In today’s Words In Progress with Steven James, we continue our series where we speak with writers and writing professionals about a specific aspect of writing craft. Today’ episode focuses on Character Status so have a listen here:
Or you can watch us on YouTube.
Steven James is both a writer (the critically-acclaimed author of seventeen novels) and a writing teacher (he teaches Novel Writing Intensive retreats with Robert Dugoni). He has authored Story Trumps Structure and Troubleshooting Your Novel. He also has a storytelling podcast, called The Story Blender.
He joined us to discuss how status affects your character, which he devotes a whole chapter to in Story Trumps Structure.
He gives examples of three different kinds of status:
Situation Status: This is when a character has the odds against them.
Relational Status: An example of this is when a parent has a higher relational status than their child.
Positional Status: This is like when a Boss at work has a higher status.
Multi-dimensional characters are created by giving them multivariate status levels so they aren’t always any one status.
He also suggests that writers can establish a character’s status through verb choice or adding pauses and stillness.
We felt like we could have continued this conversation for hours, but alas we wanted to get going on the interesting exercise he gave us … one that involved mirroring other people’s status.
You have to listen to the whole episode for more insights from writer and teacher Steven James, or check us out on YouTube (Steven joins us from outside on a brisk winter afternoon).
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