Writer's Workshop: Up With the Establishment! · 3:24am Mar 3rd, 2016
Have you ever heard this term before: "establishing moment?" Or perhaps, "take time to establish your character?" How about the phrases "Save the Cat" and "Kick the Dog?" Well, whatever the case, let me talk a bit about what exactly those terms mean and what they're trying to do. This one's... gonna be tough, actually, because while I think establishing your character is important, I also find it annoying? You'll see what I mean.
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So, establishing your characters. Remember that, in the moment we open up your story, we know nothing about what's about to happen. We have a vague idea who some of the canon characters are, but we have no idea what direction you're about to take them in. If you have an OC, we know nothing about that character whatsoever. If you don't quickly explain who these characters are, your story will be really confusing, to the point where, if I'm reading it, I can't keep them apart. There was one story I was reading where three or four characters were introduced at the same time, and when the train they were on crashed and two of them died, I honestly could not have told you which ones were which. This is kind of the fault of pony names (Raindrops and Blue Jewel and Fire Coat and Ash Light... 
), but it rides a little deeper than that. If you don't make your characters easily distinguishable, and make those distinguishing features known to us, we'll get them mixed up in our head, and then we'll be lost.
Enter the establishing shot. This is a short moment where the character in question demonstrates just why they're here. For example, suppose your character is the tech genius of the team. When it's time for this character to enter the story, show them performing some tech wizardry to pull the characters out of a jam or something. Whatever it is, you'll have made it immediately clear who this character is and what makes them interesting. It's vitally important, I think, that these characters be introduced alone, or at least given a segment of time all to themselves. (The exception being if two or more characters are thought of as a group, like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.) If you try to introduce two characters at the same time, it can be difficult for us to keep them apart. Also, note that this doesn't have to be their skills or their role in the story. It could also be a personality trait, like that they're always making wisecracks, or that they speak in puns.
What better example than the pilot? Each time Twilight meets one of her future friends, we get a short little clip demonstrating their key character traits. Like, let's look at the introduction of Rainbow Dash. What do we learn in that little segment? That she's brash and self-centered, but she does still care about others; that she's one of the fastest fliers in town; that she's itching to do more with her life and prove herself. That pretty well sums up Rainbow Dash, doesn't it? It also, by no coincidence, describes the exact problems she's going to be facing in the second episode. Depending on the character and the story, you may need to do more or less establishing than that. Twilight, for example, gets a much longer scene than the others, since you need to know a lot more about her. She's also the Main Character, and that means we need to know how to get into her head.
If you've got a lot of things you need to set up, you might not be able to do it all in one big scene at the start. If that's the case, then choose what's most important and start with that. You can have more establishing scenes later to set up the rest. One caveat: you have to establish a character trait before it becomes pertinent. (Y'know, a Chekov's Gun sort of thing.) If it's important for us to know that a character knows karate or has a skeleton key, we need to know that before they're fighting the bad guys or at the locked door. (And introducing this _moments before_ that event does not count!) In any case, this lets you start with rough archetypes for characters and make them more developed and interesting as the story goes on; basically, a win-win.
If this is so important and so effective, why'd I say I was lukewarm on the idea at the start? I've been puzzling it out a bit, and I think I know what my problem with it is: some writers push it too hard. Suppose you have a character who's a clown, always making jokes and lifting spirits. In your establishing scene, you have them come in and make a quip about the current situation. The reader smiles and says, "Ah, this is the joke character." But then you have another character say, "Hah, [character]. You're the best; always good for a laugh." My response would be, "...Yeah, I already figured that out." This is a classic failure of "show, don't tell." Let the action speak for itself!
There's one other thing that's worth pointing out: make sure your establishing moment actually establishes your character, and not just a generic idea. This is where "save the cat" and "kick the dog" come in. "Save the Cat" is an establishing scene where the Main Character/protagonist does some good deed to demonstrate that they're a good person (e.g. they save a cat from a tree). It's a cheap, easy way to demonstrate that they're "the good guy" because they do good things. Do you see why this doesn't work, though? It doesn't tell us who the character is, other than that they're good. What if my character's central trait isn't that they're generous and kind? They may still be "good" (for whatever definition of "good" that might be), but they don't give children a share of their bread or save damsels in distress or what have you. A character might be interesting precisely because their morality system doesn't revolve around treating people with compassion. For example, how about a reporter who refuses to back down from learning the truth? A "save the cat" moment would be useless, because this character doesn't really do that kind of stuff. But you might establish them by showing them pushing their way into a government official's office, asking about the recent incident that's got the plot moving forward.
A "kick the dog" moment is the same thing, only for bad guys. You've already shown this guy wants to steamroll the forest to build a theme park, embezzle money from a non-profit to do it, and then spike the prices so only rich people can go, but he's just not "evil" enough for you. I know! Let's have him do some terrible thing that achieves nothing for him except to prove he's evil. (Again, like kicking a dog.) Whyyyyyyy? This isn't how people work! In fact, it can be incredibly fascinating to see a villain that is nice in most other aspects, but evil in the way that matters to the story. (I mean, c'mon. Hitler is literally a shorthand for "evil," and he loved dogs.) When you establish your antagonist, demonstrate what matters to them and why it leads them to do "bad" things. So the bad guy might be a rebel leader who thinks he's the voice of the people, though he's a bit short on what that actually requires. He might actually get a "save the cat" moment where we see him giving a loaf of bread to a little girl, but we might need to demonstrate also that he doesn't have the resources for everyone, and that his methods aren't sustainable.
Establishing characters is a necessary part of storytelling, as without it, we don't have a sense for who your characters are and what they want. However, it's a subtle craft as much as anything else in storytelling, and it's easy to bungle if you try to be too heavy-handed. Be clear, be concise, and be confident in your description. Don't stoop to cheap stereotypes or feel-good genericisms. Show us just how unique and interesting your characters really are!
I really love the "save the cat" and "kick the dog" explication of structuring interesting characters. You've pretty much hit the nail on the head there. But the thing that really made me smile is that I remember, during some dumb internet debate long ago, I made some sort of quip like "sure, Hitler was one of the most evil dictators in history, but would you still say he was pure evil if you found out that he died while trying to save a box of puppies from a burning building?" I don't remember why I asked that, but the mental image of Hitler escaping with a box of pups from then on amused me far too much. He was always an interesting study of character for me, yet I didn't know he was actually a dog lover.
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Yup, he loved dogs. In fact, if you search "Hitler and his dogs," this is the first hit.
3796861 Huh. I was honestly hoping for that to be a photo of Hitler with a big, goofy grin on his faces as he cuddles with his dog for a family photo.
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http://i.imgur.com/KreYGuV.gif