My question for the day is: How much detail do you need in a story to define character?

It depends on the length and scope of the story, of course. A book-length narrative might demand a long paragraph of details, even for a minor character. But then I think of the character Mary in Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road":

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely

A young girl in a dress dances on her porch to Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely." I don't understand why, but this spare description makes me feel that I know this girl, that I want to rescue her, or have her rescue me. My imagination fills in what's missing.

I found some good advice on character development in the new book "See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick Lit," by Sarah Mlynowski and Farrin Jacobs. (Warning: The type in this book is printed in color: green and red -- or teal and berry, to be exact.)

Here's a taste:

The best trick I learned in a creative writing class was what I call "The Nutshell Moment." A high school teacher told us to think of one event or action in our lives that defined us. Just one. A studious guy in our class said that when he was a kid he memorized the first fourteen digits of pi. Digits he could still recite ten years later. I told the story of how when I read my first book, Ramona and Her Father, I was expecting doodles of balloons on page 100. As in Congrats! You made it to a hundred! Wahoo! If that anecdote was in a novel, you start to get an idea about the character -- likes to read, cheerful, possibly craves approval or rewards.

When I think of some famous literary characters, I admit that I often remember a single, defining characteristic, as when Holden Caulfield confronts the world wearing his red hunting cap. As I think of my own nutshell detail, it's not that I'm balding, or that I wear glasses, or have a few scars from skin cancer lesions. Those details apply to countless characters. I happen to wear my grandmother's wedding ring. That's me, I think, in a nutshell.

So think about the questions asked by the authors of "See Jane Write": Which detail defines you in a nutshell? Can you find nutshell details in the people you know and love? What kind of reporting do you need to find such details in strangers you write about?

Please share your reflections. Is there such a thing as a nutshell detail or nutshell moment? Or are such strategies futile shortcuts through the complexities of human character? 

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Listen to Roy's newest podcast on Writing Tool #24. For all of Roy's podcasts on Writing Tools, click here.

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