Imagine you’re sitting down to write your story. You’ve outlined your plot, you know what your characters are going to say, and you can see each beat flowing so clearly in your mind it’s like you‘re watching a mini movie.
You’re ready.
Until you actually start writing and the magic doesn’t happen. What comes out of your pencil is just…boring. And you know if that if you, the AUTHOR, aren’t engaged, then your readers sure as hell won’t be.
Sound familiar?
I used to struggle with figuring out what caused this. I thought everything was going to be perfect. My dialogue felt natural, the characters were moving from one spot to the other logically, my pacing was balanced, so what was the problem?
My narrator didn’t have a voice.
Let me just point out one thing before I get started: narration and viewpoint are terms that are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are NOT the same thing. Viewpoint (or POV) refers to the format in which the story is being written (first person, second person, third person). The narrator is the character that relays the story to the reader. One does affect the other, but they ARE separate writing components.
Not every author uses a narrator, and there’s nothing that says you HAVE to. But I do like to use narrators and I have a feeling most of you will agree with me because why do we read? We read for fun. We read to get pulled into another world and live out another life there, however briefly.
Narrators are what help make that possible. They’re emotional powerhouses. Even if they aren’t directly a part of the action, they have their own personalities, their own backstories, their own relationships that color the way they see the world. They share their eyes with us, the readers, and take us along for the ride.
And in order to do that, they need a strong voice.
I go very far into my narrators’ heads. I show their thoughts and feelings as much as I can without slipping into a first-person POV. You don’t have to do the same thing. It’s all down to your personal preference and personal strengths. But no matter how deep or shallow you go inside the character’s head, you need to have a very strong grasp on their voice in order to wield it effectively.
Sometimes you get lucky, and it’s easy, because the character you’re using is similar to you or someone you know, and you can almost substitute your own voice and have it work out. That’s what happened for me when I wrote a very cranky Tatl in “Perspectives.” I’m no stranger to high levels of sass (it runs deep in my family) and I used to feel the same overwhelming exhaustion and 110%-over-it irritation every Monday morning when I was in school.
But when I wrote “Interlude,” it was not nearly as easy.
Rauru had to be my narrator for that story. There was no other option. The only other character present (Link) was currently in a coma. So Rauru it was. Unfortunately, I couldn’t nail down his personality outside of extreme chattiness, and I couldn’t get inside his head.
He was adding nothing to his own story.
After weeks of thinking, struggling, thinking some more, and almost a year-long hiatus, I finally figured out a way to help me turn Rauru into a real person, someone who actually felt rooted in canon and whose thoughts and emotions could finally make their way into the words of “Interlude” and give it the spark it was missing.
I call this exercise a traits list.
(Epic name, I know)
It took a bit of work to put together, but it was invaluable when I wrote “Interlude” and I’ve been using it for some of my other stories as well. This is how Rauru’s eventually turned out:
This is the closest I have to a standard example. This might be all you need if you’re a visual learner or just needed a quick frame of reference, and that’s fine. But if you want to learn more about how I created the list and how it worked for me, then stick with me for a little longer. These are the basic steps of creating a traits list.
Step 1: Gather evidence.
Photo courtesy of Ousa Chea
You know what that means, right? Research. Find out anything and everything you can about your chosen narrator. Look up every scene they’re in, even if they’re in the background. Observe them closely. Listen to what they say. Watch their face. See how they react to things. See how they get along with the other characters.
Then look up any supplemental material you can find. Almost every fandom has an individual wiki nowadays that are goldmines of knowledge. Read about your narrator’s backstories, anything that gives information, insight, or context about them.
You might think you know all their appearances by heart, but sometimes looking back with a critical eye can make a big difference. When I thought about Rauru’s first appearance as Kaepora Gaebora in Ocarina of Time, I remembered his speech being full of new player exposition. But on a hunch, I found a video of the scene on YouTube and realized that there was more to it than that. He’s actually being very nice to Link, giving the boy directions and encouragement, and later, he does this:
Photo courtesy of Nintendo Assets Library
To a veteran player, this is just a random quirk. But to a little boy who had recently lost his father figure, had to leave his best friend, and is out in an unfamiliar world? Probably sparked a much-needed smile. How could it not, when his giant eyebrows make an awesome mustache? That gesture suddenly seemed a lot sweeter to me.
I watched videos of all Rauru’s conversations in the game and then looked him up on the fan wikis and Hyrule Historia, and all that research leads directly to the next step.
Step 2: Write it down
Photo courtesy of Thought Catalog
Make a Word Document, open a Note on your phone, or grab a pencil and paper, but be sure you write your findings down! I cannot stress this enough. Keeping everything in your head is a good way for information to get muddled around or even forgotten. It’s almost a relief to empty your mind a little bit too.
For one thing, it’s useful. You put all your research in one spot so you don’t have to go back and redo it later. But I found it actually helped me process the information. When you look at my example above, you’ll see that my traits list is not just a thin column of characteristics like ‘friendly’ or ‘smart.’ Each trait has justification next to it, almost as though I’m defending a thesis or using a citation.
What that did was help me better understand each component of Rauru’s character. I started with the easy ones – he is obviously talkative given his long-winded speeches and as a Sage, he was undoubtedly wise and a repertoire of knowledge. But then I realized that he was an ANCIENT Sage and was never seen outside the Temple of Time unless he was possessing an owl. It made me theorize that he was old, very old, and lonely. That made me think that perhaps he’s so talkative because he hasn’t spoken to anyone in years, possibly centuries.
And it went on from there. The more I wrote, the more the thoughts connected to each other. Light bulbs would go off my head in the middle of a sentence. I began to see what traits were more important to Rauru’s character (friendliness, loneliness, his lack of combat skills) and which ones were more minor (his sense of humor).
This is when I really began to see him as a person.
Try to write in a stream-of-consciousness style. Turn off your spell check, don’t set any word limits, and you can write the whole thing in fragments if you want. Strip away any expectations and just write. You’d be surprised at what new insight pops into your head.
Step 3: Draw valid conclusions
This connects to step 2 in a lot of ways, but I want to expand upon it. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big believer of sticking to canon as much as possible unless I’m specifically doing an alternate universe. As such, I try to write characters as close to their established personalities as I can, and try not to contradict anything that happens in canon. It’s my way of showing respect to the creator, it makes the characters feel more real to me, and I like the idea that my stories could actually fit into canon almost seamlessly.
That being said, sticking to ‘canon’ isn’t as easy as it sounds because, as those who have discussed books in English/literature class can attest to, any fictional character is open to interpretation. It doesn’t matter if they are major or minor, male or female, or hero or villain. A single character could have about a hundred different interpretations.
But what did our teachers (hopefully) tell us? Almost any interpretation is valid if you can present evidence to support it.
If you’re writing a major character from a fandom, you’ll have a lot of in-canon evidence to choose from, but the minor ones rarely get as much development. So you often have to draw your own conclusions in order to give them enough depth to be an effective narrator.
My advice is when you write your traits list, start with the most obvious character traits and go from there, like I mentioned in step 2. If, when you’re done, you feel like you need more to round out your character, read over your list and see if you can connect a couple of traits to create a third.
When I wrote Rauru’s, I gave him a fatherly relationship with Link. He’s shown watching over Link at multiple points of his journey, and the two seem to develop a cute friendship of sorts. When Kaepora Gaebora flies Link down to Kakariko Village, he doesn’t fly in a straight line. He swoops, he dives, he is giving the boy a fun ride. I thought it was sweet.
If you aren’t sure if your interpretation is logical, talk to someone else! Explain your reasoning. See if they can understand your conclusion.
And lastly, step 4: Be as thorough as possible
Photo courtesy of Ed Robertson
This is less of an individual step and more of a guideline for the rest of the exercise, but it still deserves mention.
Even if you think a piece of evidence isn’t pertinent to your story, write it down. It might not factor directly into your plot, but it could still be important to your character and affect their voice.
Rauru is pretty lighthearted in the early part of Ocarina of Time but is much more serious by the time Link’s an adult. “Interlude” takes place in the middle of the time gap, so that change hasn’t happened yet. But I did include ‘serious’ in my traits list anyways because the contrast was notable and I thought the events of my story could play a role in his transition. That aspect of his character later worked its way into his reflection at the end of the story.
And that, in a very big nutshell, is the trait’s list!
It can take a lot of work, but if you’re struggling and struggling with a story, sometimes shaking things up and trying something new can help you solve the problem.
The best thing? I’ve found that this exercise is actually pretty adaptable and you can use it in a bunch of different ways, like:
1. Fanfiction – As you can see with my example with Rauru, I found creating a traits list to be very helpful for building voices for narrators I wasn’t familiar with or had a very small personality.
2. Original fiction – You can’t exactly do research for original characters the same way you can with fanfiction since all the evidence is from a canon YOU created. But if you’re still having trouble developing a narrator, try creating a traits list for what you WANT the character to be like. You can then crosscheck with your story and see what characteristics are solidly present and what needs to be expanded.
3. Consistency – No matter if you’re writing fanfiction or original work, keeping your characters consistent is one of the most important things you can do. Your characters are what the readers rely on, even more than setting or time period. A traits list keeps everything in one place so you can refer to it whenever you need to. Even if you’re coming back from a hiatus, you can read over it and pick up right where you left off.
4. No limits – Want to make a list for your hero and one for your villain? Go ahead. One list has twelve traits and one has fifty? No problem. Have one for your narrator and one for a random side character? What not? Want to make a new list after each chapter? Sure. You can do whatever works for you. There’s no limit to how many or how few lists you make.
5. The future – Inspiration can strike at any time. I currently have no further plans to write another story with Rauru as my narrator, but I might not be able to say the same thing tomorrow. If that happens? I have my list ready so I won’t need to re-research everything. And if I work with any characters who are similar to Rauru, I’ll have an easier time now.
Want practice before you try it with a character? Make one for yourself, or for a friend or family member. Use your memories for evidence. Ask someone else to review it if you think you need a second opinion. My roommate and I did something like this a few years ago. It was fun, and very uplifting!
As always, thank you for reading and I hope you find this exercise helpful in your writing careers!
Until next time!
Photo courtesy of Reuben Juarez