Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters

by Anjuelle Floyd

Margaret Lucke writes, "…The life of a three-dimensional character includes:

1) [the character’s] key relationships,

2) [the character’s] formative experiences, and

3) memory-making moments [in the character’s life.]”

-- Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories, pp. 30-31

Any good writer knows what comprises the aspects of personality and listed above,

concerning the protagonist of her or his short story, or novel. The best writers know what

these facets are in the life all their characters, major and minor.

Key relationships in the life of a character are not necessarily those associations a

character holds with her, or his family members. A key relationship may not even

involve interactions between a protagonist and their spouse or significant other. Key

relationships in the life of a major character rest specifically on those interactions with

other characters that encircle the dilemma of the present story being told about a major

character.

The dilemma of the a story has two parts—1) the external aspect that focuses on the

protagonist attaining her, or his desired physical goal(s), and 2) the internal aspect of the

protagonist’s emotions—thoughts, fears, hopes, dreams. These two aspects—external and

internal— work in tandem—celestial and mundane, spiritual and financial, sexual and

material (to name a few ways of displaying and addressing various aspects of the human

condition). The most skillful authors interweave the dramas at play throughout the story

11/06/2007 1
of 8
Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters
by Anjuelle Floyd

around their protagonist’s desire to achieve her, or his goals in the external and internal

arenas of the character’s life.

An external goal could be a character’s physical effort to cross the street, as in Edward P.

Jones’ short story, A Butterfly on ‘F’ Street, or as in The Observations, a novel written by

Jane Harris, the protagonist’s physical actions to uncover information about the death of

the young girl, whose domestic position the protagonist assumed. The three-dimensional

protagonists of these two stories struggle with dilemmas that affect the protagonists’

outer and inner lives. The impasses and roadblocks encountered in the protagonists’s

quests to achieve their desired physical and internal goals move the story forward. They

propel plot.

Obstructions and obstacles encountered in the protagonist’s quest to attain her or his

desired goal manifest in the protagonist’s interactions with characters that comprise key

relationships in the protagonist’s life. These key relationships, interactions with

characters seeking to either assist or prevent the protagonist from attaining her or his

goal(s), influence and affect the protagonist in two ways.

In well-written narratives, the protagonist with a highly developed, three-dimensional

personality reacts to problems—predicaments—in two ways. The protagonist responds

physically, exemplified in word and/or deed, and from within—displays feelings,

passions, energy, and vigor.

11/06/2007 2
of 8
Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters
by Anjuelle Floyd

This internal aspect of a protagonist’s personality—her or his feelings—results from, and

rests on the protagonist’s formative experiences. The name formative directs us to think

of our character’s past. Back-story, as we term information concerning a character’s

formative experiences—the protagonist’s history—never overshadows the front story of a

well-delivered narrative. Yet the character’s history greatly influences the methods by

which she, or he will seek to achieve desired physical goals, in a manner colored by her

or his internal desires.

Back-story is the rock upon which a protagonist lives, and acts in the present moment of

the front story. It is what anchors her or him in the world of key relationships. A

character’s history is most often the place where dwell, not only the roots of a

protagonist’s present dilemma(s), but also holds the key to a protagonist’s ability to

overcome or move through the challenge and obstacle(s) presently separating the

protagonist from her or his desires and wishes.

Back-story has a place in the overall telling of any story, short or long, if only to be

rendered in one phrase, or a single sentence. Back story involves or consists of a

protagonist’s formative experiences--key aspects of a character’s life, most likely

undergone in youth, and that establish the foundation upon which a character views the

world, and others, and her or himself in the world with others. Back story, the sum total

of a protagonist’s formative experiences and past relationships, ultimately shapes the

protagonist’s perspective and action in the key relationships of her, or his present life

story.

11/06/2007 3
of 8
Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters
by Anjuelle Floyd

And since all good stories are about change and transformation, the formative

experiences of a protagonist’s life set the stage for the obstacles that she or he will

encounter in the quest for her or his Holy Grail of desires.

An author delivers back-story by inserting glimpses of formative experiences, previous

moments of their protagonist’s life—embedded in the protagonist’s memory—and that

directly influence, and shape the character’s actions in the drama of their present

dilemma. Well-crafted back-story usually consists of scenes from the character’s past,

inserted in quick, concise fashion, and illustriously with all the fiber and vigor of a scene

rendered in present moments of the story.

Back-story is not the central story, and must be regarded, and crafted as such. Scenes of a

character’s history—formative experiences—are snippets of the protagonist’s past

brought to the present to embellish, and clarify the reader’s understanding of the

protagonist’s imminent conflict rooted in past memory making moments from which she,

or he is seeking to free her, of himself, in their physical effort to attain a tangible and/or

material goal(s).

The writer, in becoming enthralled with the protagonist’s past experiences, loses track of

the reins guiding the horse of the present story they are trying to write.

An author would do well to examine the story or initial draft of a novel they have written,

11/06/2007 4
of 8
Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters
by Anjuelle Floyd

or are planning to write and/or re-write, concerning their protagonist. The author and her

or his process of crafting fiction is well served by evaluating each of the memory-making

moments in their protagonist’s life—scenes that comprise the larger memorable and

experiential moment of the entire narrative. Authors who identify the key relationships in

the life of their protagonist, and examine the effects those relationships impress upon the

protagonist’s present dilemma uncover invaluable material for revision that enriches their

story, and renders it a more engaging read.

What does the protagonist want?

What are her or his present relationships?

Which relationships are filled with conflict and bring up negative emotions in your

protagonist?

What are the character’s past experiences?

How have these experiences shaped the protagonist in addressing life challenges?

Who and/or what was involved in the protagonist’s past and formative experiences?

What relationships—past and present—have been and/or still remain helpful to the

protagonist in attaining her or his goals?

What characters in the present story seek to assist or prevent your protagonist in

attaining her or his desired goal(s)?

11/06/2007 5
of 8
Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters
by Anjuelle Floyd

More importantly what, and/or are there any characters from the protagonist’s past—

formative experiences—and who may have shaped those formative experiences—and are

also now involved in your protagonist’s present dilemma?

Do these characters from your protagonist’s past associate, or perhaps know and/or

interact with some, or any of your protagonist’s present colleagues, acquaintances or

friends? If so, what is the nature of these interactions?

And do these interactions have any bearing, or connection to your protagonist’s present

difficulties?

These are questions any good writer of fiction must know, or need to determine, while, or

after setting down her, or his novel. The best and most widely read and entertaining

authors do this with each story they craft.

The characters that seek to do harm or hamper your protagonist’s efforts at achieving her,

or his goals are antagonists. The best stories brim with antagonists, ala The Da Vinci

Code. The most interesting and dutiful antagonists are often characters that emanate

from the protagonist’s childhood, usually stalking them for life, and causing the

protagonist, in the Greek sense of the word, protagonist— to protag—, which means to

suffer.

Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter’s archenemy, killed Harry’s parents and pursued Harry into

11/06/2007 6
of 8
Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters
by Anjuelle Floyd

young adulthood. The manipulations of Miss Havisham during Pip’s childhood in Great

Expectations wreaked much havoc reaching into his adult life. Inspector Javert commits

his entire existence to an attempt at bringing to justice Jean Valjean, the protagonist in

Les Miserables. Javert never considers Valjean’s reformation from criminal behavior and

toward on helping people that resulted from Valjean’s encounter with the compassionate

bishop. Instead Javert justifies his actions against Valjean upon a small infraction Valjean

committed during his parole from prison.

The conflict of a riveting and compelling story is most often rooted in the back-story, past

and formative experiences, of the protagonist’s life. Movement through the present story,

encountering obstacles and setbacks in this larger memory making moment of the

protagonist’s journey, offers hope to the protagonist in achieving the goals for which she

or he so yearns.

Attaining these goals manifests, if not requires, the protagonist to change, both externally,

and from within. Past actions have failed the protagonist in gaining her or his goals. And

so they try again in this memory making moment of the present story by acting, thinking

and speaking differently than in the past. The protagonist’s actions while moving

through the story, her or his efforts toward achieving the ends to her, or his means, is the

very process of transformation that renders her or him different in having earned their

wishes at story’s end.

11/06/2007 7
of 8
Key Relationships and the Art of Knowing Your Characters
by Anjuelle Floyd

The most memorable dramas center on results from the protagonist’s interactions with

characters--key relationships—that involve at least one character who has lived, and

remains present in a protagonist’s present life, and whose physical actions, and internal

thoughts and feelings, directly effect on the protagonist’s present quest to achieve her or

his physical goal(s).

Identify the characters that comprise your protagonist’s key relationships. Uncover if,

and how, any of these secondary characters relate to, or connect with your protagonist’s

past and—formative experiences. Illuminate the personality and actions of these

secondary characters whether antagonistic or supportive. You’ll have not only the very

crux of your protagonist’s conflict, but also the pathway through which they will resolve

their crisis but will have displayed the process of their transformation in a trail of

engaging, and memorable moments that comprise the macrocosm of the memory making

moment that is your story.

11/06/2007 8
of 8