All language subtitles for Masterclass N. K. Jemisin Teaches Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing - 11.The Hierarchy Of Characterization Demographics Outer Life And Inner Life

Ask yourself what you
would know about a person

after 30 seconds in
an elevator with them.

You can observe
what they look like.

You see how they're dressed.

Do they speak briefly?

Do they speak in
a comfortable way?

Are they comfortable with you?

All of these things feed into
your outer-life perception

of that person.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

As I mentioned, since my
background is primarily

from psychology,
psychology tends

to inform a lot of the ways that
I put pretty much everything

together, including character.

And there's a really
popular psychological theory

or model that I like
to refer to called

Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

You may be familiar
with this if you've

had a therapist that's
talked about it at any point

or if your own
background includes this.

But with Maslow's
hierarchy, basically,

what he's talking
about is the things

that are needed to make
a person's life complete.

And at the bottom
of this model are

some basic things,
the absolute stuff

that you need to survive--
food, shelter, basic needs.

Then you get into security.

And then as you progressively
go up the pyramid,

as you get more and more
of these basic things

that you need, as you
secure those things

and you don't feel
like something's

going to come and take them,
as you're able to pause

and breathe and
think a little more,

you're able to be more creative.

You're able to pursue goals
that are maybe loftier than just

survival or getting by.

This is one of the reasons why
I've put together a character

model that is similar.

In my character model, we
start with the very basics

about a person--

their demographics, their
age, their race, their gender,

all of the very simple things
that either you can maybe

glance at a person and
know or a writer can just

do a one-line description,
and you'll know all about it.

Then we start to
move into things

that are a little less
visible, the things

that you can observe
about a person

if you know them
relatively well,

and you can at least guesstimate
what their background is,

is the person's outer life.

You can guess by looking
at a person's clothing

or how they present
themselves or by listening

to their accent.

You can figure out what
their class or background

might be in a lot of cases.

That's what those role
performances are about

that we talked about in
the world-building section.

But you can, in a
lot of other cases,

guesstimate what they're
trying to do if you see what

behaviors they're undertaking.

Or if you understand what their
day-to-day job or role is,

you know a little bit
about that person,

enough to form some very
basic assumptions about them.

That's their outer life.

The things that you wouldn't
necessarily know about a person

without speaking to them or
being maybe related to them

or growing up with them
or living with them,

that's inner life.

That's their goals, their
wishes, their fears,

their weaknesses,
the things that

make them personally
a more complex person.

And so if you're able to
suss out this person's outer

and inner life, then we are able
to create character arcs based

on that.

[ETHEREAL MUSIC]

Now that you have thought out
the world that this person is

coming from, the culture that
this person is coming from,

you've figured out what kind
of person you want to center

the story on, someone who's--

you figured out their
basic power dynamics--

now I want you to
pause for a moment

and just think about
the basic demographics

of the kind of person that
you want to write about.

What is their gender?

What is their race?

What is their age?

And this is per the world
that you've developed so far.

So if you've decided
that you want

to focus on a group of people
who live as water people

in a world of nothing
but sand and sun,

then you need to
decide, are these people

from the edge of the
water, or are they

from the center of the water?

Are they human, or are
they amphibian people

that you came up with?

Based on all of the
stuff that you came up

with in the world-building
macro and micro exercises,

then you've got their
basic demographics.

So you can start to come up
with their basic demographics.

So choose the demographics
of this person

and write down a single sentence
about their demographics

right now.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

Identity is a subset
of demographics.

Demographics just talks
about the characteristics

of that person and nothing more.

Identity is the
characteristics of that person

and what those mean.

If you're going to explore
a character's identity,

you need to understand
how identity

works in our own world.

And think about
the ways in which

we granularize human beings,
which is effectively identity.

So are we talking
about people who are--

we're all people, but are
we talking about people

of a particular gender?

Are we talking about people
of a particular race?

I am a Black woman.

I am cishet.

I am able-bodied.

I was raised Christian, but I
think of myself as an agnostic

now.

All of these are things that
feed into who I am as a person.

They don't dictate
my personality.

There are lots of other Black
women, agnostics out there.

But they influence
the personality

that I've chosen to
develop or that I've

developed in response to
the environmental factors

around me.

So I know, for example, that if
I engage in certain behaviors,

people are going to make
certain assumptions about me,

positive or negative,
because they

have these pre-existing
feelings about what

people like me look like, act
like, sound like, and so on.

I've chosen my own
interpretation of what

those things should mean.

They have different
values for me

than they might
to another person,

but that is my identity.

And how I have
chosen to interpret

it is what's most important.

[ETHEREAL MUSIC]

The next step is to come up
with this person's outer life.

Outer life is, again,
only the things

that you can observe about that
person, that you as an outsider

would be able to figure out
just from looking at this person

or talking to them
for a few minutes.

I like to use the example of
Thor from the Marvel universe.

You know that Thor is
this big, buff blond guy

from another planet
where people have

superpowers or extra strength.

You know because
he tells everybody

that he's the prince of Asgard,
that he's the son of Odin,

and that he's got
this great destiny.

You know that he carries
a big, giant hammer

because it's really big,
and you see it all the time.

So you know these things about
him based on just observation.

So your sentence describing
Thor's outer life

might be, well, Thor was a big,
blond, buff prince of Asgard

who carried a hammer
and was really

concerned about trying to become
a good heir to his father.

Ask yourself what you
would know about a person

after 30 seconds in
an elevator with them.

If you're stuck in an
elevator with another person--

you've heard of the
elevator speech.

But when you just have a
conversation in an elevator,

you frequently find out the
basics of a person life.

You get their name because
you introduce yourself.

You probably shake hands.

You say hi.

You get their name.

You can observe
what they look like.

You see how they're dressed.

You understand the meanings
of how that person has

chosen to dress.

You may be able to figure out
things about this person's

financial background or
relative so because you may

be able to look at, what is
the quality of the clothes

that they're wearing?

Are they wearing anything
with certain kinds

of brand names attached to it?

How do they speak?

Do they speak briefly?

Do they speak in
a comfortable way?

Are they comfortable with you?

Why might they be
uncomfortable with you?

You can speculate.

You're not going
to know for sure.

But your speculation
may be correct.

But at that point,
you're starting

to segue into inner life.

But you can at least assess,
how is that person talking?

What's their accent?

What language are they speaking?

Does it sound like they
speak multiple languages?

All of these things feed into
your outer-life perception

of that person.

So imagine yourself
in an elevator

with your character,
your proposed character,

for 30 seconds.

You're going down
to the first floor.

You got 30 seconds to figure out
everything you can about them.

Write that sentence down.

If I were describing myself and
my outer life as a character,

Nora Jemisin was a 40-something
heavyset Black woman who kind

of moved through life in a vague
state of dream hoping that--

no, this is inner life.

Let's try that again.

Nora Jemison was a 40-something
heavyset Black woman

who moved through
life as an artist,

pausing periodically to
stare at odd objects,

asking strange questions,
frequently making jokes

because she felt
uncomfortable, and it

helped her make other people
feel more comfortable.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

To convey a character's
demographics,

you can, of course, put a basic
description of the character

into the story.

And you should do
that at some point.

There are various
methods and techniques

out there for how you can have
a character either describe

themselves or be described by
another character in a way that

doesn't feel unnatural
or info-dumpy.

But one of the most
important things

that you're going
to be able to do,

or that you're
going to have to do,

is to take into account those
power dynamics and those--

the character's own awareness
of their identity and power

dynamics, and use that to frame
the world through that person's

reactions.

So here's an example.

As a Black woman,
I'm aware of the fact

that it's not as safe for
me to do some things as it

is for other people to do them.

I don't call the police
unless I absolutely

have to because I know
that the police can

be as much of a danger to
me as whatever situation

I'm calling the police for.

And I don't necessarily have
to do anything for that danger

to exist.

The danger exists because
of who and what I am.

So it constrains my
behavior in certain ways.

And if you were describing
me as a character

and you wanted to convey that
I was a Black person while not

actually saying she's
Black, you could say,

well, she never
called the police

unless she absolutely
had to because she

knew that the cops were
potentially a danger to her.

[ETHEREAL MUSIC]

A character's inner life are
the things about that character

that no stranger
is going to know.

No one's going to be
able to figure out just

by glancing at them.

These are things that
maybe only the character

knows about themselves
or people who

are very close to
that character would

know, like friends or family.

Let's go back to Thor.

In Thor's case, what
we would know about him

by being a member of his family
or a friend of his or being

him--

we know that he genuinely
loves his brother, Loki.

We know that Loki is
a pain in his ass,

but we know that he
genuinely loves him.

He's very family-oriented.

We know that he wants
his family to be unified

even though Loki may
not necessarily feel

the same way at most times.

So this is a thing that
you would learn about him.

And a sentence
describing his inner life

might be, Thor genuinely
loved his brother,

Loki, even though Loki had
given him PTSD over the years.

That would be a good
inner life sentence.

So now write an
inner life sentence

referring to the character
that you've decided to write.

Many people thought of
Nora as an extrovert

because she enjoyed
teaching classes,

but the truth of the matter is
that she's a raging introvert.

And as soon as she's
done teaching class,

she goes home to a nice,
quiet place to recharge.

So that's a good example.