There's a supporting character in my story which I'm having trouble portraying the way I want. He's a sort of clown in his world, and I want him to have a very silly personality. He wears it like a mask, to keep most people from keeping him seriously. At the same time, he can't just brush off the serious situations which he is put in. I'm not sure how to give him this appearance of acting ridiculous, without going overboard. Does anyone have suggestions?
He could be sarcastic and could go overboard occassionally. He wants to be fun to be around, but some underlying emotions he's not quite aware of could affect how he comes across to other people.
This is not an easy task, witout making the writing heavy-handed. Just like it may be difficult for those around him to see past the facade, your readers may have the same difficulty. So how does someone who knows him well see past the act? Answer that, and you know what to show the reader so that he or she comes to the same conclusion. Let the reader start out thinking he's a superficial jerk. But let them also see how he acts when no one is watching him - when the mask is off.
you could give him a snide view, have him carefree of his actions, do things on a whim regardless of the results, have him in it for fun, not choose a side. As said it is a hard thing to do but not impossible to make a joker have a heart or consider others' actions as important. good writing to you
Read Romeo and Juliet and look at Mercutio - though he may be too clowny for your purposes, judging by your description. Even if he is, Shakespeare...
I read through Mercutio's Queen Mab speech so far, thank you for pointer, it's really helpful. On a slightly off topic note, they really do botch up the high school text book versions of Romeo and Juliet though, from what I can remember of it. It's kind of sad.
there was this character in the Belgarion series, he was a god of sorts, maybe halfgod, but he was a rude, crude, barmaid grabbing character, he had humour and a quick wit, but there was a serious side to him too. in stature he was ugly, humped backed, but people loved him for who he was, forgot he was a god. i think you could do that too.
I think that if he's constantly silly in the way you want and you can get the other characters to comment on his personality but then when someone aggravates him or something along those lines all the silliness is gone and he is just deadly serious ... until the moments passes and he's back to showing off those laughter lines, however that might make the readers think he has some mental problems
