Words With Impact: Discern Typology Character

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“Chart how each symbol you use changes over the course of the story.” John Truby

Character Typology

Does this character description remind you of anyone in particular?

-on top of the power hierarchy but his power is not boundless

-can be still be opposed, deceived, and tricked although dangerous to do so

-in a long term marriage but has endless affairs

-does not participate in petty arguments and schemes of daily activities

-can be extremely vengeful

Based on familiar movies, my first response might be a dictator or a CEO of a vast financial/business empire, or a James Bond 007 villain. But these are some of the characteristics given in Greek mythology to Zeus. Somehow they still sound quite modern. Truby notes that the character Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story can be compared to a goddess, not only because of her beauty and grace but also her coldness and fierce sense of superiority to others.”

Each genre also has its own special qualities for heroes. A place to begin might be to list what you consider to be heroic qualities. Are you looking for a Batman or a John Wayne, or is your hero a parent who shows up every day. What do you consider to be the difference between a hero and a role model? These questions will help you decide where to look for the ‘types’ that will best flavor your novel with the right added depth whether you are looking in characters, plots, or setting.

Action Steps:

 Example: In New Testament scriptures Peter was named the Rock, and the promise given that Christ’s church would be build upon him. In ancient Israel a strong foundation meant a rock foundation, both for the Temple of worship and for any military protective walls. Peter’s new name as symbol echoed his past history and bridged into his new character and role.

 From modern culture, Rocky Balboa does not seem to fit his name at the beginning of his story but like Peter grew into it. What traits did he build upon to become his name?

1.     Make a list of your character’s traits, positive and negative.

2.     Note where the change points are. Choose one and make a list of possible symbols that define that particular action or emotion.

3.     Then list as many variations of that symbol as possible.

4.     Use John Truby’s opening quote and make a chart of your choices.

Share: Did you discover more positive or negative options? Did any surprise you?

Read deep, marcy

Words With Impact: Discern Typology Introduction

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“That old fossil, those old bones, walk again, and sing and dance and speak with a new tongue. The old stories bridge the centuries.” Jane Yolen

Typology

There are several opinions as to how many plot patterns there are for stories and how they can be interpreted. However the very basic two are considered to be 1) the hero or heroine leaves town, or 2) a stranger comes to town. It is quite amazing to see how many stories and movies fit into these types.

But just as these two plot structures can be repeated several times, and in several ways, they are not a formula. Yet they can be considered a typology in that every reader or viewer has an immediate connection to the premise. The frame might be an old story but it has the capacity to bridge the centuries regardless of genre.

The characters, phrases and patterns we internalize through our personal histories, literature, scriptures, folk-tales, songs and culture continue to add mythic depth in our reading and our writing. We make ‘copies’ of the original typology and pass them on through the generations. Some become so familiar that they enter into everyday language as common metaphors or references, both across languages and within ethnic cultures, giving us shortcuts.

Terrible sea incidents become tied to Poseidon allusions or flood. Rainbows are considered a sign of promise around the world. Black holes immediately spell danger. So does Godzilla, regardless of the language being spoken.

We use a modern version of typology when we give social references. “They’re calling her the new Marilyn Monroe.” The allusion of course is toward the actresses’ public personae and probably has no basis in comparison to either personality.

Or one friend introduces another at her party. She confides, “Watch out for that one—he’s a flirt. Stay away from that one—he’s a wolf.” In a shorthand version the explanations are clear. With the flirt type no one gets hurt if you play by his rules, however, with the wolf type there are no rules. One gives an impression of harmless fun whereas the other is a predator. Little Red Riding Hood stories have grown cute over the years but the early versions are quite disturbing with strong undercurrents of sexual danger. Were medieval mothers trying to protect their young daughters from men in powerful positions, lord of the manor types, and so used the metaphor of familiar dangerous, hungry wolves that prowled their forests in the winter as the warning?

Action Steps:

1. Choose two of your favorite movies and keep track of all the familiar and unfamiliar types you identify with—whether setting or character traits or story plot.

2. Compare in what way they copy something in your own life or experience or imagination.

Share: Did any particular image or reflection surprise you?

Read deep, marcy

Words With Impact: Design Symbols as Images Techniques

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“Imagination decides everything.”                                      Blaise Pascal

Animator Tezuka Osamu’s images, themes and stories that he worked with came from the heart. It showed through his choice of topics and the manner in which he developed his films. Some techniques he had to let go of because he couldn’t find enough people skilled in the process, but he kept as close to the passion of creating film by hand because “I really wanted to keep the preciousness of the hand animation in the work,” he said. At the time his industry was undergoing a metamorphosis of its own and Osamu felt that the original work of Japanese animation was becoming imitative instead of original.

The story was fueled by the techniques and the techniques enriched his storytelling. For example in his short film, The Legend of the Forest with Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony Op.36, he divided the story into four parts. And then each movement he animated in a different style beginning with a basic form and adding more details and complications with each transition. So alongside the legend he also visually showed a development of animation without speaking about it at all. He embedded the metaphors naturally.

“Perhaps the animation can be supported by the passion of the creators.”

It’s that passion that creates timelessness as well as creativeness. Viewers today may find some of the imagery he uses odd or old-fashioned; especially since now computer graphics have emerged in leaps and bounds since his day. Which he also recognized as a growing field of development. Yet we still can identify and relate to his metaphoric images because he has grounded them in familiar circumstances.

Often we ourselves don’t recognize the metaphors in our work during the early drafts but by nurturing the quality and technical craft of our novels we will begin to recognize them. Then our use of image and metaphor, allusion, theme, symbols, echoes will all have the naturalness of originality instead of imitation too.

Action Steps:

1. Make a list of the words you’d like readers to say about your novels?

2. Write down the themes you’d like your readers to identify with in your novels.

Share: Which one would make your heart sing?

Read deep, marcy

Words With Impact: Design Symbols as Images Goals

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.”                         Thomas J. Peters

Last week we looked at how one word in a title, or as a character summary, can be strengthened into a metaphor for a broader understanding. But before you can even do that it’s important to know what are your themes and your goals for your story. For example, one of Osamu’s goals for his work was to include a touch of humor or irony, especially when dealing with difficult topics. He felt that especially when he tried to show culture out of control or present the idea that technology had the potential to become unstoppable he would lean into irony.

In the Tales of a Street Corner all the characters were developed with humor and pathos as war came to their corner crashing into their lives. And showed those who remained self-centered and those who grew into selfless actions, like the naughty little mouse who tried to save the bear.

Another key word image for Osamu in creativity was joy and fun. “The fun of experimental animation is the different perspectives people saw.” He appreciated the unique insights his audience had and in turn their comments often sparked new ideas for him to pursue. He worked diligently to create quality work, but did not expect everyone to see only his vision. Once his work released it went free. That is the gift of metaphor in any work.

 In his short film Mermaid he explored potentially closed thinking through “the story of a boy from faraway lands that likes fantasies.” The boy saw a mermaid. Everyone else only saw a fish and went to great lengths to blast his idea of out him. He too eventually saw the fish, but with Osamu’s tilt of angle the last line went, “But the boy did not forget the mermaid.”

Like a firecracker a familiar image might start off in plain wrapping paper and then explode into showers of light.

Action Steps:

1. Read through a picture book the next time you’re at the library or a bookstore but don’t read the words. Look only at the visual background first. Then go back and read the story. How do they complement each other? Does each page have a one-word tag? Funny, scary, curious?

2. Now do a reverse action. Take one of your chapter scenes and mark it off as if it were a picture book. Can you identify a main image on each “page”?

Share: Did you find an image that surprised you? Can you develop it further as a thread without it being forced?

Read deep, marcy

Words With Impact: Design Symbols as Images Messages

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“I never make work that is careless.” Tezuka Osamu

While discussing experimental animation during an interview he gave during the 1960’s, Tezuka Osama explained that he desired to introduce the good parts of Japanese animation to the world. He wanted it to be understood internationally or globally. “I would like to convey big messages to the world,” he said. So he began to make pieces for an international audience so that others would understand and care.

To convey his messages of animation and life, culture, humor and irony he worked with familiar images drawn from universal theme and experience. He built upon common ground to engage his viewers, and then angled the image or the expectation of the story in a way that it became a fresh insight and a means of communication. He thoroughly enjoyed the different perspectives that people saw after viewing his style of experimentation.

The titles he chose also provided an introduction to his images and concepts: Jump, A Memory, Mermaid, and Legend of the Forest, showing a wide range of topics and idea grist. Often we forget that our titles are as valuable as the metaphor images themselves. Titles, characters, music, and images all intertwined as metaphor in his animation.

Here is Osamu’s list of characters (images) for his short film, Tales of a Street Corner.

According to the caption these are the people who live at this corner. Note their variety.

      : a friendly girl and a teddy bear

      : a naughty mouse

      : a plant with seeds

      :an old street light

      : a street Punk “Moth”

      : a woman on a poster

      : a young violinist on a poster

Action Steps:

1. Choose two of these characters and make up a sketch of them even if you are a stick figure artist.  (Like me)

2. Then from your interpretation choose a word image or metaphor as their main personality characteristic.

Share: Whom did you choose? Why? What is your word metaphor for them?

Read deep, marcy

Words With Impact: Design Symbols as Images Genre Webs

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“That old fossil, those old bones, walk again, and sing and dance and speak with a new tongue. The old stories bridge the centuries.” Jane Yolen

Taking your basic threads and extending them throughout your story can build strong web imagery regardless of genre. Some will be an almost invisible backdrop and then there are some genres that build their stories around a basic practical web that their readers will expect.

In addition to universal symbols, allusion and echoes, “there are also prefabricated symbols whose meaning the audience understands immediately at some level of conscious thought,” says Truby, and they are seen quite clearly in “highly metaphoric genres” that have honed objects in their forms, such as fantasy, horror, and Western.

Even acknowledging that symbols are always ambiguous to some degree the symbols in these categories also represent something within the hero.  Here is his example list for a ‘Myth Symbol Web’.

Journey

Labyrinth

Garden

Tree

Animals

Ladder

Underground

Talisman

Think of a fantasy novel you’ve read. How many of these word symbols do you recall being present—if not in common form, what about as concept?

A Mystery Web is another category where readers have specific expectations that they look forward to puzzling out.

Crime

Motive

Setting

Sleuth

Victim

Villain

Suspect Characters

Clues/Red Herrings

Every genre—every story—has its own web style whether seen or hidden. Movies often explore deep underlying themes, which the viewers did not necessarily notice at first glance. Ordinary images can create impact and build bridges.

Action Steps:

1. Take your central theme for your story and make a list of all the potential links where you could insert an image that undergirds your premise.

2. Make up your own category web for this particular story.

Share: Were you surprised by any symbol theme or image you chose for your web? Why?

Read deep, marcy

Words With Impact: Design Symbols as Images Storyline

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“Natural worlds like the island, mountains, forest and ocean have an inherent symbolic power. But you can attach additional symbols to them to heighten or change the meaning audiences normally associate with them.”     John Truby

Just as we have a variety of traits for our character to keep them from being one-dimensional, so we also need to build a web of symbols, says John Truby, “in which each symbol helps define the others.” The symbols can be attached to the story overall, the world setting, actions, theme, and characters to name a few. For example, the story symbol unifies the story theme under one image. So it helps to identify a central story image, or the single line that then connects all the main symbols to its premise, according to Truby.

“The Odyssey: The central story symbol in the Odyssey is in the title itself. This is the long journey that must be endured.”

Network: The network is literally a television broadcasting company and symbolically a web that traps all who are entangled in it. ”

Once we identify the symbol that best unifies our story under one image, then we look for ways to repeat it by varying the details in some way. Look for categories, Truby says. One example he gives is from A Streetcar named Desire.

“Stanley is referred to as a pig, a bull, an ape, a hound and a wolf to underscore his essentially greedy, brutal and masculine nature. Blanche is connected to a moth and a bird, fragile and frightened.”

The variations may also be disparate actions but at the heart all contain a common thread. For example, the movie Green Dragon has an abundance of metaphoric symbols that on the surface are not at first recognized as connected. However the common ground is creativity built into everyday activities.

The staff sergeant takes photographs throughout the camp setting to keep a record of the historical circumstances and of the people who have been impacted. But it is through the photos that he himself comes to term with his own secrets and need for healing. A young refugee woman sews, and an elderly general plants a seed.  An orphaned refugee boy and an American volunteer cook paint a mural and find hope in death. Each one finds a place of healing in creative actions.

The movie Avatar is an excellent study for the aspect of symbol connections within nature. Within each of the natural settings is a combination of breathtaking beauty and nail biting danger. Plus overlaying this exquisite world is a poisonous atmosphere, at least for humans.

Another is the lovable WALL*E where instead of humanity bringing rescue to a struggling world, they themselves are the ones in need of rescue. Both these movies use familiar images that then turn viewer expectations upside down and engage the audience into new perspectives.

Action Steps:

1. Choose a central story image that undergirds your story theme.

2. Now write up a verbal word or a visual image or music tone that could be a silent backdrop to the world setting, specific actions, central theme, for both your main character and another key character, whether they have a positive or negative purpose.

Share: What has become your main premise that links all your puzzle pieces?

Read deep, marcy