Amy Sue Nathan

Character vs. caricature

When I think of a caricature I think of a guy or a gal, sitting behind an easel in a park or at a Bar Mitzvah drawing pictures that exacerbate willing models’ strengths and weaknesses.  If you have a big nose, you can bet, in a caricature, your schnoz is going to take up the whole page.  These artists won’t insult you per se, but they will take one thing about you that you just can’t miss that’s pretty innocuous and play off it so that the person on the canvas/paper is unmistakably recognizable to everyone who knows you.

It’s fun and it’s cute and takes skill, that’s for sure.  But what’s missing are the details.  The details that would make it really you.  Really special and different from what everyone can see and everything that’s obvious.

Just like in a book.

I love to recognize a character in a book but I don’t want him or her to be obvious and predictable and without detail.  I want the little things that make them special, stand out, different, unexpected, troubling – maybe even ridiculous or contradictory.

In various capacities I’ve been privileged to read a lot of full and partial manuscripts since September.  What always raises a red flag is when a character is predictable or typical.  I read and wait for something special, a spark, a flaw or quality that makes someone believable — even if it’s fantastical or supernatural.  Woven well into the character’s being it makes him or more than the typical guy or the typical girl or even the typical werewolf, faerie or vampire.  That’s when the person or being on the page becomes worth your time – when there are nuances to become vested in.  It doesn’t matter if the book is adult, YA or MG.  I read them all — and the same truth holds true.  It’s the little something special that pulls you in, maybe after the familiar has piqued your interest.

As writers we strive to write relatable characters — but we can’t forget that while we want some bits to jump off the page like the recognizable nose — we want shadows and shadings, nuances underneath the surface that make one person special, different from the rest, that makes you step back and look at something close up to see one thing and step back to see something completely different — and everyone looking at it sees someone — or something — different.

Characters are open to interpretation, caricatures are not.  They pretty straightforward, and after a while…boring. So if you’re writing about anything or anyone and the word “typical” crosses your lips…think of adding “except for” to the description to make the image a little more interesting.