Writing: How to Make Fourth Dimensional Characters

In the latest session of our local writing group, one of our fine talented writers shared some good insight on how to create characters that are deep and meaningful.  This is all information that I think I've always been cognizant of, but never fully articulated, especially in such a structured fashion.  This information can benefit all writers, new or established, because character development and pathos is probably the most important element to writing compelling stories.  Looking over these aspects, I realize that there are things to my own characters that I tend to overlook; I'm usually good at building the third and fourth dimensions, but I often skip over the first two.

So, to build great characters, four dimensions are required:

First Dimension:  The Photograph (because you look at a photograph, a static image, and get a first impression from looks alone).  Aspects to this include:

• Static traits:  a person's size, weight, hair color, eye color, skin color, deformities, scars, tattoos, clothes, and any other number of observable traits.
• When writing about these static traits, there is a tendency to stop all the action and spend a paragraph or two to dump all the details of a person's description all at once.  This is a mistake I'm guilty of...pretty much all of the time.  It's better to take these descriptions and use them as the action unfolds.  So instead of having a chunk of text that says "so-and-so looks like this and that," consider something like "so-and-so ran his hand over his smooth black hair..."
• Going hand-in-hand with the above, it's also better to use active verbs to describe a person rather than inactive verbs.

Second Dimension:  The Videotape (because when you look at a video, you can see a person in motion; action speak louder than words).  Aspects to this include:

•  Active traits:  how a person moves, how he speaks, how he goes about his daily life, how he walks, how he runs, how he drives, how he interacts with other people, how he eats, how he sleeps, and any number of other subtle clues and mannerisms.
• A person's voice can be important for character building to.  It may be wise to consider describing the pitch, tone, accent, and other aspects of a person's voice.
• These traits can be important, because it's a transition from how a person looks to what he's really like.

Third Dimension:  The Stageplay (because when you see a play, you see the action unfolding around the characters in a dramatic fashion).  These aspects are:

• How a person acts or reacts to circumstances.
• Character traits, such as how sociable he is, how well he gets along with others, what his level of responsibility is, beliefs of all sorts, intelligence level, sensitivity, temperament, and any number of other traits that will affect how he acts in the long run.
• Dialogue is a huge help in this field, especially regarding arguments, which can reveal a lot about characters and how they get along (in addition to building the action and conflict).
• Habitual behavior can build personality.  Let's face it, we all have habits that we can't break free of.
• Overall, these traits develop the public persona of an individual.  All these traits are observable, but they may not match up with the fourth dimensional traits at all.

Fourth Dimension:  The Participatory Theater (because now you can involve the audience in with the action, putting them into the eyes of the character and making them feel for them).  These traits are:

• Pretty much the same as the third dimension, but constitutes the private persona.  These are the traits that are internalized.  They are stripped of all pretense.
• Includes the inner workings of a character, such as thoughts and feelings.  Most important, however, is motivation, which explains why a person is the way he is or acts the way he acts.  Asking why to a character or story should uncover motives to make it work.
• To reveal the inner traits of a character, it may help to ask what there is about the character that nobody else knows.  Upon thinking about this, you must then ask how to go about revealing that hidden trait.
• It may also help to examine a character's fantasies and dreams.  Ambition, or what the character wants most, is a large part of what makes them whole.

For an example of a fourth dimensional character, consider this example:  Hamlet, from the Shakespeare play:

• First dimension:  well, it depends on who plays him, but if you go with, say, Kenneth Branaugh, he'd be a thin and somewhat handsome blonde dude with a mustache.
• Second dimension:  once again, this depends on the actor.  Kenneth Branaugh played this guy with a pretty strong sense of confidence and purpose.
• Third dimension:  per the play, Hamlet starts off pretty somber, but goes on to act all-out crazy, spewing nonsense lines and going on to kill Polonius.  Everybody pretty much concluded that Hamlet was mentally disturbed from his father's death.
• Fourth dimension:  per the play, and a lot of study, Hamlet is never crazy, he only acts that way to bide his time and plan his ultimate move against Claudious.  He pretty much spends the play flip-flopping, trying to figure out if he should commit the murder, or worse yet, kill himself.  Once he discovers the truth, he goes through with it.  For the first half of the play, all he wants is confirmation that Claudious is really the usurper, and perhaps a good helping of self-confidence, while in the second half all he wants is vengeance.