My Report: Part Four

Duality.

It's a term to describe the dual nature of our characters. We see it when a character combats with an inner conflict or when we think a character should act one way, but has the capacity to do another. At Dave's workshop, he had us write a scene with this concept. I'd read about it, thought about it, but never sat down to write it for homework.

So, for fragility, I decided to show Cheyenne's inner conflict. Teo, her seductive math teacher captures her and explains zombies surround them on the outside. For this scene, I wrote Cheyenne's thoughts--that she is attracted to Teo, but is also terrified of him. She wants to run away, but how could she when it may be worse on the outside? As you can see, duality is an element that can really shine in this scene.

But we can write our antagonists with this as well. Teo, for instance, is a sadistic tyrant. But, he has a soft spot for Cheyenne. When he kills others, he confides in her and lets her off when she breaks his rules. This can help our characters to feel real.

Think about it. How many of us are so extreme, so one dimensional, that we don't make exceptions to the rule. I LOVE eccentricities in characters, but it makes them even more fascinating to find that little quirk, the reason why they change from the default.

Duality--it's even a cool word. What character in fiction have you seen this concept evinced?