tWR Interviews: Characters, Imagery and Metaphors

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Hello everyone, and welcome to our "tWR Interviews", where we interview experienced writers of our community about the art of writing
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I would like to take this as an occasion to remind the readers that what these deviants say isn't "The One And Only Truth", but rather concepts to analyse, think about, and learn from. Whether you learn from agreement, or disagreement with them, it depends on you alone.

Today we're interviewing SilverInkblot, BeccaJS and LionesseRampant on imagery/metaphors for poetry, and SadisticIceCream and LadyLincoln (with help from julietcaesar, illuminara, neurotype-on-discord and LiliWrites) on character building for prose.




If you want to get some more educational reading, here are the other interviews we've released so far:


Our poetry lesson focuses on imagery and metaphors, and the prose lesson on character building.

Poetry: On Imagery and Metaphors



Imagery and metaphors - do you have a favourite technique between the two, and why?

BeccaJS, I don't have a preference, I am very much in the belief that the context of the poem is very important to when certain techniques come to play. It's exactly the same when people decide whether or not to play with the formatting or choose a particular form or style, its all about picking the right elements for the right context.

SilverInkblot, They kinda go hand-in-hand for me. Two images connected or contrasted is a great way to compliment both.

LionesseRampant, I tend to use metaphors more when I'm writing poetry; I think it fits the form a little better unless you're writing a narrative or prosey poem. When I'm writing short stories or chapters, I'll rely on imagery a lot. It really just depends on what kind of feeling I want to convey, and how I want my readers to understand what I've written.


Can a poem do without them? What is your favourite example of it?

BeccaJS, I can't think of one off the top of my head- to me poetry is about creating visualisation or associated feeling with an audience to provoke them to connect. Removing this negates the concept of poetry surely?

SilverInkblot, I paged through my gallery poems and the only pieces I found without imagery were these: On marrying a workaholic and Correlatiion and Causation. Neither of which are great or anything, but I do have a fondness for them. I guess observational poems like that are okay without imagery or when you want to try something a little different, but it's not something I'd make a habit of.

I followed up by combing my poetry favorites for pieces lacking imagery and found these: Wordsmiths and Tight-lipped Breathing. Again, very short, observational pieces. They're almost philosophical, a complete thought that needed to be written down, but not extrapolated upon. This works because you can bring you own images and experiences to the table and apply the poem to them accordingly.


LionesseRampant, Hmmmm. IS there poetry without imagery or metaphors (or any of the other symbolic techniques)? I think both are essential to creating poetry, let alone anything with the written word. Without some way to show your audience what you want them to see and to feel, your work will not be as impactful. I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but as of yet I have not come across any that have stood out to me.


Is there a theme your imagery and metaphors explore more often than others?

BeccaJS, I would say I am quite elemental. There's usually imagery and metaphors in my writing relating to weather, the sun, the sky- fire, ice that kind of thing.

SilverInkblot, I LOVE extended metaphors, particularly science-related. I love to take a discipline with a lot of terminology and build a piece from that. There's a whole folder in my gallery for this exact thing. Space is a particular favorite of mine. It's fun because some of the imagery can be inherent in the words you use; writing about a relationship that's like a black hole for instance. That conjures up an image and it's easy to build from there. It doesn't have to be science - it can be anything. I've used everything from architecture to ballet. If you can use Chemistry terms to illustrate the "chemistry" between two people, go for it!

I haven't run into many of these sorts of pieces here on dA, but the ones I have found are always excellent. You have to research and dig to craft that sort of story, so you've really got to be invested in the piece to pull it off.


LionesseRampantRecently, I've been relying a lot on naturistic imagery and metaphors. I enjoy relating things back to nature, or having things be connected with it in an indisputable way. It's also very calming for me to sit down and think of things I could use in future poems and stories, and it's enjoyable bringing things forward that someone might not have considered before.


How explicit, or otherwise, do you like metaphors being? When does a poem becomes too cryptic to be understood, and how do you avoid that?


BeccaJS, Again this all depends on context and audience. You wouldn't go for deep and meaningful on children's poetry, but you might want to be more cryptic for personal pieces to individuals. I think understanding your audience and what you are provoking them to think or feel. Your ultimate aim though should be not to alienate them from reading- sometimes people think you need to be over clever with your imagery, or over complicate the metaphor and it just turns people off. I think that awareness can really improve the way you approach poetry writing.

SilverInkblot, It's a fine line, isn't it? Some readers will get it with no explanation, while it will go completely over the heads of others. You won't know if you've been too obvious or too obscure until you put it out there and get some comments going. Sometimes, you may want the poem or story to be puzzled out, which adds an extra layer of complexity.

Me, I try to avoid any filler. If a line or word isn't contributing in some way, drop it. Don't use ten dollar words just to use ten dollar words; if you want to use a word like "dapocaginous" instead of "heartless," fine, but have a reason for doing so.


LionesseRampantThat's a tough one. I think this comes down to preference, audience, and topic. You have to take everything into consideration; what you like to write, who your audience is going to be, and what you're writing about. Personally, I like it right in the middle. I don't like having to think about something for an hour to understand it, but I also dislike having something shoved in my face.

How often can these elements appear before it's too much? Do you have a preference between minimalist and rich poetry?



BeccaJS, TL;DR CONTEXT AND AUDIENCE.

SilverInkblot, My favorite sort of poetry is short, but deep. You don't need hundreds of lines to write a poem rich in detail. Sometimes all you need is the implication of something much larger, grander, than what's actually written down.

A poetry teacher who I didn't get along with nonetheless left me with a tidbit of advice that has served me well: the more specific and concrete you make it, the more universal it becomes. And that may sound counter-intuitive, but it isn't. A poem with generic imagery of tear tracks and broken hearts isn't as interesting as salty tea and chipped fingernails.

Think of it like a camera - not a professional camera, but your dinky little phone camera. Zoomed out, you get a bigger picture, but little detail. But zoom in, and suddenly things come into focus. You can see the off-white smile, the hole in the tablecloth, the crack in the flowerpot. Those little things are what's going to stick in a reader's mind because they can see it.


LionesseRampantSimilar to the above answer. I can and do enjoy both ends of the spectrum, from minimalist to imagery filled poetry.


Prose: On Character Building



Talk to me a little about your writing process for creating a character – what comes easily (e.g. profile, voice, etc)? What doesn’t?


SadisticIceCreamCharacters have this weird way of springing almost fully-formed into my head. I just see a person or a thing in a certain circumstance, which is usually the seed for a story, and I push them and follow them around for a while. For Circuits, I saw an odd robot in a darkened factory, contemplating his existence. For "Bloodlines," the latest story in my gallery, I saw a young man kneeling on the floor and holding a gun. After that, for me, it's a matter of asking them, "And then? And then what after that?" What's hard is that although I have a plot to follow them through and I have a vague idea of who they are, sometimes they surprise me -- I discover things about them as I write that I have to go back and weave in earlier, or things I have to throw out even though they're cool details. I'm never sure, right off the bat, what's important to include that will serve the story, and so sometimes my characters come off as a little vague. But that's what multiple drafts are for.:) (Smile)

LadyLincoln, My writing processes with my specific characters evolve throughout the story. Characters generally start out simple. Throughout the particular story, as they slowly begin to develop and change, and as the readers follow their evolving personalities and experiences, more details generally come into play. I feel the most comfortable in developing the personalities and dialogues for my characters – and in creating their realistic interactions with one another. It is genuine, complex, and at times emotional; though I hope it brings the reader into their unique world. The most difficult for my specific genre of historical fictional writing is in trying to keep my own modern perceptions from skewing the character’s own perspective into something it is ultimately not – though it can be problematic writing in one era, while trying to bring another one to life upon the page. 

julietcaesarThe values that they stand for and the characteristics that embody those values come to me easily. I'm a very conceptual writer so I think in abstracts and the values that represent these abstracts are what come to my characters first. For example, for a story about listening, I think of a character who stands for anonymity, of being in the shadows, with an ear open to his surroundings, with a fear of interrupting or disturbing people. He might be a bit restless, sometimes he can manage a yoga pose, but mostly he's thoughtful. 

I think names and style of dialogue don't come very easily. I could easily spend days agonising over the perfect first-last name combination! 


What do you think about character sheets for your characters? Do you use them, or would you never go near one?


SadisticIceCreamI've never used one, but I don't see how they can hurt. Having a place to record all the things you discover about your characters, just for consistency, can be useful. But I think there's a stigma with character sheets that people are tempted do an information dump, like "One upon a time there was a boy named Billy and he has brown eyes and black hair and is 5'10" and his favorite food is pizza," and none of that actually serves the story. The character sheet is a tool, not a story guideline; get to know your characters, and then, as always, use what you need and toss what you don't.

LadyLincolnIn regards to character sheets, I do not use them for my novels; unless one considers a notebook full of post-it notes and rough draft outlines for particular scenes the same thing. I use my miscellaneous notes and outlines whenever needed for specific details or complex plots throughout the particular story to try and keep track of everything. 

illuminara I hate them and would advise all new writers to completely avoid them and ignore their existence. At best, they provide you with internal information, much of which won't even end up in your actual prose. At worst, they're an unhelpful waste of time that end up fragmenting aspects of storytelling that should only exist as one whole piece, such as characters and plot. It blows my mind that anyone honestly expects to be able to develop one without the other. They are meant to be developed together, always, because you can't have one without the other. 

This is kind of a sore spot with me, but imagine it like a mathematician for a second. Plot is a line graph charted from data points provided by the actions and motivations of the characters (protagonists AND antagonists, naturally). You can't just draw a line and claim it makes sense without supporting data! That will get you laughed right out of the scientific community. 

Plot affects character, and character affects plot. Thinking otherwise is crazy, so throw out the planning sheets and start listening to the people showing you how all aspects of storytelling work together. My article about how to develop story conflict is a great place to start. 


If you had to define ‘poor characterisation’, how would you do it? Do you have any memorable examples?

SadisticIceCreamThis is definitely one of those things that I think is hard to describe, but I know it when I see it! LOL I think poor characterization has a lot to do with a poor expression of voice and perspective. What differentiates this character from others in a story? How do they speak? What do they choose to speak about? Where do their eyes fall when they look around a room or at another character? Do they choose to wear high heels during a burglary or sneakers? Little details like those add up to tell a lot about a character. A lot of people might grouse at me for this, but possibly the best recent example I can give are the characters in the Divergent trilogy. The "bad guys" struck me as pretty one-dimensional, driven by selfishness, superiority, or greed with nothing else behind it, and in the third book, the alternating, first-person voices of the two protagonists weren't different enough for me to really get a feel for what each was offering the story. I guess this is a long answer for: Characters should be multidimensional, complex, and clearly delineated. Bad characterization is whatever is the opposite of those. =p (Razz)

LadyLincolnThe easiest way to me to define it is in the overuse of clichés, (though some that are commonly used still work – I would make a valid argument for some of them if they are used well within the story.) And, the insertion within the tale of a typical “Mary Sue” character, that appears overdone, or completely falls flat, and does not strike any interest to his or her readers at all. 

What's the first thing you decide of a character? What's the last?

SadisticIceCreamThe first time I conceive of a character, I usually envision them in the story's inciting incident or first scene, and from there, it's a matter of following them around inside the story, seeing what the story and who this person is. Sometimes this takes place in the process of drafting, but other times I vaguely map things out in my head as I go before I start putting words down. Probably the last things that come to me are smaller details -- a character's mannerisms or verbal tics, their body language. I'm still working on making these things seem real in my characters, to better round them out and make them jump off the page a bit better.

LadyLincoln, The first thing I decide is where the inspiration for the character is coming from. I also consider how they will appear, what their beliefs are, what brings them happiness – and what their goals are. The last (and most complex,) is how they will interact with other principle characters that ultimately shape who they are as individuals within the story.

Do you build your plot first, or its characters?

SadisticIceCreamThe protagonist definitely comes first, and as I follow that person, I discover the other characters (through the protagonist's interactions) and where the plot is headed. So I guess it's a little bit of both in a way.

LadyLincoln, My characters always come first. Generally everything I tend to write is character driven.

And a word or two of wisdom from illuminara, neurotype-on-discord and LiliWrites about how to build a better character, with links.



neurotype-on-discordGo outside.
This is probably cheating, but it never stops being good advice.


illuminara, Learn about character arc! And by "learn" I mean study, read, and scour the depths of the internet. Scrape up every last article and diagram you can find about Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey, story structure and the three acts, sequences, subplots, the whole thing. You absolutely cannot learn to build better characters in the vacuum of only studying characters. You have to study all of what makes a good story in order to understand what makes a good characterbecause it's all connected. (I'm speaking from personal experience out of frustration for how long it took me to learn this.) If you start separating story development into categories of plot separate from character separate from conflict, etc., you might never understand how they all work together to tell a compelling story. Also, read these four articles. They will blow your mind.

Character-Driven Hero's Journey
What Should Happen at the Midpoint
The Secret to Subplots
The Need vs Want Character Arc

LiliWritesThis really depends heavily on what kind of writing you're pursuing. For shorter work like flash fiction I think your character needs to be dynamic. It needs to have a hook because your reader is going to be with this character a short while. You want your reader to remember your character in the same way they might remember someone beat-boxing on the NYC subway, or a flash mob in Walmart. Your character needs some pizzazz in a shorter work.

If you're looking at something more novel length, then what really matters is how your character changes. Long term stories require a bit more investment into the character on the reader's part. We want to see how they're progressing as people. We're growing up with them throughout the story, so to speak, and just like parents want to celebrate when their toddler walks, we want to feel satisfied when the character we've been rooting for finally realizes X about himself or Y about the world. 

A lot of guides and tutorials will say that your character needs flaws, and this is absolutely true. Those flaws are what lead to the change or realization of something though, so choose them wisely. Make them a plot device so you can use them to create the tension and resolution your reader needs.



And this is it for now. Heart thank you for reading, thanks to all the deviants who gave their so useful opinions, and we hope this article was useful. If you have any questions, tag the deviants you want to ask them to and bother the hell out of them. Wink/Razz they totally knew they were signing up for it.

I salute you!

>>All hail GinkgoWerkstatt for this beautiful skin.
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GladeFaun's avatar
Just wanted to say I completely agree with neurotype about how to build a better character. And to illuminara for the articles, looking forward to giving them a read at the weekend :)