Big, Tall–Character

Ed “Too Tall” Jones

Defensive End for the Dallas Cowboys (with a brief football leave to win six out of six pro boxing matches).

 

What does this have to do with Writing?

It’s all about character. Bigger than Life and full of agency, he was a memorable and beloved character.

 “Too Tall”, even as a defensive player, showed great agency. (Agency-the person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved) 106 sacks. And “Too Tall” deflected so many passes that the League created a statistic for deflected passes. We want to hang out with characters who have agency, even bad ones.

 

Bigger than life, he was 6’9”. That’s where his nickname came from. He was part of the “Doomsday Defense”.He left football to try boxing. He returned and kicked ass. He gave to charities. He retired in 1989, but still draws crowds when he makes appearances. We all want some of that zest to rub off on us.

 

This is just what the public knows about him, barely scratching the surface. Oops, a cliché. We can only imagine what the rest of his life was like. This is what we do. We create the bigger than life, the agency, AND the depth, the roundedness.

 

One more thing, get an outside opinion on the agency of your characters and how enthralling they are. We see on the page what we wrote and what’s in our head. Others can show us where we need more of what’s in our head on the page

Happy Writing!