The Character Shrinks

A guest post by Anthony Grooms

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

“I just don’t understand your character,” the young woman, an assistant editor for an imprint of a major publishing house, told me. She pulled a strand of hair around her ear and adjusted her glasses. She sighed, seemingly having struggled with a great burden and now satisfied with her judgment sat back in her chair and looked across the conference table at me, her expression resolute.

I was polite. Smiled. Felt my cheeks quiver and thanked her for her time. Inside, of course, I fell into a well of inadequacy. I had failed. My writing wasn’t strong enough. I had not made my character understood. Half-heartedly, I asked if she had any ideas as to how I might improve characterization. “Omigod, like, I just can’t put my finger on it, but, you know, I was looking for something amazing.” Arguing was futile. She had read fifteen pages, a “partial,” of my novel, and assessed that whatever happened in the next 300 pages would not give her deeper understanding of my protagonist.