Character Unveiled: 5 Expert Techniques Using 'Show Don't Tell'

EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Ever feel like using 'show, don't tell' in revealing true character is challenging or almost impossible ? Watch this episode with Zena to learn 5 easy to apply tips on how to do just that!

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[00:00:00] Thank you so much for joining me today. Before we get started, I want to ask you to take a moment to like and subscribe To this podcast.

[00:00:18] It's essential that you do that. If you want this podcast to stick around, you're just going to have to do it. So please do that. And also I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a message for me. Tell me what you think of this episode and also list in the comment sections what sorts of subjects you'd like to see me address in future episodes.

[00:00:38] I want to make sure you're getting what you need out of this podcast. I want to address your questions on craft. So please do like and subscribe to this podcast and comment in the section below. Okay, having said that, let's get into today's episode. 

[00:00:55] And I'll start with a story. I recently had a client call me who was on the verge of panic, saying that she needed my help because she couldn't figure out how to apply this whole show don't tell thing to her main character. She was having difficulty revealing to her audience who she was.

[00:01:12] who her character really was at heart. And this is one of the hardest and yet most crucial things to master in storytelling. The art of revelation. The art of showing and not telling who a character is deep down inside. Just like in real life when we're in a relationship with someone, We want to know who the character is beneath the mask or behind the public persona.

[00:01:37] We want to know the part of them that they're trying to hide from everybody else. Otherwise, we don't feel like we really know them. Are they good or are they cowardly? Are they mean, selfish, heroic? What are they really like? What kind of a person are they to be with? Do they make life pleasant or miserable?

[00:01:56] And what are the clues that you can plant? What are the clues that the audience looks for to be able to make that assessment. That's what my client wanted to know. So today I'm going to share with you five easy to use, mind blowing tips that you can incorporate immediately into whatever project you're working on.

[00:02:17] And the place to start Is with tip number one, you have to know the difference between characterization and true character. Now we've talked about this, but I'm going to repeat. I'm going to remind you of the definitions. Characterization is the sum. Of all the observable traits that I could see about someone simply by following them around for a while and taking notes.

[00:02:42] How much education they have, whether they're rich or poor, male, female. Strong physically or weak physically? What's their age, their height, their hair color?

[00:02:53] As you can see, the list could go on and on and on and on. And while all of these things are valuable, and while they may end up in the They better, if you're going to include them in the story.

[00:03:06] They are not true character. They are character traits. True character is revealed by the choices a person makes under pressure. The greater the pressure, the greater the choice in revealing the true character. Which leads us to tip number two. If you want to reveal true character, then You need to put your character in tight situations and force them to make hard choices.

[00:03:37] I used to have a friend who said that people are like grapes. When you squeeze them, you see what's on the inside. And so it is with character. You need to squeeze them. If you really want to show what your character is made of, You simply create a high pressure scenario, a high stress situation, and you drop your character into the midst of it where they are forced to make some hard, spur of the moment choices.

[00:04:04] Now it needs to be a situation where they have to act quickly. They can't have a lot of time to weigh their options. They have to choose quickly if they have too long, or if they have the time to concoct a whole plan. It sort of defeats the purpose. It's about who they are when they have to improvise, which means they have to rely on their wi.

[00:04:29] It's the high stakes that really reveals those things about the character. This is how you show us what kind of a man or woman they truly are. Which leads me to tip number three, catch the character off guard. One way to accomplish Having them reveal to us who they are in these high pressure scenarios that weren't planned out is to simply do something in the story that completely takes your character by surprise. For example, maybe your character is minding his or her own business.

[00:05:04] Maybe he's buying flowers from a local street vendor. And then, boom! Out of nowhere, the coffee house next door explodes in a rain of gunfire and glass. People take off screaming and running for cover. They're getting shot in the back as they try to flee.

[00:05:20] It's complete mayhem. Your character dives behind the flower kiosk, temporarily out of harm's way, but just as confused as everyone else. Still, he musters the courage to peek over the top of the kiosk to identify the source of the danger to see what's happening. And he sees three mass shooters in military formation and garb moving systematically down the street in his direction.

[00:05:47] They're shooting anyone and everyone that they come across. They're not after military personnel. They're shooting civilians. So our character ducks out of view, his mind reeling. How is he gonna escape? He knows he's as good as dead. So what does he do? What does he do? This is a high pressure situation that your character has found himself in.

[00:06:09] So maybe your character looks around, and now he's trying to find a possible way out. And he notices, he notices a space between the garbage cans and the wall that, if he can get to it without being seen, would give him cover all the way to the end of the alley where he could finally make his way to safety.

[00:06:26] But of course, first he has to get to the garbage cans without being detected. without being shot. But then he notices that there's a car blocking the path of the shooter that's nearest to him, the one that would be most likely to shoot him, and that the shooter, when that shooter encounters the car, will have to walk around it, which would give him the chance he needs, possibly, to make his escape.

[00:06:47] So, we're The question, of course, becomes, does he take it, does he risk it, or does he take his chances in his current hiding place? That's a choice. He has to make a choice and let's say he decides to risk it. And so now he's just waiting for the perfect moment. He's biding his time, waiting to make a break for it.

[00:07:05] And just when the shooter is about to get in the right position, cough, cough, he hears a sputtering noise from somewhere nearby. And he looks over to see that the flower vendor is still alive, laying in a pool of his own blood And of course. He's a sitting duck on the verge of being killed.

[00:07:24] So now our guy has another choice. When the moment comes, should he try to save himself or should he take that opportunity to get to the vendor and pull the vendor back out of harm's way? But if he does. he'll have to use his only window of opportunity to escape.

[00:07:45] Uh oh, time's up, he's gotta act now. What does your character? So this is an example of a high pressure situation where your character has been taken by surprise. 

[00:07:58] and we have continued to put pressure on him in the midst of the crisis Forcing him to make harder and harder choices as he goes The first choice was about whether or not he was going to be a coward or whether or not he was going to be courageous and try to save himself or try to make a break for it.

[00:08:17] Because that takes courage, by the way. It's often easier to just sit and hide and hope and pray that they don't see you, right? So that is the first choice that he faced. But the second one is Oh crap, now do I waste that opportunity, the one opportunity that I have to save somebody else and then hope that we don't get seen.

[00:08:42] So you're putting pressure on your character in the midst of the crisis, forcing him or her to make harder and harder choices as he goes. All of which reveals true character. But of course you can't always take your character by surprise. If you do that, you'll end up having a passive character and we need them to drive the action.

[00:09:05] so when you do take a character by surprise, what you then have to do is put in The impetus back on your main character to now make choices that drive the action. If they do this, then this will happen. If they do this, then this will happen. Now it's up to them to drive the action, which we'll talk about more in a later session. First, let me present awesome tip number four. Another way that you can do this so you can reveal true character is you can take away his toys. Now, your character drives the action of the story by pursuing his main goal, yes? So he's after something the whole time, he's pursuing something, that's what story is.

[00:09:50] But as he pursues his goal, he inevitably is going to create scenarios for himself that are dangerous. But he has to face those obstacles in order to keep pursuing his goal. The good thing about these is that he can see them coming. Which means, in those moments, your character has probably made adequate preparations for himself in advance.

[00:10:11] And in fact, if your character hasn't made adequate preparations when he knows something's coming, then we will hate them. Because we'll think of them as foolish. So your character needs to make sure that if they see something coming, they take adequate precautions or preparations in advance. Which means that one of the major things he's going to do is find weapons to protect himself, toys, provisions, tools, anything that he can use to maximize his chances of success and minimize his chances for failure. Even if the tools at his disposal are meager, he'll arm himself with anything that might give him even the tiniest advantage. 

[00:10:52] So, if your character knows that they're going to have to go into this dangerous part of town, They might make sure they have a charged cell phone. They might make sure they have a weapon. They might make sure they bring a buddy. 

[00:11:04] There's a number of things that they might do to prepare for that event. And if they can, if they have the time to prepare for it, they have to. Now it might be, again, it might be that you combine these, of course, where they're taken by surprise, so all of a sudden somebody shows up and says we need you to come with us now, and your character is completely unprepared and has nothing, and then you have to deal with that, and that's fun to do because they were taken by surprise.

[00:11:32] But if they have even the slightest moment, He has to arm himself with something that could give him an advantage So once he has that then he's gonna enter the arena prepared to fight wielding the weapons He's bequeathed unto himself and that's the way you have to look at it It doesn't matter if it's actually going into an arena to fight Everything is a fight in story if he's being called into the boss's office That is the arena that he's going to fight.

[00:12:05] If he's going into his mother's room, that's the arena. If he's going into the counseling office with his bride to be, that's the arena. These are the arenas. There's always arenas. And every situation is an arena. Where your character needs to be prepared to fight and they're going to wield the weapons that they have that they've acquired that they've brought Into that scenario with them and that is when you take them away You systematically and relentlessly destroy Anything that your character could rely on other than him or herself You take away their toys until they've got nothing left but their own wits.

[00:12:52] So if in their wallet they had a little beacon, signal beacon, they get pushed in the water and the signal dies. Nobody's coming for them. if he brings into the counseling session, proof of his wife's infidelity, which he thinks is going to give him the moral grounds to leave her all of a sudden, before he can bring out the tool, his wife confesses.

[00:13:16] Which renders it meaningless and ineffective. And now he has to respond differently, or whatever the case may be. He's got to have nothing left but his own wits. So take away their toys, whatever they go into that situation with. Which leads me to the final tip of today, which is number five.

[00:13:36] Everything that can go wrong in that scenario must go wrong. Now again, since your character is driving the action, and they're aware of the danger ahead, in addition to weapons, he'd better be working out a well formulated plan. And this is important, because if the character has time to plan, the character must plan, or we will not have any respect for that character.

[00:13:58] We don't like characters who choose to wing it. We will Not have respect for them. Now, of course if you want to show a character that chooses to wing it Then you're showing a very specific kind of character, which means they're an idiot and Maybe that's part of their redemptive trajectory nevertheless Usually you're going to show a character who takes advantage of whatever time they have Available to himself to arm himself with a solid and well thought out strategy He needs to concoct the best possible plan that he can, and make provision for every possible contingency that he can think of in that moment, just in case something goes wrong.

[00:14:37] He tries to predict any possible problem, and then he can go into the battle confident that he's thought through everything. But of course, nothing goes according to plan. Everything falls apart. The whole thing goes haywire. And once again, your character then is forced to improvise. They have to use their wits.

[00:14:58] They have to rely on nothing but themselves. They have to think fast under pressure and make hard choices, which then reveals their true character. And by the way, here's a little freebie for you on this point. If you're trying to show a heroic character, then whatever goes wrong at this stage can't really be their fault.

[00:15:17] Now maybe they feel responsible because a hero they feel responsible for things that never really are theirs by assignment. And maybe he feels responsible because he feels like He should have foreseen whatever happens. He should have seen it coming.

[00:15:31] But at the end of the day, really there should have been no way for him to have predicted whatever it was. So let him blame himself. Let others blame him. But ultimately, there have to be factors at play that were beyond his control to predict. That were beyond his power to have foreseen. It simply cannot be entirely his fault.

[00:15:53] Now, it can be partially his fault, especially if you want to redeem the character. Maybe they had been told by somebody, Don't do it, don't enter, it's not safe. But they made the decision. They made the wrong call because they're under pressure. And, but now that plays into now that they had to have done it because it was worthwhile to make that choice.

[00:16:12] But it turned out they made the wrong choice or maybe they trusted the hostage. But it turns out the hostage was a plant like in, in Indiana Jones in the last where, the German woman Ilsa turns out to be one of the bad guys. And his father, Sean Connery, says, don't listen to her. She's with them. But Indy's afraid for her life. And so he makes the choice to put down his weapons. And then it turns out she really is a bad guy. So maybe they make the wrong choice in that moment, but they have to have had good reasons to make it.

[00:16:46] All the evidence they had told them that that would be the right choice. But now, of course, There's plenty of fodder for blame and for recrimination and for self loathing to take place. Alright, so the point is you simply cannot have it be their fault if you want to show that he's heroic.

[00:17:09] Or if it is their fault, they had justified reasons for making that choice, even if it was the wrong one. Alright, so these are just some easy to use easy to apply quick tips that you can immediately apply to your story to reveal true character in whatever project you're working on. All you really have to remember is the overarching principle, which is that true character is revealed by the choices that your character makes under pressure, by our actions under pressure.

[00:17:44] What is your character going to do? And then you put them in a situation where they have to make hard choices and you let us see what choices they make. I hope that this has been helpful for you. if you like these tips and you find them helpful, 

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[00:18:17] So you get everything you need on story structure. So Sign up don't miss this opportunity. It's about to be closed off You won't have another opportunity to sign up at this low price All you have to do is click on the link in the notes section, and you'll be able to sign up for this course today. 

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