SWRT 220 | Writer as Student of Human Nature

September 2, 2021

person typing on MacBook Pro on brown wooden table during daytime photo

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida, Kathryn, & Robert ask how can we develop our characters if we aren’t naturally curious about people? We three writers find ourselves putting our friends, family, neighbors, even strangers under our version of the microscope. What do we–and our stories–gain as observers of human nature? Where does our authenticity come from as writers? Is there a method to our madness?

We’re always diving into the lives and minds of our characters in an effort to bring them to life for our readers, which makes us amateur, or armchair, psychologists. But how do we keep from getting it wrong? The key is not a technicality of research or analysis, or in our attitude toward others. We’ve found that compassion and empathy make for the best character development.

VIDEO

AUDIO

SHOW NOTES

What we talked about:

How can we help build our characters with curiosity? (0:55)

How do we observe the people around us? What kind of research is it? (3:14)

How do you fix a characters psychology if it isn’t ringing true? (6:00)

Be careful with what you observe! (7:20)

Do we try to nail down the psychology in the first draft or pre-writing? Or do we just wing it? (10:10)

Curiosity tempered by empathy! (15:00)

Build the world view of your character. (18:30)

LINKS

Get Alida’s Writing Tips here.

Things we mentioned:

The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus by Becca Puglisi & Angela Ackerman

Want more about these topics? Check out:

SWRT 028 Emotional Wound Thesaurus

Have thoughts, questions, other examples? Join the conversation at the Story Works Writers Facebook group.

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About Your Hosts

Alida Winternheimer is an award-winning author with an MFA in writing from Hamline University. She pursues her fervor for all things story as a writing coach, developmental editor, and teacher. Two of her short stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is the author of The Story Works Guide to Writing Fiction Series. Alida lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her Golden Retriever, Seva the Wonder Dog. She camps, bikes, and kayaks in her free time. Unless it’s winter, in which case she drinks chai by the fire. You can find more at www.alidawinternheimer.com.

Kathryn Arnold writes fantasy and anything else that sparks her creativity from her home in Kingston, Washington. She currently earns her living as an insurance underwriting assistant, where she also creates marketing and web copy. When not writing, she plays (and teaches) piano and keyboard in a band (or two), and is working on starting a ministry team with her husband. You can find Kathryn at www.skyfirewords.com.

Robert Scanlon was born in Australia, but whisked off to England when only a baby. After many years complaining about the weather, he did the sensible thing and moved back to Australia. Despite a career in the music industry, followed by decades teaching public speaking, Robert is an introvert who adores reading. Robert grew up on a diet of sci-fi masters, eventually discovering he had read the library’s entire science fiction section. Now he has to write his own. Robert is the author of Constellation, book one of the Blood Empire space opera series. Find out more at www.RobertScanlon.com