Never just a character...
How writing about my characters makes me fall in love with them a little bit more.
Writing this novel, as laborious and long as it has been, has taught me much. Central perhaps to these learnings was the evolution of characters. I’d start off, picturing them one way and then by the end of the first draft I would look back at the opening pages and think He would never do that now…
Which is why I think it’s essential, when you have something in your mind that you want to give a go to, that you write. Get it all out. Even if you think it’s trash or undeveloped, just go with it. You will learn so much simply from seeing this character interact with others, how they react in certain situations, their mannerisms and traits.
I promise, you will fall in love with them.
Vittorio was one such character. He is a driver, he is useful and he is needed to push everything forwards - but to what degree and depth, I wasn’t sure. When my last writing prompt asked us to delve into a character and to present him in three parts, I had no doubt that I’d use this to discover a bit more about Vittorio. So here’s a 20 minute sketch that I hope you’re enjoy.
Vittorio
He rarely ever holds himself upright, slightly hunched at the shoulders as if he is perpetually standing at his work, an empty tavola ready to receive his brushstrokes. His brown hair curls at the temples, barely brushes his shoulders. He often drags his hands through it, when a composition isn’t coming out the way he is seeing it in his mind’s eye. So, you will frequently see coloured streaks there, pieces of pigment sticking to his locks. He doesn’t mind and indeed, doesn’t notice most of the time. His deep-set eyes are an indefinable brown – they’re dark, almost black for many whose gaze rest briefly on his face. But look closer and you’ll see a gold crown around his irises that seem to throw in relief how light the brown is. Almost hazel.
Vittorio’s hands, or indeed the cuffs of his shirts, will never be clean. They will have traces, clues to what his current work is. Like a map you can trace to a destination. Lapis for a Madonna with Child. Verdigris and giallorino for a Tuscan landscape. Vermilion for a cape – perhaps a saint. For people who do not know the depths of his soul, he only comes alive when he paints, when he’s in contact with his pigments and his brush. Then you will see how his fingers come alive, flying across paper or panel, how his eyes seem to bore straight through you. And, on the occasions that he is satisfied, you will see his smile and a rare dimple on his left cheek. He reserves his true self for his art, and for the very few his heart seeks as much as his paint.
He always knew he was different – from his days studying in Pinturicchio’s studio with the other boys like him but even before, showing a sensitive side that worried his father but endeared his mother. He would rarely go to taverns and when he did, he shied away from the serving girls. People thought him timido, a case of being excessively shy. Thank God he was good with his hands, his master would mutter or he’d never go far in this world. But Vittorio was not shy – he was a gentle, quiet person, confident in his abilities, and confident in knowing that he was simply not attracted to the same thing the other boys were. Because when he came along, when Vittorio found him half dead in the ditch and revived him, he knew, with a certainty that belied his age, that he had found what the other boys had. This is what made his heart sing. Him.
How about you? What techniques do you use to bring your characters to life?