I was re-watching [director Peter Jackson's] The Fellowship of the Ring the other day when I saw two scenes that reminded me that building a character, like building a world, is a matter of detail. ...Read the whole thing, especially to see the clips Smith mentions. Detail alone might not prove a storytelling panacea, but Smith reminds us that it's a great way implement the old writing maxim -- show, don't tell.
I suspect that Aragorn was an archetype long before Tolkien wrote him; he’s certainly become one since. ...
Such characters are usually abrasive (they live as they do because they don’t like other people), and have nothing but contempt for the soft ways of civilization-dwellers. ...
That’s not what we see here. It’s obvious that Aragorn has never heard of “second breakfast”, and he clearly considers the idea ridiculous.
As one would expect from the hard-bitten ranger, he gets the “soft” city folk moving. ... But then Aragorn tosses apples back to them.
Detail. It’s the key to everything.
(Picture: CC 2006 by Andrew Becraft)
3 comments:
we discussed this very thing in my reading group last night with the novel ORDINARY PEOPLE.
I think it's a great way to subtly clue readers in about the nature of your characters.
Nice post. What characters don't do that we might expect, as well as what they do, can be telling as well.
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