BUILDING CHARACTERS IN A STORY- PENMIND WHATSAPP LECTURE by Prince Oloyede Oyedele Abiodun

Lecturer: Hello house

Lecturer: Happy to be here

Penmind Phillips: Happy to be here

Lecturer: Good to be here with you

*Penmind Phillips: Yeah

*Penmind Abdulwaheed: forwarded (‘Good to be here with you’) Good evening sir. This is our lecturer

Lecturer: I am to talk on building characters in a story

*Penmind Abdulwaheed: Yes. You are welcome. Go on sir.

*Beatitude: with due respect

Lecturer: but let’s ask. What is characterization in story writing?

*Beatitude: Characterisation is the building up characters (protagonists and antagonists) in a literary work of arts.

Lecturer: characterization is a literary device used in literature to highlight and explain details about a character in a story.

Lecturer: understanding characterization is essential to writing good stories.

Lecturer: How do we build characters in a story? First picture the characters in  your mind.

*Rotimi Adeniyi:  A character could be introduced from different available point of views of narration

Lecturer: make a kind of plot. Then decide how to introduce the character(s)

*Rotimi Adeniyi: Oh!

Lecturer: You can start by physical description.

Rotimi Adeniyi: Ok.

Lecturer: a visual image

Lecturer: then you can think about the characters qualities-emotion, reaction, belief etc. By now you would have given a short biography of the character 

Lecturer: in developing a character, you must know the character type. Is he romantic, criminal, cop, stoic, master, servant etc.

Lecturer: characters must be real or have the concept of verisimilitude.

Lecturer: verisimilitude means very similar to nature.

Lecturer: a word of caution

Lecturer: your characters must not be perfect

Lecturer: Guide against that

Lecturer: in fact, the masters believe that a character must have a flaw which will ultimately lead to his fall

Penmind Phillips: Yeah.

Lecturer: in writing and when you want to espouse your character you may choose the first person narration or third person narration

*Penmind Phillips: You are right prince

Lecturer: whichever you choose will affect how you develop your character

Lecturer: in the first person narration, you know the character through his thought process

Lecturer: what is he thinking about? How he perceives himself

Lecturer: what he thinks about other characters/ and his conversation with them

Lecturer: another angle/ modern literature has changed a lot

Lecturer: Aristotle believed that ‘Plot supersedes character’/ but in modern literature character is the king

Lecturer: though as writers, you are free to write any way you want

Lecturer: In my time, we also talk about character types but I’m surprised it is not being talked about so much now.

Lecturer: then, we talked of straight, flat, rounded, developed etc. character types

Lecturer: now I can only find what is referred to as direct or indirect characters.  

Lecturer: direct is when the narrator, other characters talk about a character

Lecturer: indirect is when readers are allowed to make deductions

Lecturer: in Drama, more is known about a character through dialogue/ you have to keep all these in mind when writing

Lecturer: research your subject thoroughly before writing/ plot your character building as you write/ mind their language and keep them real

Lecturer: thank you all for following me

Lecturer: Your questions if any please

Penmind Ireal: (Research your subject thoroughly before writing) ‘ elaborate sir.’

Lecturer: yes/ on what

Beatitude:  I have a question

Lecturer: go on

Beatitude: can you please explain the direct and indirect character well? I don’t really understand

Lecturer: Ok.

Penmind Kabir: please sir, which one comes to mind in writing to develop a story out of subject matter that ushers in characters which in turn develop the whole plot? I mean that comes first

Lecturer: Ok.

Lecturer: when you talk of direct characterization you are talking about a narrator saying ‘Mr O has been a thief all his life’

Lecturer: indirect is when the reader makes deduction

Beatitude: (indirect is when the reader makes deduction) ‘I don’t understand.’

Lecturer: Eg ( Mr O enters the room, he gingerly opened the safe and scooped the trinkets into his pocket. He looks right and left and quickly exited through the window.

Beatitude: (Eg ( Mr O enters the room, he gingerly opened the safe and scooped the trinkets into his pocket. He looks right and left and quickly exited through the window.) ‘This should be imagery.’

Lecturer: follow my example/ can you see the difference?

Lecturer: in the first example, you were told that Mr O is a thief

Beatitude: yes/ go ahead please

Lecturer: in the second you make your deduction./ Ok

Lecturer: when you start to write you first do a rough plot before others come in/ you must know your story line before you start writing

Lecturer: are you satisfied?

Beatitude: So, it means direct goes straight to expose the character, while indirect takes a crooked way to expose the character, bit by bit… I’m I right?

Lecturer: Yes/ Though I won’t accept crooked . It is just a style

Beatitude: I know/ I understand now

Lecturer: for example, if you know about the Brechtian school in playwriting they won’t say this right but will allow the audience to make their minds up

Penmind Bukola: Thank you sir.

Lecturer: That is why some of their plays are open ended

Penmind Bukola: Tonight lecture has really added greatly to my knowledge

Lecturer: A case in point is ‘Once Upon four Robbers’ by Osofisan Femi

Lecturer: thanks

Lecturer: Happy to share with you all.

Penmind Abdulwaheed: Our lecturer tonight graduated from department of Theatre Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is the Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors Osun State Chapter. He is also the Deputy Registrar of the Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke, Osun State. He is a prolific writer: he writes across genres of literature. He is happily married with children.

Penmind Abdulwaheed: Please let’s appreciate HIM.

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Some members of the group appreciated the lecture/ lecturer with smileys while used texts.

Penmind Godwin: it was enlightening

Penmind Mubarak: It was mouth gaping/ what an aesthetic speech

Beatitude: Thanks Mr Lecturer

Lecturer: Thank you all./ keep writing

Katoonspeak: I am not surprised, it takes certain mettle to be the chairman of an elite associate…I doff my featherless hat to your gold crested crown sir.