BALZAC
Emotional tags:
“His bitter thoughts were dispersed by the pleasure that he looked forward to in dining at the countess.”
-tags should be used to describe emotion, and the stronger the emotion the stronger the tag should be. “He wept with happiness . . . ”
-tags should be used when the pace quickens and when characters react with strong emotion
DICKENS
When you think of a good description, look for a better one.
For creating characters, he would use exaggerated and satirical descriptions and then paint the character immediately into a conflict.
Some conflicts were internal, and were told to the reader via secret thoughts of the character, but are not verbalized or it is delayed for suspense.
Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.
MELVILLE
Reread text for insertion of poetic devices like alliteration or consonance.
Four Devices used for Characterization
Complexity: describe the character with conflicting characteristics, he is good bad, sad and happy, generous and stingy
Unreliability: talk about the character using different voices, which provide different versions of who the person is, this draws the reader into the mystery or controversy of who the character actually is. It requires them to get involved by sifting through conflicting information.
Selection: zeroing in on select traits, e.g., monomania in Ahab.
Mystery: directly stating to reader that there are things about the character that are unknown or unknowable. That there is more to learn about the man.
DOSTOEVSKY
Viewpoint control:
read part five chapter four of C&P and make a blog note
When D switches from mind to mind he does it when the character is at the height of emotion.
D is careful not to overburden the reader with thoughts by making alternating thought/action patterns. “She looked at him with astonishment. She still did not know why it had been done.”
Transitions:
Rule 1: make it quick
Rule 2: add an emotional element to the new location in the mind of the focus character.
Extra credit: make the emotional element a reversal.
For example in The Idiot when Myshkin is taken to see the dead princess, the scene transitions with Myshkin “joyfully talking” and then shows him the dead girl, a total reversal in his energy.
Rule 3: what is on the outside is what is on the inside. In other words, the physical description should reflect the interior content of the character.
Descriptions:
Use emotional tags within descriptions to make them more interesting.