more than just the plot that matters - perhaps the most important part of anything is the character you become attached to, the one you write and develop and basically know everything about. This is what LaPlante has helped me come to recognize.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Mukherjee's "The Management of Grief" I couldn't help but compare it to my own parents reaction to tragedy. The same way Mrs. Bhave reacts is the way in which my parents do towards anything remotely bad. It's as if they're slowly and calmly accepting everything as it happens and I've always thought it to be different however comparing it to Mrs. Bhave made me realize how utterly raw her reaction is. There's many people, like in the story itself, that have an immediate reaction because their emotions are just that strong within them but her reaction only made me relate to her all the more. It was interesting to see the rattling contrast with the other characters. This cemented her as an unforgettable character in my mind.
- Angélica De La Cruz
Chapter ten “Recognizable People, Crafting Characters” of LaPlante’s Method and Madness, The Making of a Story was very informative to say the least for me personally. Whenever I write something whether it is a short story, poem or play, I always have some issues as to how to make my characters seem very realistic. I get very jealous of people who can easily make their characters seem real and relatable. It is not that I know nothing about the human condition as LaPlante says at the very beginning of the chapter, pg 326; I just cannot make them seem real enough for the sake of the story. One thing that I really liked in the chapter is how she talks about flat vs. round characters. Especially on pg. 327 how she mentions Hemingway’s famous iceberg theory. Somehow, I always have flat characters and if I could take a guess as to why that is, I would have to say that perhaps it is my habit of making every ending a happy one for the characters. I grew up with parents who did not like movies or books that did not have happy conclusions. A bit of a spoiler alert (sorry), but Avengers Infinity War for example, they loved the movie all the way unto the end. The ending spoiled the entire movie for them. Something extra that LaPlante mentioned in her chapter that I thought was very helpful was how she mentioned complexity of a character. We as human beings are very complex. Even if we think that we are simple creatures at heart, we really are not. Using all this knowledge helps me and gives me confidence when striving for a perfect character(s). Bharati Mukherjee’s The Management of Grief was just the perfect supplement that strengthened LaPlantes chapter of making characters real and making situations and reactions believable and like a real human being.
ReplyDelete-Marco Garza
Creating characters for my stories have always been a bit difficult for me. I always have trouble in the past coming up with character names and with some of their characteristics but over time is has become easier for me to create good characters. When I want to write a story I have to have at least one round character so I can start with it. This chapter really opened my eyes on how to go about the characters creation. Especially the part where LaPlante explains about the characters wants and needs which in the past I would not pay much attention too. I would not pay attention as much as I should have.
ReplyDelete“The Management of Grief” was a good story that showed how the characters reacted in a tragic setting. The one character whose reaction caught my attention the most was Mrs. Bhave’s. Her calmness stood out to me, it was just so different to see most people would be destroyed if they lost people like that. While the other characters cried to me it seemed like she was just in a state of shock about what happened.
These readings helped me see that how important it is to have good and well develop characters in one’s story. By making the characters like this the story becomes something unique and it makes people remember them.
-Leslie Perez
Chapter Ten of Method & Madness was an extremely informative section on the creation of a character. I remember the most difficult part of creating my play in a previous semester was an engaging and believable character. Both voices were muddled, and it was hard to get across the vastly different personas that they were supposed to be. I was more attached to proper diction than I was to letting the reigns go so that my characters could guide me. In that sense, I had crafter two flat characters that weren’t surprising, nor did they warrant the audience’s investment. The most resonating part of the text was probably that even if you’re only showing the reader 10% of a certain character, that if you are not aware of the other 90% then they will pick up on that.
ReplyDelete“The Management of Grief” was a perfect example of a proper execution of these lessons. There was a cast of characters that we could know and still have our expectations upset. Although we were only seeing them in glimpses, which themselves were only during a specific point in time, each one was well rounded. We saw, as LaPlante expressed, that 10% that was necessary for the narrative and we could sense that other 90% that made these whole figures.
-Joaquin Castillo
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ReplyDeleteCreating characters that are not caricatures is something that all writers always need to shoot for. Too often, at least in the movies and especially in the T.V. shows, characters become overexxagerations of themselves. Just like the caricature drawings artists do at fairs and festivals where their heads, ears, lips, or noses, or all four, are way too big for their size. In this way the characters become unconvincing, and unbalanced. Their actions become detached from their persona, and the veil of the story is lost. In the chapter the creation of characters is similar to the creation of a person. A person is more that what you see, more that what you know about them. The creation of a character is much more detailed and deep than the character that shows up in the story. As Hemingway’s iceberg theory states, and LaPlante writes, “only about 10 percent of what the author knows about the character actually appears in the story, but if he or she doesn't know the other 90 percent, then that will be apparent to the reader”. I have read before, I think the playwriting workshop class that Professor Moreira taught, that if the characters you create start writing the story for you then you have a good character. Of course, not write the story in a literal sense, but write the story so that you, as the author, are just trying to keep up with the action of the character. Almost like a documenter tries to capture reality as it is, the author tries to capture their characters as they are.
ReplyDelete-James Attwood
A fear of mine is coming off unnatural in writing whether it be descriptions, dialogues, and or characters. What I have written before was usually things that were based on reality so I had real life references to look back on when I needed them, and even when I did write fiction it usually wasn’t something that was long enough where the fear of messing up would not really kick in. Now in this class I want to say the idea of messing up in my writing seems so much bigger, I want to write something that is at least good and doesn’t fall into some melodramatic, cheesy mess filled with characters whose depth is akin to a kiddie pool.
ReplyDeleteMake the characters real by making their wants real is part of what I got from this chapter. Instead of just treating the story as plot and nothing else, by giving our character a good reason to be in this story, while not a sure fire way to make a good character, it is something that helps build up one. We as writers can flesh out a character by making them like us, not in the sense of writing ourselves into the story but the things that make us human, our fears, loves, and our personalities. While its seems like a huge undertaking its payoff is worth in my opinion.
~Eduardo Castellanos
The readings ‘The Management of Grief’ by Bharati Mukherjee has the main character showing her experiences with the death of her family and interactions with the others whose families were killed in the plane accident. The story has a lot of cultural references to Indian culture making it hard to get if you don’t know the terms, but even if you don’t get the terms, you can still feel and understand Mrs. Bhave’s grief. I liked the ending of the story leaving it open and, in a way, mysterious to show how the future awaits whichever way Mrs. Bhave goes. Chapter 10 by Alice LaPlante discussed about characters and plot. Similar to my course in playwriting, characters and plot are important in a fiction writing. I got to learn more in depth about flat and round characterization while going over something like what I learned in the playwriting course about a characters’ wants and needs as well as the relationships helping to be a driving force in the story. LaPlante also went further into flashback and characters having imaginations of something/someone and how point of view can show how a character feels/ thinks. In connection to the short story, using first person allows the reader to grasp Mrs. Bhave hidden and deep grief by allowing the reader to be put ‘in her shoes’ instead of having a distance with the third person view.
ReplyDeleteSylvia Lopez
LaPlante gives a lot of useful information on chapter ten. She writes about making the characters stand out to people like real live human beings. She talks about the importance of having a well-rounded character who the readers can connect to and understand what the character is going through. The various excepts she gives do help a lot and I find those to be better examples than “The Management of Greif.” “The Management of Greif” was such a hard story to comprehend. The names of the characters were hard to pronounce, I more than once I confused a character for another and I also confused their sex. I had to reread several paragraphs to understand what was going on, but it happened a little too much for that it became a drag. I ended up just reading though it and tried to reread paragraphs as little as possible. That said, it is not a bad example of recognizable character. Shaila (I believe this is the name of the main character) lost her sons and husband. Even though it was a bit tough, I was able to connect with the feelings of this character, losing someone is hard. A lot of the little categories LaPlante writes about are in the story of Shaila. We often see what the character thinks and feels, there are flashbacks, there is action where Shaila wants to help others, I think Shaila also imagines stuff, we are also shown the wants and needs of this character. In short, it’s a hard story to comprehend, but it is a good example for the many little categories LaPlante writes about.
ReplyDelete-Alexis Perez
In chapter 10, Alice LaPlante covers what the makings of a good character are. Bringing a character to life is comparable to giving the characters the means to drive their own story. I know by making a dynamic character, he/she has the control and can change the story entirely from what our first intentions may have been. The best kind of character is one that’s multidimensional and doesn’t fall flat on the page. The human condition is important in terms of emotion and a purpose. The more familiar the audience is to the character, the deeper understanding the audience can draw without being directly told which ties in with LaPlante’s reference of Hemingway’s iceberg theory. Knowing a character’s personality and how they think and act can change the meaning of a story like in “Management of Grief”. In a tragic situation as the one in the story, most people would naturally react with tears as Kusum did. The fact that Mrs. Bhave constantly denied ‘being brave’ shows another layer to the character. Her being numb is the worst type of grief someone could be at, and with the author using first person point of view, the character’s thoughts had to be even more carefully thought in order to bring her to life from the pages.
ReplyDelete-Gabriela Urbano
In LaPlante’s Chapter 10, the development of a character has always been a fun and intricate process whenever it is time to create them. Normally, it takes a few minutes to outline the possible cast from the ideas I have formed. It’s just a matter of adding their characteristics, their aspirations, and their appearance down – everything that makes them real in the eyes of the audience. After all, every story requires unique and simplistic characters to tell a story. There are some that are background pieces, part of the overall scheme of things; then, there are some that are well-rounded and capable enough of surprising us with the possibility of an engrossing story. This chapter opened my eyes to the realities of what makes a character tick and how these small details can affect the narrative and framework of the story.
ReplyDeleteAs for Mukherjee’s The Management of Grief, I found it to be an incredible tale that showcased how individuals reacted to a tragic event, one that affected them deeply. The scenes slowly captured the emotions and the reactions of the characters depicted especially Mrs. Bhave’s thoughts and feelings. It granted insight into the lives of these Indo-Canadian citizens, now changed forever by an event that has scarred their families both physically by the death of loved ones and mentally by their grief and heartache. This is true of Mrs. Bhave’s character as she remains shocked by the events that unfolded. And yet, she remains steadfast by slowly moving on with her life. It gave the audience a sudden surprise over her management of grief and calmness that emphasized a certain raw element to her character. It gave the audience a chance to understand the reality of everything from a perspective that captures the human emotion with its characters to draw out what makes them truly real and powerful.
- Joseph Gonzalez
Chapter 10 can be summed up as the pivotal and key point in writing and producing a fictional story, in my opinion, and truly takes on a new and improved method of characterization. This chapter offers many helpful tips when question comes to mind on shaping our creations. It is most certainly so that we should breathe life into our characters as if they were real people. Humans are unpredictable in most cases, what makes life interesting is that moment when we surprise ourselves and find one another in new and unfamiliar situations which is how we should craft our characters. When reading The Management of Grief, something that is talked about in the chapter is creating a bond and a reason for the audience to care for our characters and it is most certainly well executed when it comes to Bhave. This story offers the audience a chance to bear witness a true act of awakening and overcoming personal obstacles. While reading this story, we root for Bhave and share this term of endearment and that is exactly what chapter 10 expresses to writers in this text. I genuinely enjoyed reading both the chapter and the short story and felt they both were directly connected.
ReplyDelete-Clarissa Cardenas
Characterization yet again another aspect in my writing I feel I’m very weak in, and wish to improve. The chapter went over the basics that I’ve heard of before. It then went on to go in depth of each concept, and gave me ideas on how to practice characterizing my own characters. The reading was fascinating. It really managed to put me in the shoes of the characters. By the end of it I felt like I saw the life of real people. That I met them in person. Yet again I think any time I’m struggling with characterizing, I will reread this chapter and story.
ReplyDelete-Jose Sias
According to La Plante having round characters are important because we could run into the mistake of having flat characters which she describes as stereotypes. In the story ”The management of Grief” every character has a purpose. All of the grieving people have love ones lost and deal with it as they please. The reader can feel as horrible as the characters do, especially the shock and horror the main character feels about her husband; her sons. This becomes apparent when she’s in that room and sees her husband even though he isn’t actually there. The sadness of the scene is so compelling that the main character feels like a real person. Another round character would be her friend with the daughter she has many opinions that she gives the main character that gives her a sense of realism. Even the Doctor in this story seems to be a round character with aspirations. La Plante makes a good point that having characters that leap of the page help enhance the story and make it come to life. One thing I struggle with is my characters because I think they are round until I re-read what I wrote and realize that they are flat characters.
ReplyDelete-Allison Gonzalez
Chapter Ten, “Recognizable People, Crafting Characters” in LaPlante’s book is a great lesson on how to develop believable, compelling and complex characters. I’m currently grappling with one of my characters in the short story I’m working on, as I try to figure out how to tell his story without making him a stereotype, etc. This chapter provides many practical applications to character development, and reminds me to “reject general statements in favor of ones that are particular and precise” (328). I tend to use a lot of dialogue in my stories, which makes me think they seem more like plays, so I need to work on other elements, like what the characters look like and how they behave (320-1).
ReplyDeleteIn Bharati Mukherjee’s story, “The Management of Grief,” the protagonist Mrs. Bhave may seem to be acting out of character to many readers, yet I can totally relate to the way she is processing her grief. My father recently passed away this summer and I too experienced the “deadening quiet” while everyone around me fell apart. Like Mrs. Bhave, my behavior did not match the circumstances or my feelings as I went through the motions, so to me her behavior was completely believable. I love Mukherjee’s use of first-person point of view in this story as well, as it connects us with Mrs. Bhave, however I really want to figure out how to write a compelling character told in third-person point of view.
-Dorie Garza
I feel like Chapter 10 was insightful because as a reader I like to be connected with the characters of a story. I want to assume that I know what their next step is and be surprised when I learn something new about them through their actions and experiences. Therefore, I understand the purpose of round characters and flat characters. I also see how interesting its been feeling connected even with flat characters because even then we can be infatuated with the idea of them yet never understand who they really are since they remain flat throughout the story and we have to focus on other characters. It makes the rest of the story mysterious, as if somethings been left out.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the story goes, it is a very emotional and strong plot as we experience the different emotions that we see eating up our round character who has lost her husband and two children. The title itself is not a guide of emotional management of grief, however we do realize that the process of grievance is possible to cope and overcome. Loosing someone we love is hard enough, so as readers, we can only imagine what it was like for our main character to experience such a horrifying event and the loss of three family members through an airplane accident. We develop a connection with this character and feel the courage and bravery inside of her as she learns to cope with such pain. The story leaves us with the assumption that she will get back on her feet and continue going forward, which makes her personality very much believable.
-Andrea Castaneda