Tuesday, March 28, 2017

tropes - How to compactly explain secondary and tertiary characters without resorting to stereotypes?


Sure, I understand the characters, but that's because I've been thinking about them.


But how do I transfer that knowledge to the reader without taking the time and space to flesh them out further??


The standard answer is "stereotypes", because stereotypes are broad generalizations about humans, and without the ability to generalize we must start tabula rasa in every new situation, no matter how similar it is to situations that we are already familiar with. (More importantly, stereotypes have a basis in fact -- or at least reporting -- no matter how partial, one-sided and/or outdated they are.


But since stereotypes have been declared Evil, I need some other method of KT (Knowledge Transfer) about these characters.





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