Read Online Make A Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jordan Rosenfeld
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tactile. When we're nervous, we fidget, fumble, or unconsciously drum our fingers. In fact, a character won't get more than a couple of minutes into a day before he begins to interact with the world by touching things.
Perhaps your character has a phobia of germs and wears gloves or refuses to touch certain things—like doorknobs or glasses. This example still shows details of touch. Whatever you determine for your characters, remember to let their fingers do the walking at least a little in your scenes, and know what kind of "toucher" each of your characters is.
Personal Touch
Personal touch is a range of physical contact that expresses information about your characters and relates to how they physically interact with other people. While personal touch refers to contact between characters (from the platonic, to the downright naughty), it also refers to ways that your characters interact with the world—offering readers insight into your characters' personalities. For instance, you might create a character with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder who cannot stop from touching strangers' noses, light switches, mailboxes, etc. Another character might have an obnoxious habit of gesturing wildly with his hands when he talks, knocking things off shelves. The way your characters touch their physical world is important information about who they are.
When characters touch each other (or themselves—for instance, your character might be a "cutter" who wounds herself for emotional release), the reader will also take notice. Touch between people is important because it's a way of communicating with one another. In real life you notice when a stranger puts his hands on your shoulders without permission. Your characters should also pay attention to these forms of touch between each other. A character who was sexually abused may not like to hug or be hugged. Yet another character might come from a culture where close physical proximity is normal and has to learn the hard way that another character does not appreciate this. Remember that when characters touch each other, they are communicating, so try to be conscious of this communication and what it means to your scene and your plot.
In chapter seven we'll talk about body language as a way to develop and build characters without even using dialogue.
SMELL
Remember a time when you caught a whiff of the scent of a flower or food, and the smell evoked a childhood memory, making you cry, laugh, or even get embarrassed? It's as if memories are housed inside scents, and once your nose gets a whiff, the memory is unlocked and, with it, feelings. The sense of smell—our olfactory sense, as it's known to scientists—has a direct link in the brain to memory and emotion. Since experiencing a scent is one of the most common experiences that people have, your characters need to have these experiences too, and you can use the sense of smell to dramatic effect in scenes.
For a moment, let's classify smells into two basic groups: those that smell good, and those that smell bad. If your scene involves a conflict between a morally good character and morally corrupt character, let us say, but you don't want to rely on any narrative tricks of telling the reader which is which, scent can help you get this distinction across. If Jack, your bad guy, smells of cigar smoke and day-old greasy Chinese food, while Bill, your good guy, smells like juniper and fresh air, who do you think the reader will see as bad or good?
Now I can already hear you saying, "What if I hate the smell of juniper?" Point taken. However, in the world of scents, even an unsophisticated reader is likely to believe that juniper smells better than cigar smoke, and that there is a reason you've gone to the trouble to make Jack smell worse than Bill. Or you might opt for a smell that is generally considered good, like the scent of roses.
Also, a character might use perfume or cologne for sentimental or vanity reasons. A woman
Perhaps your character has a phobia of germs and wears gloves or refuses to touch certain things—like doorknobs or glasses. This example still shows details of touch. Whatever you determine for your characters, remember to let their fingers do the walking at least a little in your scenes, and know what kind of "toucher" each of your characters is.
Personal Touch
Personal touch is a range of physical contact that expresses information about your characters and relates to how they physically interact with other people. While personal touch refers to contact between characters (from the platonic, to the downright naughty), it also refers to ways that your characters interact with the world—offering readers insight into your characters' personalities. For instance, you might create a character with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder who cannot stop from touching strangers' noses, light switches, mailboxes, etc. Another character might have an obnoxious habit of gesturing wildly with his hands when he talks, knocking things off shelves. The way your characters touch their physical world is important information about who they are.
When characters touch each other (or themselves—for instance, your character might be a "cutter" who wounds herself for emotional release), the reader will also take notice. Touch between people is important because it's a way of communicating with one another. In real life you notice when a stranger puts his hands on your shoulders without permission. Your characters should also pay attention to these forms of touch between each other. A character who was sexually abused may not like to hug or be hugged. Yet another character might come from a culture where close physical proximity is normal and has to learn the hard way that another character does not appreciate this. Remember that when characters touch each other, they are communicating, so try to be conscious of this communication and what it means to your scene and your plot.
In chapter seven we'll talk about body language as a way to develop and build characters without even using dialogue.
SMELL
Remember a time when you caught a whiff of the scent of a flower or food, and the smell evoked a childhood memory, making you cry, laugh, or even get embarrassed? It's as if memories are housed inside scents, and once your nose gets a whiff, the memory is unlocked and, with it, feelings. The sense of smell—our olfactory sense, as it's known to scientists—has a direct link in the brain to memory and emotion. Since experiencing a scent is one of the most common experiences that people have, your characters need to have these experiences too, and you can use the sense of smell to dramatic effect in scenes.
For a moment, let's classify smells into two basic groups: those that smell good, and those that smell bad. If your scene involves a conflict between a morally good character and morally corrupt character, let us say, but you don't want to rely on any narrative tricks of telling the reader which is which, scent can help you get this distinction across. If Jack, your bad guy, smells of cigar smoke and day-old greasy Chinese food, while Bill, your good guy, smells like juniper and fresh air, who do you think the reader will see as bad or good?
Now I can already hear you saying, "What if I hate the smell of juniper?" Point taken. However, in the world of scents, even an unsophisticated reader is likely to believe that juniper smells better than cigar smoke, and that there is a reason you've gone to the trouble to make Jack smell worse than Bill. Or you might opt for a smell that is generally considered good, like the scent of roses.
Also, a character might use perfume or cologne for sentimental or vanity reasons. A woman
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