Yes, yes, well, we're getting there.
When crafting characters, I try choose imbalances closest to reality: harassment, loneliness, pride, overconfidence, or a flaw that hits home with me, something with which I've struggled.
You ought to do the same for your characters. If you haven't ever felt the acute pain of being mocked for having a birth defect, then go with something more vibrant in your heart. Is it timidity? Make your protagonist timid! Is it excessive knowledge and the relentless temptation to brag? Make your protagonist a genius! Do you, Mr. or Ms. Author, feel weak? Give that weakness to your protagonist, and marvel at the sight of not a dork, a wimp, or a coward, but a human being with a range of anguished emotions that all exude from within you.
With this new model, you then have to approach plot. Let's go back to our example of Sam, the Alien Pummelor. To be more realistic, I'm going to make Sam less god-like in strength and a tad bit stronger upstairs, but I'm also going to throw in a marriage problem. When he wakes up without his wife, he suddenly thinks that she's disloyally running away because they had a heated argument the night before.
Suddenly, my created-in-thirty-seconds plot is now going to take several hours to reshape. Does Sam even want to locate her? If not, how long does it take for him to realize he needs her? If it takes him several months, then wouldn't it be wiser to start the story after those months and go back and explain? When he realizes that aliens have taken his wife, does he want to risk his life for her? She never did anything for him...but...ohhh...he has to...doesn't he? They could be doing anything to her - experimenting, torturing, or...who knows what guiltless cruelties those beasts had developed? Sam's imagination was endless...
And at that crucial point, ladies and gentlemen, when your character chooses to overcome his imbalance, that is when you see that you have in your hands a remarkable human with real, negative emotions and real, winning confidence.
Imbalance does not create bums.
Imbalance creates victorious warriors and champions, those who have made decisions and forced on into plot, knowing that they would be changed but letting themselves be changed because they have to or else.
If you want a two other examples in cinematic works, here you go:
--Cars by Disney/Pixar. Lightning McQueen's imbalance is obviously pride. (And now, here's a little fault on Disney's part called "Deus Ex Machina" or "God out of the Machine", which is where things just happen to...happen:) While riding to his next race, he "coincidentally" falls out of his trailer and is forced into plot. He realizes his pride when he is forced to do menial work; he faces his pride when he realizes that he loves
--Kung Fu Panda by Disney/Pixar. Po's imbalance is his self-doubt due to obesity. When he is forced into plot and made to face his own physical ineptitude as Dragon Warrior, Po comes to believe that he doesn't have enough self-discipline and therefore is defeated by his flaw. Shifu, however, realizes that Po's answer is not self-discipline but food, and that is the turning point of the story. From there, Po trains with food as his motivation; he overcomes his self-doubt when he reaches new limits (in an ehhhpiiic mauuuntauuuj); and, in his climax with Tai Lung, you even see him using his fatness to his advantage. The end.
There you have it! Now you know what imbalance is, and you're fully equipped to use it in your stories. Congratulations! :)
Write on!
Clove
That strikes me as rather brilliant. :) And I love the examples from kids movies.
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks! The idea of imbalance is prevalent amongst movie-production novels, so I tend to use movie examples when explaining this concept. ;)
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