Secrets of Writing: Contrast
This technique is used to highlight the differences between characters, thus defining them in sharp, easy to understand ways. It can also be used to highlight your main character so he stands out from the pack.
In film, the use of color is often used for contrast. The background and costume colors are chosen very carefully. Study films and you’ll see one color schemes used in the entire film. In comics, you may have no control over the coloring, so it’s best to deal with contrast through writing.
As we discussed before there are recognizable personality archetypes. And in addition to that certain people bring out certain qualities in our personalities. When you create a scene, it’s a good idea to use characters that do not blend with each other. You want the characters to seem different. Visuals aren’t enough.
In life, we’re pressured by society and others to conform. Many of us resist it, but we still try to conform in some ways. It’s human nature to try to be part of the herd. If you don’t conform to some model of normalcy, you won’t get laid. And that’s a major motivation right there. But conformity is unacceptable in fiction. Characters need to contrast with one another so we can see why they’re so different and unique from each other. If you don’t do that you create what people call “cookie cutter characters.” Characters that seem to all be from the same mold and that is really boring.
Some writers, when given a job they aren’t enthused about, or if they’re in a hurry to meet a deadline, often write characters with the same voice, have them act in a predictable fashion, and even though these characters are normally unique, they become generic as if they were cookie cutter characters.
I’ve read many a super-hero team comic where the characters were all a bunch of grimacing louts, men and women alike. No sense of humor spread between all of their pea brains. Unless you count the ability to insult people with the wit of a bad sit-com character.
This is something to be extremely aware of and to avoid at all costs. You want characters to bounce off each other. You want them to annoy and amused and cajole and connive each other. You need to get into the heads of each character and see through their eyes. The last thing you want is for everyone to get along too well. That’s boring.
Sure, in some old TV sit-coms like Leave it to Beaver, everyone got along more or less in the family. But each character was distinct and different from each other. They had attributes that made them special. Even in the Brady Bunch.
SO discover what it is that makes a character special and play it off the other characters. It’s its liable to rub one character the wrong way, all the better. In Star Trek, Spock always pissed off McCoy because McCoy was a man of feeling and Spock was a man of intellect. Their archetypes were the Professor and Mr. Sensitive. Spock was a scientist, so he was mainly an intellectual person. McCoy was a doctor, so he was a man with empathy for others. He hated to see someone look at everything from an aloof perspective (Spock also had a bit of the Lord archetype in him). If you threw in Kirk who was a cross between the Hero and the Harlot, you had a potent mix.
Character dynamics are really important to understand because they can inspire you to create great conversations. When you’re writing a scene between two characters with completely different world views, they almost write themselves. Those traits within yourself start to speak you start writing like a demon. It’s a very satisfying feeling when this happens because you know you’re on to something. You’re writing from the heart.
There are three types of contrast characters worth knowing. These three characters are often used in fiction to great effect.
The Straight Man
If you’re familiar with comedy teams, you’re familiar with the straightman. The straightman is the “normal one” who ends up taking the brunt of the humor from the comical character he’s paired with. Abbott and Costello, Lewis and Martin, Laurel and Hardy, even the comedy teams like the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers used straightmen. They would either find an external straight man or one of the team members would play the role.
If you’ve seen Bugs Bunny cartoons, you know that Elmer Fudd is the straight man. Sometimes Daffy Duck, who in solo stories plays the Comic, ends up the straightman when paired in stories with Bugs. For comedy to work you need someone who gets mad, who’s straight, to play the comedy off of.
But you don’t need to do comedy to use a straightman. Straightmen are symbol of normalcy, some element of society or the status quo. We all get mad at the system. We all get sick of normalcy. Straightmen are the punching bags for writers to work their angst on. But they need to be characters we can relate to on some level. They have to be recognizable types of people.
The Gadfly
This character serves as the thorn in the side. The itch you can’t scratch. The trouble-maker you’d like to see go away, but who won’t. This are great characters to have in stories because they are the source of conflict. They keep things going. You just have to make sure you don’t over do it with these guys.
Gadflies can be likable characters, but they rub certain people the wrong way and they cause problems for others either by being irresponsible, clumsy, impulsive, anything that can lead to trouble.
Dr. Smith in Lost in Space was a gadfly character. The only problem was, they ended up making him a straightman after awhile because they over used him. Gadflies need to be used in the right circumstances and never over exposed. You can dilute their effectiveness that way.
There’s also this annoying tendency writers have lately, of trying to “improve” gadflies. They try to take away all the qualities that make them what they are. This robs them of their usefulness in a story. The idea is to make them a better person.
Newsflash: We don’t want to read about better people. We want to read about jerks.
Wolverine was a gadfly in the X-Men. He didn’t fit in. He was a loner. He was a trouble-maker. He would fight with the other members all the time. And then the writers decided, hey…let’s make him more lovable. He shouldn’t be so angry and violent.
That’s when I stopped reading stories about him.
The world isn’t composed of entirely of nice, well adjusted people. The world is composed of all kinds of people, many of whom are a serious pain in the ass. Even the nice people you want to strangle sometimes.
And in fiction, the point is to create conflict. One way you do that is to throw in characters that stir things up. That make people angry. That people get upset with. Those characters may be hated by the audience, but they will do wonders for your story. Because if the audience ends up hating people they’re supposed to dislike, you’re half way home.
The Mentor
When you have a hero who is basically an uneducated fool, or who is young and reckless, the mentor is a good way to educate him. The mentor is the teacher, the role model, the parent figure who helps your character through his arc. The mentor doesn’t always have to be obviously a mentor. They can play the role subtlety. And they don’t have to be likable or smooth even. Stick, Daredevil’s mentor in the Frank Miller stories was a grouchy old man who used to hit Matt Murdock on the head.
Just make sure the mentor is believable and has something worthwhile to say. But they should never be perfect. People don’t buy that. And they are generally wary of parent figures in stories.
REMEMBER: Contrast highlights character differences and makes for sharper writing.
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