C Block Folks, you will love this. Or not.
After our class today, wherein your collective experience of Direct and Indirect Characterization spooked me away from my own presumptions, I consulted both the Team and my source, which is Janet Burroway's wonderful text, titled Writing Fiction. What I discovered was that I was (apparently) right to begin with about which methods constitute "direct" and "indirect" characterization, and that means 180º opposite where we left things at the end of C Block. I had said "counterintuitive" and indeed that seems true.
Here's how my colleague Chris helped me get comfortable. He said, "Just imagine your characters were real people." If you heard about them, either from another character or from an author, you'd call that indirect information, right? And if you were standing next to someone, looking at them, hearing them speak, watching what they did, you'd call that direct information. That's the ticket.
Burroway says to think of six means of characterization: 4 direct and 2 indirect. Appearance, Speech, Thought and Action of characters are direct means of knowing them. Authorial interpretation of them, or other characters interpreting them is indirect.
D Block: you missed all of this, which in this case is kind of a blessing. See you at 8 AM.
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