When you hear the words, Italian grandmother, I’m sure an image of a cute little old lady comes to your mind. She’s wearing an apron. Her hair is tied back neatly in a bun. She’s carrying a plate of pasta and meatballs. The gentle woman is smiling and saying, “Eat, eat.”
That would not be my grandmother. Not Noona. Banish that thought from your mind.
Noona had white Einstein fly-away hair. She stood less than five feet tall. And, at her prime, she weighed 165 pounds. Yet, when you looked at my grandmother, you would not think the words chubby or cute. You would think feisty or formidable. Or, if you were really perceptive, you might think Dear Lord, don’t ever let me make this woman angry!
Italian grandmothers are supposed to be such good cooks, right? When you sat at my grandmother’s kitchen table, you took your life in your hands.
My grandmother cooked snails, clams and mussels illegally pulled out of a polluted part of Long Island Sound. So the specter of hepatitis always loomed over us.
Also, Noona’s cavalier handling of pork made trichinosis a lingering fear. As a kid, I knew about trichinosis first hand. My Aunt Chubby who lived with my Aunt Trixie in Newark, New Jersey made the mistake of handling hot Italian sausages carelessly. Chubby came down with trichinosis and almost died. It wasn’t all bad though, because Aunt Chubby wound up shedding about forty pounds.
But it was Noona’s chicken soup that scarred my tender psyche. She bought fresh chickens—very fresh—often I’d discover them tied up and still clucking in a burlap bag in her bathroom.
Then, Noona would kill and pluck the chicken. She wasn’t all that particular about feather removal. If you ever want inspiration to become a vegetarian, just once find a chicken feather floating on the surface of your soup.
After she plucked the bird, more or less, she’d throw the whole chicken body, bloody neck first, into a kettle of boiling water on the gas stove. Those little chicken feet would stick straight up over the edge of the pot. That image that haunts me to this day.
Even though she spent over fifty years in this country, Noona could barely speak English and could not read it. Certainly, she was smart enough to do either. She just didn’t think it was necessary. She’d guess the meaning on various bottles and packages. One morning I found her soaking her feet in a basin of Milk of Magnesia which as you may know is a laxative. Another time, on a summer night, I noticed zillions of bug bodies plastered on the walls of her apartment. They were covered with waxy goop. Turns out, Noona had used a furniture polish (Pledge) as a bug spray.
Noona’s inability to read did not stop her from playing the stock market. She worked with a Cuban broker. He talked to her in Spanish, which she didn’t speak. She answered him in Italian, which he didn’t speak. At least one morning a week, I’d hear Noona shouting to this guy on the telephone. She yelled on the phone because she didn’t believe that a skinny wire alone could carry her voice across town. As time went on, the two of them managed to make a killing on the stock market.
Noona’s political beliefs were firm and clear. Growing up, I thought Nixon’s last name was Bruta Bastia. As you can imagine, those are very naughty words in Italian. On the other hand, she loved Hubert Humphrey whom she called Mr. Hongry. One night, my parents and I were watching the national evening news in Connecticut. By this time, Noona had started spending her winters in Florida. On the screen, we saw Noona standing on the Million Dollar Pier in St. Petersburg, Florida. She walked up to Hubert Humphrey, started pumping his hand and said, “You Mr. Hongry. You good man.”
Growing up, I called my grandmother Noona, but everyone else called her Santa Mazzotta. Santa, of course, means saint. The name Mazzotta, we think comes from the word matzada(phonetic spelling), which in Italian slang means to beat or kill. The name seems appropriate for Noona. In fact, when I think of Noona, one of the first stories that comes to mind involves my grandmother who as a young woman wielded a gun in order to snatch back a passport from a thief in Sicily. But I’ve been forbidden to talk about that. Whenever I try to bring it up, my father gives me the evil eye and says, “Don’t mention the incident. It dishonors your grandmother’s memory.”
So, I won’t mention it. However, I will tell you one last story about Noona. My grandmother, my parents, and much of the rest of our extended family lived in a nine family tenement building. One day, I watched from the driveway as my distant cousin Tony (not real name) climbed the steps to my grandmother’s second floor apartment. The guy could have passed for Fonzie: slicked back black hair, sleeveless tee shirt, black chinos, pointy shoes—the works.
Through the family grapevine, I knew Tony planned to ask Noona for a sizable loan so he could buy a car. I also knew that there was no chance that my eighty-four year old grandmother was about to fork over any money.
Standing next to me in the driveway was my sister. She worried about Noona’s safety. “Do you think we should call the police?”
“No. An ambulance.” I said.
“Oh my gosh. Do you think Tony will hurt Noona?”
“No. The ambulance would be for Tony.”
Sure enough, five minutes later we heard lots of shouting, Tony in English and Noona in Italian. Next thing we saw was Tony scooting out of the apartment and Noona waddling close behind. Tony stumbled. Noona nabbed him. I’m not sure what happened next except that I saw Tony literally take flight down those stairs. I was right. We should have called an ambulance. My grandmother: Santa Mazzotta.
Why have I spent all this time telling you about my sainted grandmother? Well, the topic is how to make your reader care about your character. I believe a good way to make your reader care about the character you create is to help your reader get to know that character. You do that by presenting that reader with well-chosen details about the character. Give a physical description. Talk about quirky habits, personality traits, political beliefs. Throw in an anecdote or two. You want to create a character who will jump off the page and into your reader’s imagination.
You want your reader to say, “I know a person like that.” Or, “I want to know more about that person.” You want you reader to become emotionally invested in your character.
Why is it so important that a reader care about your character? John MacDonald says that “Story is something happening to someone you’ve been lead to care about.” If your audience doesn’t give a hoot about your characters, they are not going to care about your story.
Let me illustrate this point. Suppose you hear that a branch of Bank of America was robbed this morning. If you heard this news, you probably would not get too upset (unless you own Bank of America). But what if you heard that your branch of the bank was robbed? That makes it a little more personal. How about if you hear that a teller was injured? Maybe you start wondering if it was that nice British lady who always gives your son two lollipops. You hope it’s not her. Your anxiety grows a bit. Then, you hear that a small child and older woman were harmed. You remember that your mother was going to take your son on some errands this morning. She banks at that branch. All of a sudden, you are frantic. You’re calling your home, the hospital and the police trying to get information.
What’s my point? The emotional intensity of any event you portray will increase dramatically if your reader knows and cares about your character. You’ll have created a better story.
Caring about a character does not mean liking the character. It just means having an emotional investment in what happens to that character. For example, Harry Potter fans don’t like Voldemort but they very much care about who he is and what he’s up to.
So, you want to evoke a passionate response from your reader. You want that reader to love your character, hate your character, feel pity, feel charmed, feel repulsed by your character. You want that reader to be living in the head and heart of your character.
What happens you don’t care about a character? You stop reading. Instead of sitting forward in your chair, you sit back and take a good snooze. Recently, I was dragging myself through a terrible story. All the characters were flat and boring. When the main love interest and her little nephew were about to be killed by a raging psychopath, I cheered. My main thought was, for goodness sake, let’s get this over with. I was so disengaged and cared so little for the characters, I was rooting for the psychopath.
What are other ways to create an emotional bond between the reader and the character you’ve created? One way is to tap into a universal theme, a theme all readers can identify with. Someone once said all stories are basically descriptions of someone trying to regain paradise. Our whole lives are one long attempt to regain the paradise we lost at the beginning of time.
Whether you agree with this statement, it’s a great concept to use to create a character that a reader cares about. Portray your character on a quest. Show your character enmeshed in a problem. Conflict usually appears in three ways: the individual against himself, the individual striving against others, or the individual battling some other force: God, monsters, aliens, nature, ideas….whatever.
Make sure that quest or problem is something your readers can identify with. If they can identify with the situation, they will be more likely to empathize with your character. You will have created that emotional bond between the reader and your character.
Once again, identifying with a quest doesn’t necessarily mean sympathizing with it. Your main character could be involved in a quest that your reader would be very much opposed to—like creating a computer virus that would shut down the all financial transactions in the world. What you are aiming for is emotional involvement on the part of your reader. You want that reader to care so much that they won’t put your book down.
Need quest ideas? How about righting a wrong? Trying to get the answer to a mystery. Overcoming tremendous odds to accomplish laudable personal goals. Sacrificing for the sake of love. Facing the temptation to do evil, but ultimately doing good.
While engaging in this quest or solving this problem, your character must change—maybe mature, gain a different perspective, fail, succeed. Remember to show evidence for how and why the change occurred in your character. Your character is on a journey. Make sure your reader accompanies your character on that journey.
The mark of an amateur writer is to create a good guy with no flaws or to create a bad guy with no sympathetic features. Neither is believable because neither exists in this world. Think of a woman who is brilliant, wealthy, always exquisitely dressed, and articulate, has consistently well-behaved kids. We may admire her. We may envy her. But we probably have a hard time relating to her.
Your readers will be more able to relate to a protagonist who has flaws, just as they have flaws. They’ll be more able to relate to that villain who has some admirable or sympathetic quality.
In the book The Lovely Bones, the very bad guy is named Mr. Harvey. The author Alice Sebold tells the reader about Mr. Harvey’s awful childhood. Somehow, the reader is able to see how Mr. Harvey came to be the monster that he is. His character is given depth and breadth. By taking care to make Mr. Harvey a multidimensional being, Sebold tells a more compelling story.
What are other ways to make that emotional connection between a reader and your character? Create a scene with your character in it that evokes an emotion: pity, repulsion, affection, disdain, disgust. Strike an emotional chord in your reader. How do you do that? I have three words for you: Writer Know Thyself!
In order for you to be able to write in a way that triggers an emotional response in others, you have to know what triggers an emotional response in you. Of course, you are not the measure of all things. However, you are a good place to start. Identify how you feel about specific events and situations. Try to understand what triggers your feelings of anger, affection, anxiety, joy. If you don’t know the answer to these questions about yourself, you are going to have trouble writing about others.
Once you’ve figured what triggers your emotions, observe others. Note what people say and do as they live out their lives. If you’re uncertain as to how your character might react in a certain situation, test out possibilities with trusted friends. See what they think. Just remember striking that emotional chord with your readers will help them relate better to the characters you create resulting in a stronger story.
Let me wrap up here. I hope I’ve shown you how important character is in your writing. Paint a vivid picture of your character, then get your reader emotionally involved with that character. Make your reader care. Do so by giving the character a quest or problem that your reader can identify with. Cause your characters to grow and change, but be certain to show how and why the change occurred. Make sure your heroes have flaws and your villains have a sympathetic quality or two. Write scenes that will emotionally connect your reader to your character. Do this by identifying situations that trigger emotional responses in your own life and the lives of others. The best of luck to you all: Happy Writing!
