Character Reaction - Make Your Characters Respond

Beth Hill, Fiction Editor

A character’s reactions can reveal facets of his personality that cannot be revealed by action
or dialogue initiated by that character. The actions and words of others that draw a response
from a character tell what bothers that character. They indicate issues that are important to the
character, issues including those hot-button topics that are guaranteed to set off a character
each time they’re visited in the story.

Reactions reveal issues that mean something for a character.

If a character goes after the man who’s gone after his dog, readers know that the dog means
something special to that character or that he is possessive/selfish, unwilling to let others touch
or hurt what belongs to him.

When a character responds to the actions or words or intentions of another

Writers direct readers into key revelations by showing character response.

Conversely, when there is no response, the writer has shown that words or actions or event
have little meaning for a character.

If one character confesses a deep and long-held secret to another and the second character has
no response—no reaction in action or thought or dialogue—then the writer is saying that such
a confession holds no meaning for that second character.

A character does not need to reveal his response overtly to other characters, of course. But if
he has no response—if the reader can’t see a response of any kind—then there isn’t one.
Characters can keep their emotions hidden from other characters but not from readers. A
response hidden from the reader is the same as no response.

While the lack of a response might actually reveal a facet of a character’s personality, that
personality should also be revealed by what he does respond to.

How Characters React

Kelly, hand held low on her belly, said, “He’s not yours, Paul.”

Paul, hands tightening, stepped away from her. “Kel—” He clamped his lips
together, took another step back. “Damn you.”

Dialogue as a response can be deliberate, allowing one character to steer other characters in
the direction he wants them to go, leaving him in charge. Or, the words of his dialogue can be
involuntary, pulled from him against his will as a response to what he’s seen or heard from
others.

When you consider a response for your characters, think about using dialogue, keeping in mind
how it can raise the level of conflict in a scene. Consider using a response that’s out of character
for your character. When a character no longer holds back, when he reveals a true response
through dialogue, he’s showing who he is and what’s important to him.

Dialogue as a response can thus be quite powerful.

Know that reactions through dialogue can be short and to the point or long and drawn out. Use
the method that fits the scene and reveals your character’s mind and heart.

Characters can also hold back a response, but readers should see what it costs the character to
refrain from speaking.

A teen boy may promise his sister he won’t tell that she snuck out, may instead end up taking
the blame when she scratches the family car coming home at three in the morning. His silence
in response to his parents’ interrogation can reveal his love for his sister.

Or it may reveal his desperation to protect her secrets because she’s protecting his even darker
secrets.

What a character doesn’t say can be just as powerful as the words he speaks. Yet the reader
must know what he’s not saying or must be aware that he’s holding something back. Otherwise
silence is only silence.
Action
Characters reveal themselves through action as well as dialogue. So a character can fling his
phone across the room when he doesn’t like what he’s just heard. Or he can put his fist through
a wall. He can kiss the forehead of his sleeping son, tears held back, at the news the infant
doesn’t have leukemia.

Like dialogue, a character’s actions in response to the words or actions of others can be
deliberate or involuntary. And the choice of a deliberate action over an involuntary one, or vice
versa, will direct the story in a particular direction.

A character whose responses are deliberate is in control, at least to some extent. He seeks to
influence other characters by his response. On the other hand, a character who responds
because he can’t help himself is a character controlled by others or by his feelings or by a stand
he has taken or by his integrity.

An involuntary response reveals the depths of a character, his psyche or his passions. His core
being.

When a character can’t help but respond, especially against his will, the reader knows that he’s
seeing the true character. He knows at least a part of what moves that character, what drives
him. What the character is apart from the trappings that he presents to the people of his world.

A reaction that’s withheld is also key to a character.

If a woman doesn’t reach out to her lover when he confesses his love for her, if she steps away
instead or shakes her head at his confession, she can be revealing that she doesn’t love him or
that she doesn’t believe him or that she feels unlovable and doesn’t deserve to hear such words
from him.

Again, keep in mind that a lack of response speaks not only to other characters but to the
reader. When the reader knows there’s a reason for an absence of response, that reveals
something about the character that other characters might not be privy to. But a simple lack of
response without context or insight simply shows that what has been said or what has
happened means nothing to the character.

And if words or actions mean nothing for the character, especially for
antagonist or protagonist, what purpose do they serve in your story?
You could be using an event or dialogue to reveal the motivations of a secondary character or
to establish tone, but be sure they do something, these events and the words of dialogue you
write. They shouldn’t be purposeless. They should affect characters and compel them to react.

Thoughts
A character’s thoughts in response to the actions or words of others are obviously a key to that
character’s personality and to those issues most important to him.

When you let readers see into a character’s mind, you permit him access to that character
that no one else has. Character thoughts instantly reveal the essence of the man—his
motivation, his dreams, his disappointments.

Let readers see a character’s thoughts when you want to present a clear insight into that
character. Characters can lie to themselves, but for the most part, a character’s thoughts are an
honest reflection of what he’s thinking. If you need a true character reaction untainted by what
others think about or feel for a character, present the character’s thoughts as reaction.

Because character thought is so revealing, unless you want to keep him exposed, limit the
amount of time spent in a character’s head.

Readers don’t want to know everything about a character in a single moment; leave them
something to discover as the story progresses. Even in first-person narration, don’t spill the
character’s thoughts in a steady stream from first page to last. Take time for story events and
dialogue. Get out of the limited confines of a character’s thoughts and broaden the story to
include what happens in a character’s outer world.

Emotions
Like thoughts, character emotions can instantly reveal a character’s personality and what he
finds important. Yet emotions can be faked or manipulated by a character to direct the
response of others.
That is, emotions can be deliberately released or deliberately held back. But even the
manipulation of emotion can reveal character.

A man who allows an emotion to show when he’s with his girlfriend but who withholds emotion
when he’s with his wife tells us something about the man.

A man who doesn’t control his emotions but lets them fly as he feels them reveals that man.

A man who always holds back his emotions tells us something about the manner of man he is.
Keep in mind that at least the reader must have some understanding of what’s being held back
in order for this technique to work. An emotion that’s held back can be a reaction. But if the
reader doesn’t know what’s held back, if the reader sees no emotion, then that translates to a
lack of reaction.

___________________________

Character action and reaction propel the forward motion of a story. Response and reaction
and the response to that reaction are what take readers from opening page to resolution. If
characters didn’t react to what other characters were doing or saying or feeling, then there’d
be no cohesion, no story threads drawing disparate story elements together.

Consider other characters’ reactions when you write a first character’s actions. What will
Janelle do when Walter forgets to stop by the bank to make a payment on their credit line, a
lapse that costs them $225 that they don’t have?

What is Janelle’s response when Walter tells her he forgot to stop by the bank because he’d
been fired earlier in the day and now they have no money coming in to pay their debts?

What kind of response would Janelle show if Walter confessed he robbed the bank on the way
home, taking money out instead of paying the bank back?

The reaction you give a character will direct the story. Each time a character responds, you take
characters and readers deeper into your fiction.

Character reaction will also affect the tone of a scene, the conflict between characters, and
the tension in the reader.

Reactions must make sense for the moment, for the character, for the genre, and for the depth
of response necessary for the scene.

Work and rework the connection between action and reaction in your stories so that conflict
rises and story events come together to drive characters to the inevitable end you have
planned for them.

Give character reaction the proper emphasis for each scene. Vary the level of response—one
character shouldn’t always react with the same degree of emotion, and scenes would feel flat
without a variety of intensities.

Don’t neglect reaction and its importance for both revelation of character and forward
movement of plot.
Give your characters the reactions the story demands, responses that fit their personalities and
the adventure you’ve crafted for them.