Time, Talent, & Treasure: What It Reveals About Your Character

What we pay for, invest time in, and volunteer for speaks volumes about what we value. So it is true for our characters. (click to tweet!)

It was quite catchy to hear it stated that this is our TIME, TALENT, and TREASURE.

It's easy to use money as an indicator of value. It's measurable in a dollar amount, and one can erroneously conclude that the higher that amount, the greater the value placed on what was paid for or contributed.

But that's not the case. Wealthy individuals can give money that cost them virtually nothing, and certainly don't convey what they are passionate about. I know individuals who sponsor children for about $30/month....and this costs them. They feel every dollar they give.

Time can be measured, as well. Hours, days, weeks. Volunteering for something you're not passionate about makes the hands on the clock s l o w down....while volunteering for something you are passionate about makes them fast forward. 

What's not so easy to measure is talent. It goes hand-in-hand with time, as it takes time to give of your talents to any endeavor. But we don't give or our talents and gifts equally. We pick and choose when and where and for how long we'll serve in a given capacity.

For example...I sing and play the piano. I value my commitment to church, and so therefore give of my talents there and sing in a praise team and play the piano ever-so-often when called upon or there is a need. I don't get reimbursed for this time.

If I were to be asked to play for a wedding of a close friend, it would be my joy to serve them with playing and/or singing. However, if I were asked by someone I didn't know, I'd definitely charge for this time and for the use of my services.

The difference is that my values come into play. My value of friendship or of my faith makes the same talent offered different.

So here are some questions to ask your characters, in no particular order:

1) What types of fund raisers would you be most likely to ignore or most likely to participate in? Why? (those magazine scams, gift wrap, band booster candy bar or gift wrapping sales, giving money for the kid with cystic fibrosis whose family placed a jar next to the cashier at the grocery store, supporting a university alumni association, etc)

2) What non-emergency would make you dip into your emergency fund to give to others? (friend needs rent money or they'll be evicted, you see a homeless man on the street, etc)


3) What would compel you to give up a Saturday or an evening after a hard day's work volunteering Why? (manning a soup kitchen for an hour, helping a friend move,

4) When you aren't at work or home, where do you spend most of your time? (shopping centers, church, bar, friends' houses, etc)

5) What hobby of yours would you let a friend/loved get for free that you normally make other people pay for? Why? (i.e., beading, event planning, playing the flute, landscaping, etc)

Moral values play a huge part in what characters support with their time, talent, and treasure. (click to tweet!)

Let's Analyze

What are some other indicators of something you value?

What Does Your Character Value?

I ran across this quote yesterday, and it, coupled with something said by someone I highly respect, led to this post today. 

“Many of the things you can count, don't count. 

Many of the things you can't count, really count.” 

 ― Albert Einstein

 
I know Albert's a genius, and all that, but I'm not sure I agree with this. 

Everyone counts multiple things every day, whether you are consciously aware of it or not. Most people have a running tally of minutes and pennies in their mind, because the world seems to revolve around money and time. Do these things count count?

I think that's individualized. I don't value money as much as I value time, but the old adage, "time is money," rings very true for me. So perhaps I do value money more than I thought.

What about the other things you can count? Here's some counts involving time that might not come to mind initially, but how many people do you know define themselves by one of these below?

1) months sober
2) years since an act of abuse or being diagnosed with cancer
3) years married/separated
4) birthdays of your children
5) anniversaries of deaths

As to things unrelated to time, like:

1) number of states/countries you've visited
2) how many movies you've seen
3) how many signed first edition books you own
4) number of techno-gadgets you stood in line for to buy
5) number of suicide attempts

Where am I going with this post, and why should you care?

People count what they care about. If they didn't care, they wouldn't keep up with the count. Can you see how any of the above examples could be something that a person defines themselves by? A recovering addict keeps close watch on clean time, the same way someone who suffers from PTSD due to a rape would count the passage of time since that event changed the outlook on their life.

A film critic would naturally count movies seen, as would a traveler the number of states. They easily could define each of themselves by these values.

My current character in my YA counts the number of years she has gone without being kissed. For her, this lack of experience defines her.

What about your character? What does s/he  value? What do they spend their time counting, whether they consciously realize it or not? Is it something tangible, or intangible?

And once you've figured that out, how can you impact their ability to count it--value it--through your plot? Here are three ideas to help you brainstorm:

What could change how they count what they count?

Say a military man on the front lines counts number of lives saved. Could an injury get him honorably discharged and unable to count this particular category in this way anymore? Now he'd have to find some other way to meet this need, because his counting has been categorically changed due to a limitation he suffered.

What could take away what they count? 

Say an employee counts the number of reports done a certain way since being hired. Could a new boss come in and declare that report no longer needed, taking away her feeling of worth and productivity? making her counting category inherently change in some way as to throw the meaning out for her?

What could disrupt their ability to count?

Say a woman counts the number of animals she could rescue in an community, because rescuing them feeds her need to take care of something else besides herself. Could a freak storm or flood render this counting useless for several weeks?

Let's Analyze

Have you ever thought about the fact that we count about what we care about and value? What's one thing YOU count?

What do Popples® have to do with Characterization?

I've spent week before last monitoring Popples® on eBay.

Yes, you read right. Popples®.

Anybody out there remember these furry little marsupial-like toys from Hasbro? Back in the day, I had the one pictured, Puffball. 

This vintage toy is going for the low, low price of $49.95. And in a week-long fog of insanity, I nearly pressed the Buy It Now! button several times.

One, because this would serve my need for immediate gratification.

Two, because I love the idea of being reunited with a beloved toy from my childhood. In fact, love it so much that I was almost willing to part with 50 bones for this reunion.

(And would, in fact, have done so if my husband hadn't looked at me and said, "What on earth are you going to do with that?" I didn't have a good answer. I mean, I wouldn't let my daughter play with this "un-matted" vintage toy that I put down major bucks for...so it would likely sit on a shelf or in a drawer. I saw his point and bootlegged the picture for old times sake.)

But it got me thinking about people in general, and of course, our characters, which we model after real folks. Folks who have moments of insanity like this. Folks who have fond remembrances and affinities for things from our childhood. It says a lot about our character to form these attachments.

I'm not big on character forms, but a little character exercise every once in a while never hurt anyone. Answer the questions below to get to know your MC a little better.

1. What decade did your character grow up in?

2. Use this link to search for toys that correspond with that era. [WARNING: Potential time suck.]

3. Select a toy that you could imagine your character being willing to pay $50+ for 25 years later.

4. What feelings does this toy evoke in your character? Why?

Let's Analyze

Learn anything new...about yourself or your character? How many minutes did you just use up exclaiming over some of those old toys that you knew and loved?

Character Clinic: Lila Oleander

Happy May Day, everyone! I've got the wonderful Jessica R. Patch's contemporary romance character, Lila, on the couch today, courtesy of her having won my last How Does That Make You Feel? giveaway. (There is still time to get a comment in my latest HDTMYF post and win a mini-assessment for one of your character's...click here!)

Here's a bit about Lila: After her mother passed away when Lila was 12, she grew up trying to garner the attention and approval of her Fortune 500 company CEO dad. She took an interest in the company, and was good at it, earning her position. She's a New York city gal, so her dad's request to move to his former hometown of Glory, MS---to "discover the meaning of life" and better understand the values he built his company on---doesn't sit well. Lila is a private 28-year-old, almost aloof, who doesn't like to admit failures or weaknesses to anyone.

Jessica wants to know: How can Lila be likable to readers and gain sympathy while being true to her guarded nature and impersonal behavior?

Gaining reader sympathy isn't the objective so much as making readers relate to your character. (click to tweet!). Characters in books and film have personalities we might not like, or would never associate with in real life, but enjoy reading about and watching on TV.

There will be scores of women who will relate to Lila's drive to succeed, or perhaps to her desperate need for her father's approval. These traits are likely to be apparent from scene 1. But you can also capitalize on the things mentioned in her intake form that give readers a reason to look up to her, such as her love of helping underprivileged women.

To further this point, I still stand by an earlier blog post that touts Steven James as one of the most masterful storytellers in that he gives his evil, serial-killing bad guys this soft spot...one that makes readers totally relate to a PSYCHO. It's actually a bit disturbing, when you're kinda sorta hoping said psycho won't get his comeuppance in the end. Of course we don't like like the guy. He's a murderer. But we do like his love of dogs, or respect of women.

It's no different for your character, at least at the start of the novel when she's in her precontemplative stage. She's guarded, but based on her intake form, it's not real clear why. It's motivation, not execution of action, that make or break a reader's ability to relate to a character (click to tweet!).

For example, if she's reserved because at one point in her history, she stuck her neck out and it got chopped off (to use a cliché b/c it's late and I'm tired), then I believe readers will totally buy in to her reservations...even better, applaud her for them. But you've got to hint at this motivation very early on, so they can suspend disbelief long enough for you to unravel her backstory as necessary.

Hope that Lila has enjoyed her time on the couch today...it was a short session, but fun!

Let's Analyze

How do you make your own character's flaws very apparent at the beginning of the book, yet not so much so that they turn off readers or make your characters hard to relate to?

Jurassic Park Sightings (AKA Characterization Inconsistencies)

If you haven't read Jeff Gerke's Plot versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction, I suggest you do so. It's what has inspired a new feature on my blog.

A Jurassic Park Sighting is a characterization inconsistency. Anytime a character does something out of character to simply move the plot forward, or if they behave in a way contrary to how they have already been portrayed....this is a Jurassic Park Sighting.

Why pick on Jurassic Park? Because in book The Lost World, Michael Crichton introduced a character named Richard Levine, a brilliant paleontologist and a man who was "fastidious," with "obsessive intensity....at heart a man of detail." He goes on for pages about needing to keep a pristine environment, yet he drops the wrapper to a power bar on the ground. The purpose this served was for additional plot, namely for raptors to smell the candy wrapper and come after them.

This weekend I caught up on Season 4 of Glee, and I have a great example of this for you.

Season 4 opens with auditions for New Directions, given that seniors Rachel, Finn, Puck, Santana, Mercedes, Kurt, Gwen and Mike have departed (for the most part) for bigger and better things. We're treated to an American Idol-esque version of tryouts, and Puck's younger half-brother is the first decent singer we hear.

When he signs up, he clearly exerts an alpha male influence, prompting another Glee Club wannabe to quickly drop the pen and step away from the sign-up sheet. He then signs only "Jake," with no last name (as to avoid association with Noah Puckerman), but which is also a dominant, confident move.

At the tryout, he sings "Never Say Never" by The Fray. (click for lyrics) This is not a song that showcases his bad-boyness. It's a beautiful ballad, but I digress. He gets through the first verse and chorus before he's interrupted by Will Schuester, who already knows Jake's more than worthy of New Directions.

Jake gets huffy, and is like, "I don't get to finish?" Will tells them that they have plenty of others to listen to. Jake then says, "But I've been practicing." [Jurassic Park Sighting #1 - whiny bad boy? This smacks of desperation and above all is VERY uncool of His Coolness.] Will says they've seen enough and thanks him.  Jake then storms off, knocking over a music stand. Will asks him to pick it up, but Jake gives a mocking bow and walks off.

Later, Will summons Jake to talk to him about his audition. Jake swaggers in and says, "Do you have any idea how hard I worked on that song? I was up for three nights getting it right, and you didn't even let me finish." [Jurassic Park Sighting #2 - no tough-as-nails kid is going to admit this to a teacher whom he feels just rejected him.]

After some family tree exploration of Jake's connection with Noah, Will tells Jake that he knew after the first verse he wanted him in the club. He tells him he's "really good." Jake gets this hopeful expression and asks, "You really think I'm good?" (NOT a Jurassic Park Sighting - this is character layering). Will confirms that he does think that, but then Jake closes off his expression and rejects Will's offer to sing. He says he likes the chip on his shoulder that Will told him he needed to lose.

The Difference Between Character Inconsistency and Character Layering

Because there was nothing said at the audition to warrant that type of reaction from Jake...the producers needed him to show attitude, so he did, come hell or high water. It was over the top. His revelation that he "practiced," said in front of current Glee Club members in the auditorium, was completely out of character, but it was needed to amp the tension enough to provoke him to knock that music stand over. Come on! Who does that?

The third gives us a glimpse into Jake's inner world...the insecurity underneath the facade of his tough exterior. It was made even more poignant by him closing the audience (and Will) off by reverting to the badboy mask.

I'm open to accepting Jurassic Park Sightings (in film or fiction), anonymous or otherwise. You can email them to me at jeannie (at) charactertherapist (dot) com.

Let's Analyze

Do you watch Glee? Who's going to be your favorite newbie?