We Are More Than A Collection of Facts

It is no easy task to capture the essence of a real person. Too often, we try to describe people with facts. Don't get me wrong; the right set of facts can greatly illuminate a person. When you say that your neighbor watches every football game of the season and eats the same snacks with the same beer, that tells us a lot about him. We know that he loves his routine and he's a classic stereotypical American man.

Similarly, if your husband is the kind of guy that watches Terminator 2 and then throws in Gilmore Girls season 2, it also says a lot about him. For starters, it says that he is not stereotypical for any group of people.

In both cases tough, we don't have characters. All we have are character traits and characteristics. You can't imagine what it would be like to spend an afternoon with them.

Now think about your own experiences. Think about somebody who you actually have spent an afternoon with. Can you describe what it was like? Can you explain with words what it is about that person that you enjoy, what it is like to be around them, how it feels to spend an afternoon with them? You probably can't.

If you can't, then don't feel discouraged. Few people can identify what exactly they like about people. It is a feeling, an aura that people have about them.

When we try to describe a person, all we really have are facts. Facts are concrete, simple, universal. They're the things we actually know how to articulate. Unfortunately, they are flat colors and cannot create a fully fleshed-out person.

This is exactly what people mean when they tell you to show, don't tell.

The facts of a person are never enough. If you truly want to convey what it is like to spend an afternoon with somebody, then write what happened when you spent an afternoon with them. Don't just say that they're awesome. Don't say that they have a great smile. Tell us about the time when that smile made you laugh at the dumbest joke you ever heard. Tell us about how that same smile consoled you after your brother died. Tell us how he smiled when you tripped and spilled your whole beer all over his new shirt. Tell us how he smiled when that jerk tried to start a fight and how it defused the whole situation.

Now, the irony is that what I wrote in the above paragraph is still a collection of facts. They are deeper facts. They work together to build a character, but they have not yet created the aura or presence of the character. That comes from your actual writing skill. That comes from you painting the picture. You have to describe the bar, show your shoe catching on the bar as you stand up and making you fall. Show his shirt and his face covered in beer. Make us hear his voice as he laughs it away.

Facts are the skeleton of a character. When we see that character in a setting, interacting with other characters, and how they handle the situations they find themselves in, that is where their essence comes from. And that is how we create it in writing. If you want to breath life into your characters, then show them living.