On July 26, 2011, Emma wrote, …I’m wondering how much, um, delving is necessary? That may not be the right word, but (this is the only example I can think of right this second) on Food Network Star, the judges are always telling the Food Network wannabees to show the viewers more personality and more of their background. They say they can’t get enough of it when they learn more about each hopeful and, well, do you think our readers are the same way about our characters? Or would they be fine if we just went through the series of actions without bothering to really do some soul searching? This sort of seems like a rambling post, but it’s the only way I can think of to put it. If you can decipher what I’m trying to say, do you have any advice?

Emma, you’re completely clear. Alas, as usual when it comes to writing, there’s no conclusive answer. For starters, reader taste varies. In the old movie, My Dinner With Andre (for adults), two characters spend an evening in conversation, and personality is revealed by chat. I could barely sit through it. I wanted to scream at the actors (in the movie theater), “Stand up and do something!” But the film is beloved by many and has become a classic. Same with books: opinions differ. If you concentrate on your characters’ thoughts and feelings and revelations of backstory, some readers will be delighted, others impatient. You can’t please everyone.

So you might as well please yourself. (You can repeat this phrase to yourself often: You might as well please yourself. Hang it over your work space, write it in your notebooks in bubble writing or calligraphy, because it applies to just about every aspect of writing.)

Think about what you enjoy. Do you like to elaborate on your characters’ thoughts? Do you revel in soul-searching dialogue? If you’re fascinated, many readers are likely to be, too. And you can field test what you’re doing when you show your work to a friend or to your critique group. If they tell you to dial it back, if you hear from more than one reader that it’s too much, then you can start cutting. This tends to be my way. I put in too much introspection that I have to trim in revision.

If you prefer to write action-action-action, indulge yourself and see what your critique buddies say. If they tell you your characters’ activities seem motiveless, then you need to build in more thought, feeling, dialogue, and maybe backstory.

The decision also depends on the character you’re working with. If Inga is not introspective, she won’t be doing much deep rumination on the page no matter how much you want her to. You’ll be stuck with her actions, her limited thinking, what other characters say to her about herself and what they say about her when she’s not there. However, if Inga revels in exploring her feelings and her reasoning, then you need to give the reader at least a taste of this or more than a taste if you like.

Genre also influences how much “delving” you do. An adventure story, for example, is likely to be action-oriented. Thoughts, feelings, backstory may be introduced, but the story won’t linger on them. Terrific examples of action novels are the books by Richard Stark (high school and above), pseudonym of the late Donald Westlake. I haven’t read one in years, but I used to inhale them in one long gasp.

As soon as I wrote the paragraph about adventure stories I thought of Hamlet, which I’d call an action play since it has a ghost, suicide, and murder all going on. But it’s also supremely introspective because Hamlet deliberates and vacillates constantly on his proper course of action. Like Shakespeare, you can do both, write an action story that’s rich in thought and feeling or a character-driven tale full of excitement.

In stories, character is everything or almost everything. A pile-up of events won’t draw a reader in (taste doesn’t vary on this, I don’t think) if the reader doesn’t know who the players are. These characters don’t necessarily need to be sympathetic, but they have to be understandable, which probably calls for some indication of thought and feeling.

And action is a tool of character development. In A Tale of Two Castles the ogre, Count Jonty Um, isn’t the POV character, so we don’t experience his inner life and he doesn’t say much. The reader gets to know him mostly through his actions, his generosity, for example. He buys a humongous meal full of rich delicacies for Elodie, the POV character, who only once before tasted an expensive treat – because it had fallen on the ground and been partially stepped on.

Real people express themselves through action. We say something about ourselves every second: the way we eat, what we do in our spare time, how we get ready to leave the house, our little rituals. Many of these acts are so ingrained we perform them without thought, certainly without being conscious that we’re every second making a personality declaration. I would even argue that these characteristic actions say more about us than even our thoughts and feelings, which are fleeting.

I’ve never watched The Food Network. Maybe there isn’t scope there for revelation through action. Maybe it all comes through telling, by participants talking about themselves. If that’s the case, what a limitation! No wonder they encourage the soul searching. But maybe I’m way off base. Sorry, Food Network!

Here come three prompts:

∙    Lately I’ve been reading health and science articles about people in hospitals in what they call a “vegetative state,” and now there’s starting to be evidence that some of them, who can’t speak or move, can think and are thinking and have an emotional life. Scary! So your character, Irene, is in a coma. She can hear and think. Write a story about her. You can include the sounds she hears from the activity around her. Unaware of her alertness, people may say things they would keep to themselves if they thought someone was listening.

∙    Ira is studying to be a mime. His teacher tells him and the other students in his class that they aren’t allowed to speak for a week. Write about part of that week or the whole week. Oh, and you can’t write in first person, and you have no access to Ira’s thoughts, only his actions. Give him something important that he has to communicate.

∙    Character X is chasing Character Y through a shopping mall. Don’t give them names or thoughts or feelings and very limited speech, but put in lots of close calls and narrow escapes. Don’t even decide which is the hero and which the villain. See what happens.

Have fun, and save what you write!