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Originally Posted by Augi
Without a conflict, you are writing a descriptive piece.
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Exactly! This is what we're doing. A single page isn't long enough to really create and resolve a conflict while simultaneously developing a character. If we take that as given, we're reduced to choosing one focus or the other; either we write about the conflict or the character, since we don't have enough room for both. Given the nature of the assignment, the choice is fairly straightforward.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Augi
If inside we find that there is a conflict, and we can observe how this conflict is dealt with, then we have an actual character that lives and breathes, not just an image or a statue of a person.
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Sometimes I'm not as clear in articulating my thoughts as I'd like to be. This is especially true at moments such as this, when I've gone (eep) 22 hours without sleep. Growth defines a character, but the growth need not be concurrent with the story. Consider Bill the failed pro ball player who lives his dream vicariously through absorbing all things Mariners. He works a banal desk job to support his family, whom he loves dearly, but isn't really satisfied with it. He's always a bit preoccupied with what might have been. Now that his son is getting a bit older, he's begun pushing the boy in the direction of baseball and is wondering if he's right to attempt to force his child into living his own dream.
Or perhaps his son is from his first marriage. Perhaps the boy, now grown, relates to his dad through baseball. Bill might sit in his office cubicle, looking at keepsakes and remembering events of years past; games attended together, milestones reached, first home run, that sort of thing. Perhaps even his son is a young man now and has embarked on his own career in the navy. Bill is proud of his son for doing good work in the military, but deeply misses the bond they developed and the weekly ritual of watching games together.
Both of these scenarios present a rounded character and neither one contains a conflict happening concurrently to the story. Instead, we view past events as filtered through Bill's perception. The key to giving him dimension as a character is that we touch on several character traits; we can do this while maintaining a focus on baseball, even, simply by incorporating other aspects of Bill's life.
Think of it like a graph. Bill as a baseball fan has one point on the graph, which is baseball. This Bill is one-dimensional; he's a dot. If we add another point we create a line, if we add another we can create something a little more substantial and another past that allows us to create an actual three-dimensional character.
Okay, so I'm stretching the metaphor a bit. The point is that by giving Bill more traits, we create a deeper character. We give Bill more of a personality, which makes him seem more vital. Then, by attaching an emotion to the piece, we can create a connection between Bill and the reader. We give the reader something to empathize with, which makes the piece more interesting to read.
It's not really a statue so much as it's a snapshot.