Character Structure

I pulled out of my stack today this descripton from Wikipedia of "character structure." There's a short article on it with references to Freud and others. You should read it.

It basically refers to what Martin Luther King called the "content of our character." It's indicated by how a person relates to himself, to others, and his environment. Is he or she self-centered, defensive, jealous, brave, timid, honest, etc.

The old TV program from the 1950s and 1960s about Wyatt Earp called him "brave, courageous, and true." The Boy Scouts has a number of other traits it markets. The U.S. Marine Corps calls them "the few, the proud, the Marines."

Animals have certain traits acribed to them. Rabbits are often seen as timid. Bears are ferocious. Dogs are friendly. Coyotes sneaky. On and on and on.

Writers talk about character structure when they craft their stories. A person's character acts like a box. Certain skills and abilities can be found in the box, others are outside of it. Over the course of a story we like to see a character grow the size of the box.

What's the content of your character? What's your brand? Are you brave, courageous, and true? Are you sneaky and timid and cowardly? What do other people think it is? What do you want it to be? What do you want to be remembered by?

Think about this before you go into business. Your voice is your announcing the content of your character to the world. Are the things you are doing and saying consistent with this voice, or are you telling people you're generous, but acting niggardly?

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. And go read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.