I had the pleasure of speaking at a Vermont College of Fine Arts “Craft Connections” session this week. Thanks to my colleague Anne-Marie Strohman for the invite; check out her lovely website here!
The session focused on secondary characters in fiction, a topic I explored in my MFA thesis. (Is it weird that now that I’m not writing a thesis anymore, I sort of miss it?) I joined a breakout group where we discussed the characters in Jerry Craft’s graphic novel New Kid, which was the first graphic novel to win a Newbery Award.
New Kid is awesome for many reasons. In particular, I couldn’t help but admire the way Craft introduces his different characters. He has a real knack for telling us everything about these kids without actually telling us anything.
The main character, Jordan Banks, is starting out at a prestigious private school that’s very preppy and very white. Early in the story, he meets two peers who will play key roles. The first is Liam; the second is Drew. These characters’ first panels in the book couldn’t be more different.
Here’s the first time we see Liam. Jordan’s ducking into the car next to him, nervous about his first day at school. And Liam’s asleep. Very asleep. Notice how he takes up the whole panel and then some, his goofy blond hair extending over the borders. The pink/lime color scheme is…also a lot. Liam seems both blissfuly clueless and totally in his element, while Jordan’s hunched-over, anxious-looking, and relegated to the background in his own story.
A few pages later, we meet Drew, another kid at Jordan’s new school.
Drew’s hunched over here too, just like Jordan in the earlier panel. The teacher’s in the foreground, taking up a full third of the panel, though this moment in the story is ostensibly all about Drew. Drew’s got a friendly, expectant look on his face, but definitely seems tense. Like someone working hard to make a good impression.
New Kid is about a lot of things, but one of them is power: who has it in different contexts, and why that matters. As the book progresses, Craft challenges our initial understanding of both Liam and Drew. They become more complex characters and each surprises us in their own way. Yet even though these early characterizations are more like jumping-off points, Craft still uses them to his full advantage, making visual and editorial decisions that reveal so much about character and theme.
The Storytelling Takeaway
Whether you’re working on a novel, or trying to convey how your product can change your customers’ lives, or telling the story of how donations made a huge difference for your cause, it’s all about making the people––the characters––at the heart of your story feel real.
For novelists, it’s a question of craft. The world might end if the protagonist doesn’t find the ancient scroll in time? Okay, that sounds cool. But if you haven’t made me care about the characters, honestly the world ending doesn’t feel like all that big a deal.
For marketers, it’s a question of authenticity. You can feature all the “happy customer” stories that you like. But if those customers don’t come off like real people, your prospective buyers aren’t going to relate.
For nonprofits, it’s a question of ethics. The point I made for marketers stands, but there’s also a moral imperative to make clear that any people you help are real, complex humans with real, complex lives. This will not only make your stories more effective, but also make sure those stories are serving not just your donors, but your constituents, too. People want to be seen for who they really are. It’s so important to honor that truth in your work.
Here are a few questions to get you started.
How do the people in your story move through space? How do they sit? How do they laugh? What’s an unexpected thing they love? What are they scared of? What makes them smile? If their friends listed three things that were totally “them,” what would those things be?
If Jerry Craft were drawing the panel where this person first appeared “onstage” in your story, how would he draw it? Would this character have more power than the people around them, or less? What would they be saying (or trying not to say)? Who else would be there? Who isn’t there, but your character wishes they were?
Whether this character is you, or a customer, or a kid your organization helped, or a made-up faerie who’s training for a battle against evil forces, the more real they feel, the more your audience will care.
And that making them care is what storytelling’s all about.
Have a great day, everyone!
–Erin
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Erin Becker (she/her)
Writer | Communications Consultant | Storytelling Expert
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