{"id":4033,"date":"2011-01-29T03:09:03","date_gmt":"2011-01-29T10:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=4033"},"modified":"2011-01-29T03:09:03","modified_gmt":"2011-01-29T10:09:03","slug":"how-do-you-write-a-character-who-is-shy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/how-do-you-write-a-character-who-is-shy\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you write a character who is shy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The writing is a little sporadic these days, but it’s coming along.\u00a0 I’ve broken out of my most recent block, and progress is coming along on WAFH…or at least it was, when I didn’t have a temp job sucking up most of my time during the day.<\/p>\n

Still, can’t complain about work–and even though all the job interviews from a couple weeks ago seem to have lead nowhere, I’ve got a few new opportunities opening up that seem promising.\u00a0 More on those later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of the more challenging aspects of WAFH is writing the main female protagonist, Mira Najmi.\u00a0 Mira is something of a shy pushover, who gradually learns to stand up for herself and make her own independent decisions.<\/p>\n

Because of this, I find it difficult to write from her point of view.\u00a0 When she isn’t letting people walk all over her, she’s either homesick and depressed or following others without making any real decisions for herself.\u00a0 And yet, in order for her growth arc to work, this is the point at which she needs to start out; her gradual change into a strong and independent woman is a major part of the book.<\/p>\n

In short, how do I make a shy, self-effacing protagonist sympathetic and interesting while remaining true to her character?<\/p>\n

(Before I go further, I should note that Mira does have strengths.\u00a0 She has a caring, nurturing personality, and is sensitive to the needs of others.\u00a0 She often notices the little things that go right over the male protagonist’s head.\u00a0 Besides that, she’s basically a good person, with a pure heart and an aversion to causing hurt or injury.\u00a0 Oh, and she’s stunningly beautiful–though in some ways, that’s more of a handicap than a strength.)<\/p>\n

Thus far, my strategy has been to delve into her internal monologue when in her viewpoint and try to make her underlying motivations clear.\u00a0 I suspect it goes beyond that, though.\u00a0 The best thing I can probably do is make her relatable to the audience–to make her shy in ways that make the readers feel like she’s one of them.<\/p>\n

But that’s difficult for me, because I’m not a very shy person and I don’t generally relate well with people who are.\u00a0 So how can I get a better understanding of what it’s like?\u00a0 Do you guys have anything that you can share with me that would help me to understand?\u00a0 Any tips or techniques for writing similar characters?<\/p>\n

(image taken from http:\/\/webpages.scu.edu\/ftp\/lgrove\/resign%20splashpage.htm)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The writing is a little sporadic these days, but it’s coming along.\u00a0 I’ve broken out of my most recent block, and progress is coming along on WAFH…or at least it was, when I didn’t have a temp job sucking up most of my time during the day. Still, can’t complain about work–and even though all… Continue reading How do you write a character who is shy?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44],"tags":[112,486,199,508,190,312],"class_list":["post-4033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ds","tag-character","tag-flaws-and-handicaps","tag-questions","tag-sympathy","tag-women","tag-work","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-133","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4033"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4052,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033\/revisions\/4052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}