Hi! I have a few questions haha so I ll put them separately! 1. When you have characters that more quiet/reserved, but they aren't shy, how would you portray this? How would you portray a confident person who speaks little? How would they instead show their anger/resentments/amusement/love? Alternatively, how would this change if a character was quiet and not very comfortable in themselves?
2. What are good ways to hint at past abuse (physical/sexual/mental) without explicitly saying it? How would you imply that a particular person was responsible? How would show the way it has affected the individual/s? 3. How would you reveal/lead up to your character/s secrets? With the big secrets, how could you effectively foreshadow it without giving it away until you want to, but it still makes sense? Sorry this is super long! But thank you for your help!
Thank you for your questions!! I promise it wasnât too long, this ask was a lot of fun to answer, and you posed some really great questions. I hope this helps!!
BIG POST OF CHARACTERIZATION
Quiet Characters - Shyness vs. Introversion
Something to note about introversion and its portrayal: it depends on whether or not youâre writing a viewpoint character. A lot of times, other characters will VIEW them as shy, until thereâs a defining moment where everyone realizes theyâre not shy, they just keep to themselves. Perhaps they provide commentary on things every so often, not afraid to show their opinion when it counts. However, this isnât always the case. There are other instances where a character is quiet/speaks very little, but is also clearly not shy
A confident person who speaks little strikes me as the kind of person who only speaks when they feel they have something important to say/contribute. Which means that everything they do say holds greater weight than someone who talks constantly. There is a certain bluntness to this - therefore they are not insecure, or nervous about what theyâre saying, theyâre just a person of few words - they choose their words carefully.Â
Ex. Luna Lovegood of Harry Potter
Itâs made rather explicit that Luna is not shy. She is not ashamed of who she is, even though we know sheâs often made fun of by other students. She speaks rather little - when she is featured with the other characters, I would say that Luna is more often than not a listener. However, Luna does not hesitate to provide her opinion/knowledge when she deems it necessary. Example, in The Deathly Hallows (focusing on the films, so Part 2), she is not at all shy or skittish about telling Harry what information she knows to help him defeat Voldemort, even though Harry is distracted and at first unwilling to listen.Â
Ex. Aizawa Shouta (aka him who i love) of My Hero Academia
Aizawa is a classic example of being a âman of few words.â He is not a talkative person in the slightest, and he can seem even gloomy in comparison to more animated people. But one of the best examples of his confidence comes through when heâs shown speaking to other Pro Heroes about the problems theyâre beginning to face. He does not hesitate to give his opinion, is not shy about it, and when he does state his stance, he stands firm, caring very little what anybody else might think. So while he clearly keeps to himself, he still makes his opinions known when necessary, making it clear that heâs not keeping to himself out of insecurity. He just prefers it that way.
I didnât need this many examples, but I love Holes, itâs fine. So, ZeroâŠis not shy. Did he or did he not punch somebody in the crotch? Yaâll. He is teased relentlessly by the other boys in the camp - and he responds with pure silence. We may interpret this to be shyness early on, but as the story progresses it is clear that heâs not shy. He just doesnât have time to mess around with people who want to call him names anyway. Heâs got bigger fish to fry. So he ignores them. He is quiet not because heâs afraid to talk - but because he doesnât want to.Â
What to take from all of this? If you have a character who is quiet, but confident as well, then have them make their opinions known when they feel it is necessary. They wonât be talkative, but they also wonât shy away when they feel that something important needs to be said.Â
First off, I want to direct you to a great post that we have here that talks about insecurity in characters and how that can be portrayed, which I feel would be relevant. But, I do want to add on to what that post says here.Â
A shy character is totally different from the confident-but-quiet characters discussed above. Shyness is sprung from insecurity, the fear of saying something wrong, or being judged, etc. A shy character is going to actively avoid conversations with new people, and with people who make them uncomfortable. And when forced into said situations, they will not speak as openly as they do with friends, and will often come off as awkward or stilted, speaking very little, and often not about themselves.
Ex. Gus from Recess. Out of the five heroes of this story, Gus was probably the least down with social interaction (even though Spinelli was always ready to throw down with somebody). Whenever things get tough on the playground, he always lets his more bold friends take the reins to steer the situation, preferring to stay in the background.Â
Characters as Victims of Abuse
First off, I think it would depend on the type of abuse. Sometimes when people have such a traumatic experience, they donât deal with/process the subsequent emotions, thus when they experience something later on that reminds them of the abuse, they can be triggered back into the emotions of the time.
Was this physical abuse? Perhaps they have both a physical and emotional reaction if someone attempts to come at them/hit them/etc, even if itâs supposedly a playful situation. Â
Emotional abuse? Someone talking down to them, name calling, being controlling etc. would probably provoke some strong emotional backlash. But also, itâs highly likely that victims of emotional abuse may retain a sense of low self-esteem/self-worth. They may talk down to themselves a lot, whether out loud or just in their internal monologue. Also, in some cases, it is possible that those who are victims of abuse can later become abusers, often as a way of trying to regain the power that was lost during the time of abuse.Â
HOWEVER, when dealing with all of this, it is very important that you research in depth the true effects of these experiences, even going so far as to try to talk to people who have experienced this personally. It is often a delicate subject, and should be handled with care and respect.Â
Now, implying that a certain person was responsible would depend on that characterâs current role in the story. If they arenât present in the current storyline, perhaps you can hint to a person from their past that they either refuse to talk about, or only speak of very negatively. Or maybe, they still harbor feelings for this person - it is possible to still care for your abuser, whether this is healthy or not. It is even further possible that the experience was traumatic enough for them to block out those more awful moments, or even attempted to explain this abuse away to themselves as their abusers way of showing love, thus they still hold affection for them, even if they are not a part of their life anymore.Â
If the abuser character is still in the picture, you would have a lot on your hands. Do the characters interact at all? This is dependent upon how your character feels about their abuser at this time, and what happened. Are they able to be in the same room with them without breaking down, or lashing out? Are they able to defend themselves from this person now, or are they still vulnerable to their abuse? Or do they refuse to associate with this person at all? Is this a revenge story - are they seeking revenge on their abuser? What do they want from their abuser? To be left alone, or to find some sort of closure?Â
So Iâm going to handle this in two ways. The abuser being a present character in the narrative, and the abuser existing primarily as a figure in your charactersâ past.Â
If your character still interacts with the abuser in the narrative, they should act in such a way that would hint at this past relationship. There will most likely be a sense of tension, but a lot of it is very dependent upon the individual personalities of your characters.Â
If the abuser exists as a distant figure in your characterâs past, and youâre trying to keep it a secret, then your character would most likely avoid talking about this person, would skimp on the details about them in conversation. And the way they talk about them will probably have some tension to it, as well as leftover emotions, whether that be anger, sadness, etc.
Secrets, Scandals, and Hidden Things
Characterâs secrets, alright, this is FUN. This is gonna be fun. So, when youâre dealing with characters secrets, thereâs a lot of playing around with foreshadowing. The big thing about having secrets and revealing secrets is that you have to balance the information and the clues to the reader, so that when the big secret is revealed, the reader feels like they should have known the answer all along. You have to lay enough clues for it to make sense, but also direct attention away from what the real clues are to keep the tension and the secrecy, so that your big reveal is a Big Reveal. Thus, the power of misdirection. Capisce?
Iâm gonna use the example of Wreck it Ralph and hope that nobody gets mad at me. [But I think itâs been enough time since the movie came out that anybody who would get genuinely pissed about Wreck it Ralph spoilers would have already seen the movie].Â
Alright - so the big ordeal in Wreck It Ralph, the big Oh Shit moment is that King Candy is actually Turbo. Iâm gonna go through Wreck it Ralph, highlighting the more important scenes that lead up with this, to deconstruct the foreshadowing, and show you why it works. But hereâs the big thing I want you to take away from this - secrets are all about the buildup.
So, in the Wreck It Ralph verse, it is made clear to the audience early on that a colloquial term commonly used to describe a game character trying to join another game is âgoing Turbo,â yes? Because itâs used so naturally, and it fits the atmosphere of the show, the arcade slang sort of feel, the audience is able to accept it without too much question, except maybe to wonder where the phrase originated. The phrase is explicitly used when Ralph himself goes off to find a metal, and the figures of his own game start freaking out because Ralph was âgoing Turbo.â This is the first big clue that is repeatedly laid for the audience.Â
The Introduction of King Candy
It is clear to us very early on that King Candy is, wellâŠvery particular about how things run in his game. And well, we kind of expect this - he is the King, after all. But his storyline and motivations are clearly tied to the heroine Vanellopeâs as well, which is made clear very soon after weâre introduced to him. He refers to her as âThe Glitch,â rather than calling her by name, and is adamant that she should not be allowed to race in the game. Now at this point, it is clear to the viewer that Vanellope is one of the characters we are supposed to be rooting for, and the fact that King Candy is clearly opposed to her achieving her goals as a main protagonist, he is now an antagonist - no surprise.
It isnât until after we meet King Candy that we hear the origin of the phrase âGoing Turboâ and what it means. Essentially, the phrase originated when the protagonist of a racing game that was at one time very popular got pushed to the side in favor of a new, high-tech game. Not to be defeated, Turbo abandoned his game and tried to take over the new one, thus coining the phrase. We as the audience are told that in consequence, both Turboâs original game and the game he tried to take over got put out of commission, including himself. HERE IS THE KICKER: we as the audience are given a considerable amount of information necessary to put together that Turbo just might equal King Candy, BUT we are led to believe that this isnât a possibility because Turbo âgot himself put out of order for good.âÂ
King Candy and his Dark Side
Now, this is a big scene in terms of King Candyâs storyline/backstory/relationship to Vanellope: the scene in which he ventures âinto the code,â and adds the gold medal to his own personal cache of codes, so that he can take ownership of it. Itâs a subtle play, because we as the audience are shown that King Candyâs code âboxâ (if you will) is at the biggest, and is at the center of everything. Because heâs the king, right? And at the end of the scene, we have a wide shot of the scene to reveal Vanellopeâs code box, and itâs floating off the side, not connected to any of the boxes. Because sheâs not supposed to be in the game, right? Because sheâs a glitch, right? Huh.Â
The second half of this section deals with the scene in which King Candy goes to Ralph personally, and pleads with him to convince Vanellope not to race. He tells Ralph that if she does race, and if she wins, then sheâll be accessible by the actual human players of the game. In such case, if they see her âglitchingâ, theyâll thing the game is broken, and get it put out of order. Right? Once again, we have misdirection. Iâm sure at this point, the audience doesnât fully trust what King Candy is saying, but at the same time there is an emotional reaction to his words. Because we care about Vanellope and want her to succeed, it forces the audience to feel that emotional push-and-pull, distracting further from the fact that King Candy (spoiler alert) lied clean to everyoneâs faces.Â
In a moment of high intensity, when weâve reached the big climactic moment that is The Race, which is what Vanellope has been trying to get to for the entire film, it is revealed that King Candy is Turbo, done so because he gets caught up in Vanellopeâs glitching, causing him to revert back to his originally coded form. We then learn of his true motivation - he wants to remain the top racer, as he was in his previous game, and he wants to maintain the power and thrill of that popularity. So he usurped Vanellope and changed the code so that everyone believed that she wasnât supposed to exist, and that he was the rightful ruler of the game.
It works because of the build up. All of the hints were laid out; Turboâs backstory was set up early enough that it felt natural for the audience, and it gave us enough time to get comfortable with the information; when the scene did finally unfold, it felt so obvious that you could look back and see all the pieces click. And in the reveal, all of King Candyâs previously creepy behavior makes sense. There is emotional payoff.
One of the most powerful ways to hide your hints and foreshadowing throughout your story is misdirection. Lay those hints, plant the seeds, but also do the work to direct the audienceâs attention elsewhere, leading them to believe one thing, whilst building towards another.Â
Phew!! That was a doozy of a post, but it was a lot of fun to write, and I hope this was super helpful to you!!
If you have any further questions, donât hesitate to shoot us an ask. In the meantime, happy writing!
If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!
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