What do you absolutely need to know about a major character? Everything, some will tell you. With advice like that, it’s no wonder that, in the initial stages of character/story development, you can find yourself lacking focus, at a loss where to start.
Good character knowledge is like gossip. When you intend to unloose some dishy gossip about a celebrity, a relative, a mutual acquaintance, what do you need to know to make the gossip light up?
Beyond the basic biographical items that identify the subject, you need a few contextual keys, choice facts to give the gossip sizzle.
You must be able to say, “okay, in order to understand what I’m about to tell you, you should know a few things about Harold…” You will have chosen those few things to set the gossip in a context of irony, shame, joyfulness, etc. thus helping define its meaning.
“Harold never so much as looked at any woman other than his wife.”
You might choose this to set up gossip about the monumental bender Harold went on last week–when he ended up marrying his niece in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, and passing out naked in the middle of the Strip..
Admittedly, I’m oversimplifying, but the point is: think what we DIDN’T have to know about Harold to support the gossip.
Now substitute “story” for “gossip” and you’ll have a working model for the principle I’m calling the Gossip Connection.
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The gossip connection — I like it. By the way, I finished “I Killed Hemingway” last week and I just LOVED it. My husband’s reading it now.