Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, brought to you by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a character freebie, so I’m going to be talking about one of my favourite character types: complex characters.
Any well-developed character is going to have complexity; that’s part of what makes us humans such, ahem, interesting people. 😉 They’ll have strengths and weaknesses…
If you’ve read my Best of 2016 post, you’ll know I promised a post where I highlighted books according to various memorable features. Well, this has turned out to be Part 1 of that list. Which actually makes it Part 2 of my ‘Best of’ series. Confused? Don’t worry! It’s not really that important. Just read the post anyway. 🙂 It is worth mentioning that this list is compiled from books that I read in 2016, not necessarily just books that were published in 2016. Clicking on the cover will take you that book’s Amazon page, and there is also
Seriously, if you want some great examples of how to capture the essence of a minor character in a few sentences, read Thomas Locke’s Emissary. Here’s another one I posted recently. Now, picture this if you will: “The older man wore his remaining hair like a froth encircling his bald pate. His breastplate had been scrubbed and polished until it shone like silver. It was the only military aspect about him. He was peevish and flaccid and chinless.” I love the combination of ‘peevish’ and ‘flaccid’. Isn’t flaccid such a… well… flaccid word? Incidentally, the second book in the Legends
I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty boring when an author introduces a character by simply describing what they look like (or by relating their life’s story). But I love it when an author captures the essence of a character in two or three well-written sentences. Like this description I just read today: “The mayor’s wife mirrored his girth and utterly lacked Norvin’s good humour. She was both rotund and big-boned and greeted the world with the sharp edge of her tongue.”