{"id":2423,"date":"2023-05-11T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/05\/11\/profiles-character-development-reporting-sources\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T15:36:08","slug":"profiles-character-development-reporting-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/05\/11\/profiles-character-development-reporting-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"Character: The beating heart of narrative"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This is the third post in our focused series on the core elements of narrative by nonfiction writer and teacher Lauren Kessler. Previous posts provided an overview of the power of narrative<\/a> and how to build a story through scenes<\/a>. A final post in the series will explore effective endings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Scarlet O\u2019Hara, Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter, Vito Corleone, Jo March, James Bond. What do these fictional folks have in common?<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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They are unforgettable characters. They are embedded in our psyches and imaginations. We feel we know them. And, although we may have little in common with them, we feel a connection.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What if the readers of our stories felt the same way about the people in our journalistic stories\u2014maybe not forever but at least in the moment?<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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They can. And maybe they should.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Among the things I had to unlearn from my traditional journalism training<\/a> as I labored to become a nonfiction storyteller was this: The place of people in a story, and the journalists\u2019 attitude toward people in their stories. I had been taught in j-school classes to think of people as either objects in a story or sources of information for that story. If they were objects, things happened to them (they were robbed) or they did things (they opened a business). If they were sources of information, they were mined for usable material.  Either way, what you did with people was this: You asked them questions. They answered. You scribbled. If you were lucky, you got a good quote. And, maybe, in between scribbling, you looked around for descriptive details to insert in the story. \u201cCluttered desk,\u201d you wrote down diligently.  \u201cCoffee stain on shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Related Posts<\/h2>\n\n
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  1. Narrative as a sum of its parts<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Reporting and writing scenes<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Developing character<\/li>\n
  4. Effective endings<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n <\/div>\n\t\n<\/div> \n
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    But really, it didn\u2019t matter if you saw a person \u2014 live or on Zoom \u2014 or heard a person, or if you spent 10 minutes or two hours with a person, because people only existed to provide information or to answer your specific questions so you could write things about them. My ah-ha!<\/em> moment about this came after I wrote a story based on a long interview believing I understood the person at the core of the story. I didn\u2019t. That was because during the time I spent with her, I saw her not as a character at the center of the story, not as a person to be understood, but rather as a source from whom information could be extracted. She was a cardboard cut-out \u2014 an interesting<\/em> cardboard cut-out, but an object without life.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    Beyond the bio to character<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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    In a recent piece for my Storyboard series on essential narrative elements, I proclaimed that scenes were the heart of narrative journalism<\/a>. I take that back. Characters are the heart. Characters inhabit those scenes and make them work. Characters propel the story forward. They connect us to issues, bring resonance to facts, make us care. People care about people, plain and simple.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    So how do you make a character come alive on the page? Consider those unforgettable fictional characters I mentioned above. What made them come alive for you? You know what they look like, sound like, move like \u2014 not just the ones you\u2019ve seen on screen but the ones you have imagined in your head when you read words on the page. You feel you know them: what they want, what they care about, obstacles they face and how they face them, and enough of their backstory to make some sense of who they are.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    That sounds like a lot. It sounds complicated. But really, it isn\u2019t. What underlies the art of bringing a character to life on the page is the reporting, which comes down to this: Listen. Watch. Let them be who they are.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    Listening does not mean half-listening to a response to one of your questions while the other half of you concentrates on what your next question you be. It means focused attention. It means being sincerely interested \u2014 and mostly silent. Watching is not passive. It is an intense activity that takes enormous concentration. It is the learned and practiced ability to see both big picture and small detail in the moment. By \u201clet them be who they are,\u201d I mean stepping back, not directing the conversation or the action but allowing the character to show you what\u2019s important to them, in words or deed.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    Reporting tools to reveal character<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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    Consider these six ways we have to bring a character to life:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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